Shoes

I  love shoes. Beautiful, comfortable shoes that is. I grew up in the late 90's when thick heels and wedges were all the rage. Now, the higher the shoe, the thinner the heel, the better. This leaves me out of the fashionable loop. Bearing three children has done unpleasant things to my feet. They are now roughly the size and shape of pancakes. Pancakes in stilettos. It is just not going to happen.

 I have been wanting some  dressy black shoes for a long time, but I just haven't been able to find anything that remotely combines beauty with comfort. So I just fall back on birkenstocks and sanitas. (On a side note, if you have never checked out sierratradingpost.com go do it now. They have these great coupons, so you can get $100 shoes for $30. )  Still, that kind of shoe can only take you so far. They make outfits casual and fun. Which normally is fine. BUT we are planning on heading up to Canadian conventions in a few weeks.Canadians are notoriously dressy. They could out dressy dress me without blinking. The girls dorm is a rainbow of stilettos and the ground outside is pock marked by heels by Sunday afternoon. I thought I just HAD to have some sort of defense in my wardrobe, namely something that is more than 1 inch off the ground. Obviously I am vain and shallow.

I went to eBay and typed in size 9 heels. This is a partial selection of what came up.

           

Who doesn't want a fishtank in their shoe? Or a gun for a heel with bullets conveniently placed around the toe? Or a Lady gaga boot which will just make people want to bump into you just to see you scramble? Do people seriously wear these?

So instead, Orianna, Lily, and I went shopping the other day in Massena and hit up TJ Maxx. There was a fabulous pair, bright pink with flowers over the peep toe, but they were heartbreakingly slippy. Not a suitable shoe for a baby carrying mother. Sigh .Once upon a time, I wore a 3 3/4 inch wedge heel to Altamont. They were perfectly fine the whole day, until Justin and I took a walk up the lane and I tripped coming over the cattle grate. I was caring Lily, who got her face spectacularly scraped up. Fortunately, George and Katie were the only witnesses, so we had a good laugh over stupid shoes and I then had to explain to everyone for the rest of the convention why baby Lily had a scraped cheek. Embarrassing enough to make me not wear slippy, tottery shoes ever again.

But then, I found these.  There were no flowers over peep toes, but they are decidedly comfortable and fairly dressy and completely non slippy. They are a good name, Ecco, and they were on clearance. Good name, clearance, and comfortable are three of my favorite words when it comes to shoes, so I got them. I doubt this will make the Canadian stilettos any shade of jealous, but they can make me feel ever so slightly less frumpy. Actually, looking at that picture, they look like librarian shoes from the 1960's. So maybe they will just cement my frumpiness. But they look Canadian in a middle aged sort of way, so maybe it is just time to embrace my middle-agedness.

Victoria Beckham I am not.



Check out her shoes dead center. Teetering towers of torture. And she is 7 months pregnant in this picture. No wonder she doesn't look like she is enjoying herself.

Someday, I will find the perfect shoes. Until then, I will comfortably wander around with buckles across my toes looking happier than Victoria Beckham.