Shoes

 I must have been a terrible disappointment to my mother.  Her "thing" was shoes.  Ever since she was a little kid, she had a thing about shoes.  I remember her telling me that a girl n her school had patent leather shoes and how my mother wanted a pair, but they were too expensive.  then she was cast in a play and had to have patent leather shoes and how happy it made her.

When she worked at the thrift shop for Hospice of Marin, people would bring clothes and shoes in after someone had died and my mother always chose shoes she liked in her size, so she was the Imelda Marcos of Marin County.  Not only do I not like shoes, I hate the thought of wearing shoes that someone else has worn.  It was always uncomfortable for me to go bowling and have to wear special shoes.

Shoes have never made me happy.  I was raised in the era where they x-rayed your foot when you went into the store and then found shoes for you to try on.  Shoes never fit.  Ever.  I would get shoes that didn't fit and a week or two later they finally started to feel not painful and eventually comfortable  About the time they felt comfortable, it was time to get new ones.

I remember needing "good shoes" to go to a wedding one year.  I was pregnant and I vowed I was going to go to a mall and not leave the mall until I found shoes.  It took me all day.  I went to every shoe store, some more than once, and finally found some red shoes that I bought and used for my "good shoes" for years.

There was a point where I found shoes I liked and that actually were comfortable.  I can't remember the brand now, but I wore 10-1/2 WW (how my feet had grown.  For years I wore a 7-1/2 regular!).  every year I went to the shoe store and bought my 10-1/2 WW shoes and then one year they no longer had 10-1/2.  They stopped making that size.  I don't know why; they still made 9-1/2, but no 10-1/2.  I tried other shoe stores on line and found that NOBODY was making size 10-1/2 an size 11 was too big.

When I found Birkenstocks, my life was complete.  They fit.  Once I got used to the feel of them, they were comfortable and I wore Birkenstocks for years, winter and summer, rain or shine. Even for dressy events.  I think I've had two pairs of Birkenstocks over decades and was happy.

I wore the Birkenstocks with socks and with the nurse coming to visit me after my surgery, she said t hat the socks I was wearing, the loosest I could find, were  too binding on my legs, so I shouldn't wear socks.  Instead of socks, I wear slippers around the house.  Without socks, the Birkenstocks didn't work for everything, so I went looking for new shoes and tried a few pair, that never fit.  Then I found some Crocs, which Char has been raving about forever.  They were on sale, and I think there were limited colors.  I got some bright blue ones and they actually fit and when I needed to go out, I wore the Crocs, but somehow the bright blue didn't really fit.

Then one day I saw an ad for these shoes on Facebook.  From the description, it sounded like they might actually fit...and they only cost $20.  I decided to get something other than black (which is what I wear all the time), so got these burgundy colored shoes.  They were difficult to get on, but Jeri helped me and once they were on, they fit and were comfortable.

I can get the right shoe on by myself, but my left leg doesn't turn the way it needs to go get on the left shoe, but Ned has been helping me.

I'm so comfortable with these shoes that I decided to order another pair in black, which are now on order, so I will have black shoes to wear if I ever go to any sort of fancy event again.

I actually now have four pairs of shoes -- the Birkenstocks, the  two pairs of shoes I ordered from Facebook, and the Crocs, along with my slippers.  I haven't had this many things for my feet in decades. It's almost like being a normal person.

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