Today is full of mixed emotions. How do I put this? Oh well, here it goes: yesterday my favorite ballerina flats gave up and died.
Love Me Like a Man, Bonnie Raitt
Time After Time, Chet Baker
Gives You Hell, The All American Rejects
I know, I know- I should be taking the day off to mourn. The story of the flats goes like this: one day my beautiful, wonderful friend Ksenia (who just announced her engagement!) came into Russian class in these perfect flats. Brown, "crocodile," just the right shape (a little point at the toe is so flattering). I asked where she got them and pulled the super cool, not at all creepy, move of heading directly to Banana Republic, scooping up a pair and telling myself $100 on a pair of flats was worth it because they would stand up. 3 days later when I saw Ksenia her feet were band-aided and she told me she had had to return the shoes due to the fact that they ripped up her poor little feet. I felt dumb- I had a pair of expensive flats which were just proven painful.
I was too lazy to return them, so I figured I would just have to break them in. I wore those shoes everywhere. Everywhere. And I broke them in fast. I got them in fall and by Spring they needed to be resoled. I wore those shoes on girl's nights out, on countless dates, on my graduation day. I wore them to class and job interviews. I wore them for three years, which was worth their initial $100 investment and the $24 resoling fee. And then yesterday something happened.
After putting up with airport security, the streets of Boston, and then running from the plane to the AirTrain to the right AirTrain to the LIRR to a cab, upstairs to my Father Lovely's and then another cab. And then walking through the Museum of Natural History for hours and then a walk through Central Park the shoes fell apart. I stepped on a rock in Central Park, and instead of protecting my foot, the rock went right through the hole in my sole. Andrey caught the face on camera. I will post it ASAP. Once I realized it was not just aesthetic but structural, I knew the shoes weren't long for this world. Now they need to be replaced. How do you replace a best friend? A tested companion? A perfect shoe? Excuse me, I need a few minutes.
My leopard print flats that I bought in Paris in 2006 finally gave out last summer. I cried. I mourned. I have spent the past 8 months trying to replace the irreplaceable. They are still sitting on my shoe rack because I cannot bear to throw them away.
ReplyDeleteUgh, right? I bought those loves when my leopard print flats died. They had holes right through their soles. I got a new pair of leo. flats (on the cheap) so hopefully they can suffice for a while. I'm really tortured over there, what am I supposed to wear with skirts, jeans and shorts until the new shoes arrive?
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