hello, my name is beatpoetgrrl, and i'm addicted to bargain shoes. seriously, i think i may have a problem. i have three pairs of the same kind of sneaker (one silver and white, one silver and black, and one red and white--they were $2.50 a pair!). i have untold numbers of black loafers. probably ten pairs of sandals. and for the last two days, i have been scouring the internet in search of my feet's fall wardrobe. i lost out on a pair of steve madden tough-girl boots on ebay yesterday, to my great chagrine. now i'm making up for it with a vengeance. i will have the best-shod, coolest feet in town.
but why so many shoes? why five pairs of black boots in slightly different styles? why? am i going to sprout extra feet that i don't know about? my mother has taken to calling me imelda...
i will say in my defense that when i was a kid, i had a high arch and my toes pointed inward. in order to fix it, i had to wear special shoes. they had something called thomas heels, and in an era of purple, aqua, and pink, they came in black, white, and burgundy. i had them fitted every fall and spring in richard's footwear, in beautiful downtown washington. the quintessential small-town shoe store. i remember a harvest gold carpet, and walls filled to the ceiling with boxes on dark wooden shelves. the cold metal of the foot measuring device, and the way it pressed on my toe. but what i remember most is staring into the display window while they fitted my brother for his buster browns, and admiring all the pretty shoes that i wasn't allowed to wear. not to mention hanging my head as the mean fourth-grade kids made fun of my "duck shoes."
it was a proud day when, in fifth grade, i was allowed my first pair of regular shoes. they were gray, with little cutouts in the leather, and a small lift, just enough to make them feel like a high heeled shoe. i felt so grown-up. this was also the heyday of the velcro sneaker, and my other favorite shoes were pale pink kangaroos, with the zippered pouch for your milk money.
so i don't know, maybe that was the birth of my shoe obsession. shoes say a lot about a person, but more than that, the right shoe can change alter your outlook. i want to feel like a badass? i wear my motorcycle boots. i want to be a disco goddess? i have sparkly black platforms. i want to be taller (i always want to be taller), i have an assortment of high heels.
eh, it's not so bad. there are worse addictions than covering my feet. and i do have a limit to my madness. i only buy bargain shoes. i laugh at shoes priced over fifty bucks. i scoff at the fashion victims who feel the need to walk in $200 worth of leather. i'm like the guys at meineke who will not pay a lot for their mufflers! (ebay and martys are my best friends)
but for the final, inalienable justice, i will leave you with this picture:
these are the shoes i was forced to wear for most of my childhood
these are expensive steve madden shoes that just came out.
the similarity is eerie, isn't it? turns out i really was cool, all those years ago...
--beatpoetgrrl
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