Let’s talk about shoes. When Leah and I first moved in together, over TEN years ago, I noticed that one of her idiosyncrasies was to leave her shoes randomly scattered around the house. On several occasions, I’d get up in the middle of the night and trip over these little “shoe-mines.” After delicately bringing up the subject, Leah came to embrace this habit, and it’s since become a running joke. I even wrote her a poem about her shoes for her birthday a few years back:
Shoes
Shoes are there to greet me
Each and every night,
Not knowing where I’ll find them,
They wait just out of sight.
Shoes may be hiding in the bathroom
They may be by the stairs,
Shoes could be in the doorway
In singles or in pairs
The shoes I find are sometimes fuzzy
They come in brown or black,
I’ve even found a Birkenstock
Living in my backpack!
I’ve tripped on shoes in many places
Both inside and outside,
How they got there I don’t know,
Who knows where shoes reside?
I think the shoes are organized
They wait ‘til I am dreaming,
Then they make their secret plans
Just plotting and a-scheming.
The shoes don’t like me, this I know
But then I could be wrong,
I tried to herd them to the closet,
Isn’t that where they belong?
I’ve given up my shoe obsession
They can’t change my life,
Besides, the shoes aren’t all that bad,
Since they belong to my wife!
Maybe this rhyme will make the shoes
Stop coming out to play,
There’s only one thing left to do
Wish Leah (and her shoes)
a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
The only reason I’m sharing this story is because yesterday I bought a pair of shoes from Dardano’s. A nice pair of Chaco Redrock Hikers to take to Italy. They were having a big sale, and had a somewhat limited selection of shoes. I usually wear a 9½ or 10, but the only size they had was a size 10½. They felt good when I tried them on in the store, but when I got home I started second-guessing my decision, thinking they didn’t fit as good as I originally thought. That’s typical of me, having “buyer’s remorse” about purchases, wondering if I made the right decision. And Dardano’s made it clear that all sales are FINAL, so I guess I’ll have to get used to them, and tell my brain to stop thinking about it!
