Penny's Passion for Matching

Sometimes Penny Petersen wishes she didn't have to be so color-coordinated. Her shirt always matches her socks, and her purse. Her very big walk-in closet closet is organized by colors, all the blues in one area, the pinks in another, the reds in yet another etc. She tries to never wear the same color twice in one week. She has a lot of rules about clothes, and even has color contacts so her eyes will match her outfits. If her colors don't come together in just the right way, she feels like her whole day is cursed and will go badly.

Sometimes she wishes she wasn't so damned rigid about these things, that she could just mix it all up ... pull different colors from all the sections of her closet and throw them all on together and walk out the door. But it's really hard for Penny to do that, even when she know her rules create boundaries. In fact, sometimes she wonders if she behaves this way because her rules create boundaries ... and somewhere deep inside she's pretty attached to those boundaries.

It's not like people think she's a freak or anything ... at least not much. The women in Penny's office are always praising her ability to put an outfit together, and they're always asking how she finds so many accessories that match her clothes so perfectly. But men, she found, were another story, especially once she got to know them and began discussing her passion for matching. By the time she gave them a tour of her walk-in closet, it was usually all but over. There was only one man who was a constant in her life and that's because George and his boyfriend Al were equally caught up in the matching thing. Not only did they like their clothes to match, but they also liked to match each other.

But they said Penny's closet was way bigger than their closet and that she had more accessories than the two of them put together. They jokingly called her Match.com, which Penny didn't know was a dating site. She found it because she was thinking of starting a blog called Match.com and posting pics of her color-coordinated finds. But she realized the name Match.com was already taken. Fascinated by all the people on there looking for dates, she decided to throw her color-coordinated hat in the ring and be very upfront about her little matching problem. That way she could weed out all the people who just could not tolerate her freaky little ways.

Within months, she met Colorblind Joey, who joked that he'd been looking for someone like Penny all of his life. He said he'd always dreamed of being able to walk out the door every morning knowing that his clothes matched .... of having someone to shop with and tell him what colors he could buy to go with what things. There's nothing Penny loves to do more than that. Penny and Joey hit it off grandly and have much fun shopping together now. In fact, they do most everything together. Penny still can't break her rules, but occasionally, just for fun, she'll tell Joey that none of the clothes she is wearing match, that somehow, despite all those things in her closet, she just couldn't find anything that went together. Joey doesn't know the difference ... he tells her that it's good that she's learned to mix things up a bit.

One day, Penny was a little bit mad at Joey about something, so when he did his usual little spin by her in the morning for color approval, she told him everything matched just perfectly, even though none of it did and he looked kinda ridiculous. She called him at lunch and apologized because she felt guilty but he said that everyone in his meeting just laughed and asked if Penny was out-of-town again.

Somehow, Penny's little oddities are working out OK for her now, and she doesn't feel so guarded about them anymore. She realizes now that if not for her odd little ways, she never would have met Joey. Just like her, he's not perfect, but he's perfect for her. They kinda match.

As for Joey, he matches almost everyday now, except when Penny gets annoyed with him, and then who knows what kind of colors he's going to show up in at work? His coworkers find it all quite amusing.

Penny is at Charlie's Bar-B-Q, a place that boasts that it has "Original Texas Taste," at 1571 S. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. They sell their secret barbecue sauce by the pint and quart. Penny's in the ladies room, just hanging out, trying to think of what color she's going to wear tomorrow.