"There will be days when you're falling down There will be days when you're inside out
They're never gonna hold you back I'm always gonna have your back" - I Hope You're Happy, Blue October
Seasonal sadness blooms around this time of the year. Rituals wear off, the weather wanes between Winter and Spring, and the holidays are over. We see the robins on wooden fence posts, but still we feel the cold wind on our faces. To beat this February blues, I ventured to Scotland with my love to see one of our favourite bands - #BlueOctober.
First stop: The #BlueBear in Edinburgh for a wee bit o' grub. The colour pattern has begun! It is 9:30am and having been awake since 4:11am, it is time for a second breakfast like the hobbitsies. Inside the cafe, we are seated at table 9 beside a photograph of an ice berg. The walls are washed in three shades of blue and outline the #Edinburgh cityscape. More icebergs and arctic water melt on the canvas wall photos, but there are no signs of a blue bear. My teapot arrives and that too is a periwinkle shade, similar to the plaid flannel the waitress wears.
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" plays quietly as I devour my #Nutella and banana slathered French Toast and tell my husband, "Fair Play!" on his choice of cafe. Now, excuse me while I consume my dessert.
Perhaps at this point in time it is best to detail our short Scottish trip by the colours that light up the stony cities of #Glasgow and #Edinburgh. After all, the highlight of the trip stems from the man who reminds his fans that "Life has colors."
Purple- The pen at the hotel, the Edinburgh airport security bins, the buggy a mother pushes up the cobblestone street, the interior of the bus that we alternately take due to a lorry hitting a bridge, the rug with a Scottish poem in the Ibis Styles hotel, the flower at our dinner table.
Green-- The foundation of Edinburgh Castle, Arthur's Seat and the rolling hills around it, the pickles on my salmon & oatcake lunch.
Black- My Blue October t-shirt, the Gothic appearance of the Scott Monument, the taxis that snake around George's Square, waiting for a tired walker.
Blue- The Scottish flag, the walls of our hotel room, the interior of the Blue Bear cafe, the wings on the #Ryanair plane, the sky when the clouds peel a part and let in a hazy glow.
Red- The car sticking out over the entrance for the #Garage night venue, The #RedOnion, the telephone booths along the Royal Mile, the flowers dripping down from what I like to call "Rapunzel's hair if she were a garden."
Orange- The traffic cone keeping the Duke of Wellington's stone stature warm, the mini bottles of Irn Bru sampled to us at the hotel, house number 40.
White- Whale bones wound into an artistic sphere - the vertebra like propellers that will never move, Dolly the Sheep's wool, the clouds we passed through in the plane, the vanilla cheesecake for dessert before the concert.
The colours are endless and stand out most in the bleak months after the New Year. This trip to see Blue October served as a reminder that life is full of colour. Justin Furstenfeld, lead singer of the band, spent time out of the gig to detail his struggles with mental health and sympathized with how hard it can be to get up in the morning and be consistently happy. Once we get up, face ourselves in the mirror and love who we are - then we can share the miracles in the little splashes of colour on even the bleakest of days.
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