Shoes

Shoes go on your feet. They can be a fashion accessory or make a statement. One statement comes to mind with the original converse shoe. People bought it because it was anti-establishment and cool, they bought so many of them that the converse people had to become an establishment to keep up. This made hipsters mad, but not mad enough to stop buying them. Converse still trumpets its anti-establishment stance, just not very far.

I recently bought shoes. This is a rare occurrence for me. It wouldn't normally be blog-worthy, but seeing as how I rarely write anymore, any topic is better than no topic. Also shoes have suddenly been a big thing recently. Here's the story:

I was down to my last pair of shoes, a busted and abused pair of black converse (I bought them because they were on sale for 25 bucks--Chinese slave-labor special). My usual modus operandi is to by casual shoes that are black so when I wear out my black work shoes I can switch them out and toss the old work shoes out. They last about a year. Anyway money was tight a while back, until I got my tax return. I wore the same pair of shoes everywhere. They were so abused. The left one is cracked from repetitive kneeling while the top of the right one is scuffed away from lifting tires with it while kneeling. There are other occupation markers, but it isn't important.

Then I got to work 54 hours for a couple weeks and made a bit of money, but had no time to spend it. Also I had hardly any time to do anything else. I was so tired from working all day that I would simply shower after work, eat dinner and go to bed to do it all over again the next day. It made it hard to do anything writing related. I felt like I wanted to do something fun and anything would do. That something might be a book or an episode of a show or a video game. Perhaps I have inflated writing to this status where it needs my full attention and when I can't give it that I wont attempt to write at all. (But after talking to Erin for an hour and a half she really encouraged me just to do it. Hard work, walk it, no cable car.)

I had to dress up to go to another lame tire corporate meeting in Lansing and I couldn't wear my broken work shoes because the Suits would have made disparaging comments and ordered me to get new ones because I am the face of the tire company and I must look sharp. So I borrowed my roommates' shoes. Amazingly he has bigger feet than me, size 13 while I am a piddly size 12.

I wore a suit to the meeting. I love that thing. I feel fancy and people on the street call me Mr. and sir. That is not the reason I love it though. It has so many pockets and I feel like a spy reaching inside my sport coat to get my wallet. Loo found the suit for me at Nuway the thrift store (her favorite store. She always finds great stuff for great prices it's eerie, like a super power.) So with borrowed shoes on my feet and a thrift store suit on my body I went to the meeting and got all kinds of comments about dressing up.

"It must have cost you a fortune for that suit. I guess that's no matter to you, eh California?" (that's my nickname)
"Actually," I said, "Loo got this for me at Nuway for four dollars." The response to this was strange. Envy maybe? I didn't know, but they quickly dropped it and focused on sports teams instead. There are a lot of them. I know nothing about sports, so I read a book.

Then there was some dinner I had to dress up for so I asked to borrow the shoes again. Than Loo graduated and I had to borrow them again. Than we went to see Yo Yo Ma so I dressed up again, but I felt bad for borrowing the shoes and wearing them more than he did so I used the failing work shoes. They fell apart while Mr. Ma passionately played his Cello. I walked out with the shoes flapping in the air. I don't know how they kept together, but they did. Tough shoes. Also my only belt broke.

The next day was my day off. My to do list looked like this:

Shoes!
Belt!
Eggs.

I looked into my closet behind Bup's cage (a young Savannah monitor lizard) and looked at my hanging shoe shelf. It was slim pickings in there, but there was one pair of shoes left. For the first time in a year I slipped my well worn flip flops on. The shoes reminded my feet of California beach days while I walked to my car on a gray, cold and rainy Michigan day, the fourth nasty day with two more to go, but I didn't know that at the time.

I walked into Meijers (for you California types this is a mega store, like a walmart where you can get groceries as well as automotive supplies, furniture and etc.) and looked for the shoes on sale. I found some black boots for 40 bucks, which in my experience is both the average price for black boots and the maximum I am wiling to pay. I knew I was size 12 so I picked them out and put them in the blue wire mesh cart without trying them on. Those would be my casual shoes. I wanted to get some fancy shoes on account of the fancy events I had been attending recently. I found some brown ones for 15 bucks. Winning! I grabbed a size 12 and threw those in the cart. Then I went looking for work shoes. I found some Dr. Shoels (sp) black shoes for 30 bucks. Score! I threw a size 12 in the cart. Then I went to get a belt. Actually, this is the boring part. I got a new compliment of leather goods, belts, wallet, shoes. And a pair of Levi jeans. All of my old leather goods were failing. And since I needed them and had money I bought them.

I think you and I are expecting a punchline about putting those shoes on for the first time. But there is no punchline. They fit great. 12 is my size. My jeans on the other hand, not so much. I stopped working out and my butt must have shrank. 34" is too large. Good thing I bought some belts. Time to hit the gym.

When I got home Loo bought new shoes as well. They were neon pink Kroc knock offs. She liked how they felt on her feet. The color was cool too. She also got these golden and bejeweled high heels that she wore to graduation. At her commencement I was able to spot her by her shoes, dazzling gold beneath her dark graduation gown.

And then she bought sexy shoes to wear just for me.

I have never had a reaction to shoes before. I've always been, "whatever, they go on your feet," about shoes. Than she bought these stiletto high heel things by Candies. They are a little platform high heel stiletto thing black and white plaid with a black leather bow over the toes. She wore them for the first time today.

Yowza!

With those shoes on she stands eye to eye with me. I have never had a girl I saw eye to eye with before. I am always taller, always. At six foot four inches it's easy to do. But looking into her eyes without looking down took me by surprise and I had this childlike reaction. I just had to hug her and say how cool it was. I didn't realize how a shoe like that would also change the way she walked and the way her legs looked and she suddenly filled me with this dopey feeling and for a good 20 minutes I was totally enamored with her and her shoes.

I felt so silly, but I couldn't help it.

I can't think of an ending to this so I'll just share the second stanza from Pablo Neruda's Ode to a Pink Shoe:

it holds me
moves me
carries me
across asphalt ocean
and gravel dreams
stained by travel
to carnival skies