Thursday, September 29, 2005

Major life-altering decision

I hate to admit this, but I'm a woman who hates shoe-shopping. It's an overwhelming experience for me.

I've been out looking for shoes about 5 times now over the past year (just never can find the time to do it) because I really need to replace my flat black shoes that I wear to work. They are actually split on the bottom of them (cheap shoes) and every time it rains here, my feet get wet if I walk through the smallest puddle. They've been this way for about 3 years now, but since I have been pregnant for approximately half of that 3-year period and didn't know if my feet might grow to enormous proportions due to those pregnancies, I wanted to wait to actually buy any new shoes.

So yesterday I was at the shoe store and thought I had found some shoes that were fine - just fine. They were flat enough, comfortable enough, and fit my feet, but I just had to tempt fate and go back to the sale rack to see if there were any cheaper options (I am, after all, a cheap engineer). I hadn't found any that were better until I again decided to tempt fate and check the 1/2 size larger section to see if any of those might run a little small and fit my feet. There, like a beacon shining through my shopping-induced brain fog, were the perfect pair of shoes. Just stylish enough, but not too dated looking, flat enough, shoe-like and not slipper-like, 40% off the regular price, and when I tried them on, pillowy soft and comfortable! Ahhhh....

Oh, but wait, when I tried walking in the shoe, it was just a little bit too big on my large foot - I actually have one foot that is almost a complete size smaller than the other. I put both shoes on, knowing what the verdict would be for these shoes. I almost completely walked out of the left shoe. And then the practical side in me had to speak up and say that if the shoe is a little too big on my big foot, once I wear them a little while and they stretch, then they'll really be too big. Oh why, oh why can't I just be a normal woman and buy shoes compulsively and in bulk quantities at my every whim and fancy?

No, no, I have to remind myself that I will wear these shoes for several years - until they, too, begin falling apart - and therefore that makes my decision to buy a shoe a major life-altering decision. I may go out again today and test my luck once more, but I really don't know what that will do to me...

Am I crazy or what?!

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