Random Musings

A Girl Thing

Today I made a bad decision. I wore a pair of shoes to work that I haven't worn for a while. I had taken out two pair of shoes as 'possibles' for the outfit I had selected. Instead of going with the tan low cut cowboy style shoes, a pair of old reliables, I instead opted for the more stylish brown pair. They were uncomfortable when I put them on, and I was immediately reminded of why I hadn't worn, but they looked so good with what I had on.

They are also boot cut shoes, which I love, and they are attractive. But they are the kind of shoes that one doesn't wear to stand up in for any extended amount of time, much less to walk in for any distance. When I put those shoes on, I need to be going to the car, and from there to where I am going to sit down and not move again until it's time to get back into the car where I come home, take them off, and put them back in the box from whence they came.

I taught in those shoes all day today. Due to an oversight on my part, I didn't have the usual stand-by pair that I keep for such occasions.( (I slipped those on in another crisis situation, wore them home, and forgot to bring them back.)

Before first period, my feet where whispering up to me that they thought there was a problem. By noon, they were screaming SOS! By the end of the day, I was nearly crippled. My feet hurt so badly that I barely made it to the car.

I got home, and the dog met me with her urgent need to go out. I had to stand around, shifting from foot to burning foot while she was on her quest for the ideal spot to do what she had to do. She had no idea how close she came. If she had sniffed two seconds longer....

When I got into the house, the first thing I did was kick off those shoes. I would have done it in the car on the way home, but they were so tight that I could feel that at least two of the toes on my left foot had come through the knee-highs I had on. It was just bad all the way around.

Now a bath, a lotion massage, and nearly three hours later, my feet still hurt under these covers.

While I was in the tub earlier, I was thinking how it's only we girls who put ourselves through stuff like this for the sake of being cute. Guys don't. If a pair of shoes don't feel right, a guy will leave them at the store. If he doesn't, and he does decide to take a chance on "breaking them in", the shoes had better get right on the first or second wear. If not, they will not be worn again.

I am reminded of the time my husband and I took a trip to Toronto so that he could buy a pair of cowboy boots from a store he'd heard of there. He had been salivating over those boots for months, and as soon as we got to the hotel, he was off to that store.

A short time later, he was back, proudly bearing his boots. I had to give it to him; they were beautiful. They were burnished tan with a lot of intricate workings and a good heel. He put them on, and off we went. Not long after we got out to look around, he mentioned that the boots were a bit tight on his feet, but that the salesman had said that they might need to stretch to the shape of his foot. I suggested he take them back for a professional stretching, but he thought they would be all right in time. He said he would try to stick it out.

By the time we got back to the hotel, the man was almost crawling on his hands and knees. The boots he had so longed for had turned on him and had him crying for mercy. While he sat and braced himself, I had to pull the boots from his feet, which immediately swelled with the return of his circulation. I told him to take the boots back, which any woman would have, considering how much he paid for them, but he declined. He said it would be "Okay".

To my knowledge, he never put those boots back on his feet again. A couple of years later, when I was gathering items to donate to the local thrift center, he placed the box with those nearly-new boots on the pile of things to go. I didn't say a word, and neither did he.

I put MY shoes back in the box and returned it to the closet. Even though they almost killed me today, those shoes are still some good. I mean I can still get them on my feet. Why donate something I can still wear?

And who knows, I may have another cute outfit and be going somewhere that I won't have to do that much walking or standing up....

It's a girl thing.