I am now the proud owner of a pair of strappy, beaded, lime green sandals. They are absolutely divine and I will be taking them with me to Ashland this weekend (I know you'll want to see them, Mary ::g:: ).

It just makes me giggle with glee to know I have those shoes in my closet. The last time I felt that way about a new pair of shoes was when I bought a pair of pink, orange and yellow loafers. It's hard to describe them adequately, but they are tremendously fun and they matched a dress I bought perfectly. I still have them and they make me smile every time I see them.

I'm not a big shoe buyer. Oh I used to be. I used to have dozens of shoes in my closet--purple slingbacks, pumps of every color (grey, burgundy, taupe, white, black, red, navy), little flat canvas T-strap shoes in several colors (red, blue, black, white, olive green), little canvas boat shoes in red, blue, and white, Timberland-style ankle boots, athletic shoes, clunky black shoes, Doc Maartens, Birkenstock-style shoes, little black flat slip ons in suede and snake skin, penny loafers, my colorful loafers and a few more pairs that I'm sure I've forgotten. I loved shoe shopping. It was one of the fun ways to shop. You never had to worry if they made your butt look fat or pooched too much in front. The biggest worry was how many colors I could get them in. (I'm big on having the same shoe in multiple colors in case you didn't notice--I do the same thing with pants and tops, too.)

Then something happened. I started not being delighted with shoes. They started to hurt my feet. I started wearing comfortable shoes. Sensible shoes. ::gasp:: When did I get that old? I still like my feet to look good, but comfort has certainly become a more compelling issue.

My friend Stacy has a shoe wardrobe to die for. She has a size 6 foot so she can always get these *great* shoes on sale because no one else has size 6 feet. She also seems to have much more pain tolerance for uncomfortable feet. I'm amazed, sometimes, when we head out for a foot-intensive day of shopping or urban hiking. I'll have shoes with a good sole, good padding, good arch support. She'll have very stylish shoes with no padding, no arch support. And then stand on them, walk with them, all day. Her feet will look swell. My feet will just look swollen.

I should mention that I have flat feet. As a result, my feet are wide in places where feet with normal arches are not. I should also mention that if you spend much time on flat feet, they hurt really bad if you don't have adequate arch support (however, too much arch support is worse than too little). As I've gotten older, my arch has gotten flatter and my tolerance for shoes that aren't comfortable has all but disappeared.

As my shoes have worn out or gotten out of style or become too tight, I have not replaced a lot of them. For many reasons. Mostly, because I don't need them. I'm a student so I need very comfortable shoes for clodding around campus and hiking up the big hill to my car. And I need cross-trainers for working out and days when I'm on my feet a lot, like on vacations, hikes, the zoo, shopping marathons, etc. I need only a few dress shoes for occasional evenings out and church. I'm not at the office every day wearing office clothes and office shoes.

These days, I generally vary between 2 pairs of white summer shoes (canvas platform tennies with rubber toe bumpers and leather boat shoes), black cork-soled summer shoes, athletic shoes, my colorful loafers, some pointy-toed red suede pumps, Doc Maartens, black clunky shoes, Timberland-style ankle boots and 2 pairs of black pumps. A far cry from days gone by.

But now I have a pair of lime green beaded strappy sandals to spice up my admittedly dull shoe collection. You can see how excited this makes me. I'm deliriously happy.

And I had 2 dark chocolate-covered nougats from See's chocolates. Aaaaah.

--L