Very Yellow
Monday, Jan. 27, 2003, 9:21 p.m.

Question: What would Alice think of a nice shade of blue?

What I learned: I dig Sponge Bob�s pineapple house more than I realized.

My nerves have been frazzled due to my very first diary review request. Actually, I was a nervous wreck about the whole thing and wondered where did I ever get the moxie to fill in that little request form and click the send button in the first place. I have to tell you that as soon as I did it, a cowardly little voice inside of me cried, �No, come back, come back.� If I could have grabbed the outgoing message in my fingers as it flew across the great electric universe towards the guestbook of the review site, I would certainly have done so. As it was, the deed was done and my only consolation was hourly visits to the site to see if there was any visible progress. I had read some of the reviews before I submitted my request but only a little sampling. These people seemed nice. What positive comments. My competitive nature overcame my hesitation. This looked like a good place to jump into the water, so to speak.

After a bit, I saw that my diary had been assigned. When I went to look at the information on the reviewer, I was concerned to read that she was in so many words - honest and forthright and would tell you what she really thought. �Oh, my God�, as Janice, one of the best peripheral characters in Friends, has so aptly said so many times. Yes, this was indeed an Oh-my-God moment.

The review finally came and actually, I was pretty happy about it. She was honest and forthright and such and I appreciate that. Unfortunately for me, she does seem to have a strong distaste for yellow or at least in all fairness, to so very much yellow. Can one really have too much yellow? Obviously so. Really in all fairness this is a very yellow diary template. It's just that I actually kind of like the way the black and white lettering looks with all this crazy neon yellow. And more than that I have to confess that my love of yellow is longstanding and therefore hard to avoid.

My room was quite yellow for several years when I was a teenager. How yellow? This yellow. Oh yeah, it's true. And I was delighted with living in what really must have looked like the inside of a lemon or Sponge Bob's pineapple house. It's kind of cheerful in an overwhelming kind of way - like Pollyanna on a really ultra-positive day. One day I woke up, looked at the brilliant yellow walls and said, "Paint it white". It took my dad about five coats to cover it over. What a sport; he never complained. I know I would have - bitterly. But maybe getting rid of all that blinding yellow was worth a few extra brush strokes. All my walls have been painted white since that day.

My reviewer also pointed out my diary template's obvious attachment to its original DiaryLand roots. It's true. I have clung to it as a drowning man to a life raft. I have been teaching myself HTML and I have been struggling with it many the night, like Jacob wrestled with that angel. I don't think I have the whole thing down yet but it is sort of a goal - that and giving up the whipped cream in my fancy coffee drinks. I'm working on it. It may take awhile.

Aside from these template faux pas, I fared pretty well. I am glad I asked for the review because:

• The little fairy-chick on their review page is so dazzling that I enjoyed coming back to compulsively check on my review progress.
• They have the nicest link buttons - it's worth the review just to have it conspicuously displayed on my very yellow diary.
• They were fast so my children were able to survive multiple dramatic readings of the rules, the reviewer bio, and endless last minute tweaks of the diary that took so much time over the weekend that my fingers seemed to be glued to the keyboard by Sunday night.
• I was reminded that the phrase, "a little dab will do you" is applicable to many situations.
• I now know that a little bit of HTML, like a little bit of knowledge, can indeed be a dangerous thing in the hands of someone with a tendency towards bright colors and little actual programming knowledge.
• I realized that I could survive the intense diary review experience and turn it into a diary entry to boot.

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