Monday, April 04, 2005

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

So I was forced to buy shoes over the weekend. My black flats (loafers) broke down Friday night in the rain. Alex and I went to the mall and on our way in, I stepped into a puddle in the parking lot. A few seconds later, I felt my feet go wet with rain water. When I got home, my feet stunk like a wet towel left in the locker room. I figured it was just from the shoes being wet and vowed to be more careful about walking into puddles next time. I washed my feet and before going to bed, I decided to inspect my shoes.

To my horror, I saw the most disgusting thing ever. There were patches of white around the area where the leather had cracked and let the water through inside. At first, I figured it was just dried water marks from the puddle. It was a growth...of something white and fuzzy on my shoes! Was that really in my shoe?? Was I really sticking my foot in that all along? Yuck!

The next day I bought a new pair of black flats, but it took us three hours to find the right one. Did you know that shoe makers don't make flats/loafers any more? Everything had a heel or it looked like something a high school goth kid would wear (Aldo). Thank goodness for Nordstrom. It's not the exact same shoe, but very close and made by the same manufacturer as the old shoes.

I loved my black flats! I had them for 5 years...maybe more. I'd been everywhere in those shoes...Canada, New York, New Orleans, Florida, Denver, Philidelphia...etc. It had seen me through three weight stages, five jobs, two serious relationships, the birth of my niece, and my own engagement. It was like losing a good friend.

I know it's silly to lament over a pair of shoes, these were the pair that was not only comfortable, but stylish, and went with EVERYTHING! It was my automatic shoe!

I'm currently breaking in my new pair (I have wide feet) and slowly but surely settling into them. I hope these will be with me a long time.

1 comment:

EJ said...

I know how sentimental you are about your shoes, but 5 YEARS!!!

Well, I'm just glad you didn't go through another SUMMER wearing them.

I think it's safe to say that when you see WHITE cracks on BLACK shoes...you should stop and think twice...hee hee