Every morning, we Millsteins begin our day asking the same question. “Alexa, what day is it today?” She answers dutifully, but lately I have heard her sighing in exasperation. I try to explain my dilemma to her – how I have lost all sense of time and need constant reminders. I’m pretty good about Mondays, but then the rest of the week just starts to blend. Even in the evenings, when previously I kept track by which TV shows aired on which days, binge watching six seasons of Bosch offers me no timestamp whatsoever.

I’m not alone. It’s a worldwide lament that I have named Corona Calendar Dementia. So, since the days of the week have become truly meaningless, why not get rid of them entirely? I started thinking about the best way to deal with my purple haze (bow to Jimi) and a light bulb went off. Seven colorful light bulbs to be exact. It was perfect, because like the seven notes on a piano, colors don’t need labels.

Now full disclosure, I designed this calendar during my senior year at Parsons School of Design. The original, hand-painted and over six feet in length, still resides in a back corner of my attic. But the true measure of a good idea is that it has no “use by” date. And today, we need it more than ever.

Here’s how it works. Each row is a month. Each month’s number is black. Mondays are yellow. Tuesdays are orange. Wednesdays are red. Thursdays are purple. Fridays are blue. Saturdays are teal. Sundays are green. That’s all you need to know. Viewing the entire year of 2020 this way has added benefits. You can see at a glance what day of the week your birthday falls on, not to mention all the major holidays.

So, the next time I get an email requesting a Zoom meeting, I will respond that I am available at 10:00 am on Orange, or at 2:30 pm on Purple. BTW: if anyone would like to use my 2020 Corona Calendar as a screensaver or print it out, email me at jackie@ritta.com and I’ll send you the file.

Happy Orange everyone!