shoes, again

[bedlamsbard]

Can I talk about shoes a moment? I know I have been talking about shoes a lot, and frankly, I'm surprised that I even want to look at shoes after what I spent most of my two hours of service learning doing on Friday (basically: they put us in the children's boutique, which is where all the donated clothes and shoes are for the kids, and for lack of anything else to do, I started matching up the shoes and attaching the pairs together, and almost had a fit because there were like twenty pairs of the same shoe in different sizes), but I suspect I'm concentrating on shoes because I don't have the mental energy even to knit and I'm trying to wean myself off the solitaire. Everything else goes to school or Star Wars.

I can't wear pumps or flats. I keep trying, and one or both of two things keeps happening: I destroy my heels (not blisters: the skin gets scraped off) and/or my heels continally rise out of the shoe as I'm walking, because they're too narrow for the shoe. Neither situation is really ideal. I do own inserts, I just, uh, haven't put them in any of my shoes yet because I only have one pair and I'm not sure which shoes to put them in, since I now never wear these shoes since they won't stay on my goddamn feet and/or do me serious damage every time I try. Look, I'm not very much with the logical, okay.) When you have trouble wearing pumps or flats, it kind of cuts down on the cute shoe options. I can and do wear riding boots, but the pair I own is about an inch or two below the knee and unfortunately, the majority of my skirts are either knee-length or mid-calf, and that ends up looking a little odd. And is also not practical for New Orleans in spring.

In previous years this has not really been a problem, because year-round I pretty much wore jeans and sneakers or jeans and heeled boots (about to mid-calf) or jeans and sandals (either flip-flops or with a heel), or, alternately, a skirt and sandals or sneakers. I had one pair of pumps for special occasions, and I think I've actually worn them all of three times, never long enough to figure out why they didn't work (usually I'd wear flip-flops there, change into the pumps, then change back into flip-flops for the walk back). Except now I'm wearing skirts more and more -- or I would be, if I had shoes to go with them, which right now I don't as I can't actually wear any of my non-sandal or boot options without destroying my feet somehow. I do have this pair of mid-calf heeled boots, but I'm not sure what to wear it with because I feel the shaft is an awkward height and I'm not sure how to pair that with my skirts (since I tend towards longer skirts and the mysteries of skirt-length plus shaft-height are beyond me).

I suspect that booties might work, since they grip the heel more tightly than pumps or flats, so I'll probably take the plunge and buy a pair of those (with a low enough heel that I can actually wear them, *eyes oxfords sadly*; I haven't worn heels recently so I have to work up them) in hopes that they'll work out. This is just really frustrating to me, because right now I have no idea what shoes I can wear with my skirts -- although at least it's starting to get warm enough again that sandals are a possibility. (At which point I'll probably have to retire my corduroy skirts for the season, sigh. Ugh. Clothes are complicated.)

...oooh. That pair of booties I was coveting from ModCloth is back in stock in...what might be my size. (It's complicated. Feet are complicated. My feet are disastrously complicated.) I really like them. Maybe I should buy them, although the heel's definitely higher than I was looking for. (By, like, a factor of two, since I was looking for about a 2-inch heel, like these or these. Or even a lower heel, because I click all over the place otherwise.)

And now...I am tired. I like shoes, but the factor of "will they work with my feet?" + "are they good quality?" + "will they work with my wardrobe?" + "how much am I willing to pay?" is exhausting. What's also exhausting is the fact that right now I'm wearing a skirt, and if I want to leave my apartment, I'm going to have to change into jeans, since I don't trust any of my shoes to stay on my feet. Also because I really need to buy a half-slip, which I can't freaking find, wtf, a point which is usually made moot by the fact that usually in New Orleans it's warm enough that bare legs are an option. Also, unrelatedly, I think I'm getting sick, which, balls.

Comments

[darklyndsea]

Shoes and clothing make me want to cry when I have to get them in a style I don't already own. (Yeah, there's a reason all of my pants are the same and most of my skirts are the same and all of my shirts are variations on 'T-shirt' and I'm planning to get new shoes that will fit exactly the same as the ones I have now)

[bedlamsbard]

Up until this year my wardrobe was basically jeans, t-shirts, and the same pair of sneakers. This is hard. *whines*

[sgac]

Can you wear mary janes? I can't wear pumps or most flats either because, like you, they slip on my heels, but mary janes work just fine.

[bedlamsbard]

I do have a pair, which are on the "sometimes I can, sometimes I can't" list because they've messed my heels up badly in the past. But yeah, they definitely work better for me than normal flats or pumps.