I could hear the rain brushing the screens of the windows by my bed as the clock radio began squawking at me at four in the morning. I lingered under the covers as a fuzzy version of NPR and the muffled precipitation seemed to converse with one another. Then, I rolled over, turned on the lamp, a dim light crawled out from under the lampshade to fill my half of the room, and I got out of bed. “This is going to be a long day,” I thought. I put on a bright blue dress and red scarf, knowing I would not blend in with the black, gray, and