Lisa Carnley is managing editor of the Lampasas Dispatch Record. It used to be that when I shopped for clothing and found something I really liked and thought looked good on me, I would buy it in two different colors.

While I don’t think I can be classified as colorblind, I -- like many others -- have a hard time telling the difference between black and dark blue.

And because I tend to mix up those colors, I found myself really flustered one morning when I turned up at work with black pants and blue shoes. And if that weren’t enough, I had on one black earring and one blue earring. Now, that’s pretty noticeable.

I know it’s not the end of the world to be mismatched, and I’m not going to start a trend, but I’m sure everyone has done it at least once -- if they’re honest enough to admit it anyway. But it’s embarrassing just the same.

In my job, I go out and mingle with the public to interview people and take photos. I have been doing this for a number of years.

While my kids were in school, I would go to the high school campus about once a week to photograph students who won awards, earned band accolades, made the National Honor Society or garnered other recognition.

Well, you guessed it: I turned up at my kids’ campus in my black pants, blue shoes and mismatched earrings. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but my sons were involved in a number of activities, and you know how it is in a small school -- everyone knows everyone.

And everyone knew Jason and Zach’s mom took photos at school. Kids always said hi to me or gave me a hug when they saw me.

At least, until they saw my mode of dress that day. I hadn’t realized before I entered the hallowed halls with the kids in their American Eagle jeans and Abercrombie & Fitch shirts that I was making a fashion fool out of myself.

I was glad my sons didn’t see me that day; they would have been so embarrassed. And there’s nothing worse than your kids telling you how humiliated they were by how you dressed.

When the high school students kept staring at my shoes, I knew something was wrong.

And then I looked down. Not only did my shoes not match my pants, but in the flourescent lights it was extremely obvious I was wearing one blue shoe and one black shoe -- identical shoes, different colors.

I learned my lesson after that. I quit buying things in pairs -- and most importantly, if I wear black pants, I make sure to wear a light-colored shirt, and viceversa. The same rule applies to earrings.

Now if I could just tell the difference between purple and dark blue.