4 posts tagged “shoes”

I spent most of today crabby. There were occasional breaks in my personal fog - watching Spit Spot splash happily in puddles, and lay herself flat down upon wet pavement to splash in even dirtier puddles - that was fun. But then the subsequent wet and messy brawl back to the car was not.

I kept bemoaning the fact that I bought the "wrong" sized rain boots for the girls and the beat myself up for letting them wear them today, before I could return them. I forgot the cardinal rule of rain boot shopping: Thou Shalt Buy a Size Bigger than the Child's Foot. So now, I pray, and hope, that their feet won't grow too fast, that they just had their big winter growth spurt, and my choices won't turn into a big honkin' waste of cash. I actually have a bigger size for Spit Spot, left over from Soledad, but they are short, and therefore, mostly useless. Because, you and I know that there is no toddler on earth who can just walk through a puddle. No, they must leap, splash, bang, and pounce through them, and splash as much filthy water as possible up their legs and into the folds of the pants we put on them to keep them dry. The taller the boots, the better.

On a brighter side, I also got a new pair of boots, and my first tall pair of Wellies. I was going to get basic green or black, but they were back ordered at both Restoration and LLBean, and the ones at Nordstrom were way too much. So I took a leap of faith and bought a jaunty pair of red and black plaid ones. Classic, and hopefully won't get too dated to fast. I briefly considered the horseshoe print, but am really not a horse-y kind of gal, and all the rock-n-roll skulls and roses seemed to be trying too hard. So plaid it is. I'm very excited to wear them.

I also got a couple new tee shirts without holes (yay!) and 2 pairs of jeans to fit my new, larger size. A bit sad, but really really nice to have long pants that fit again, and I have enough that I don't have to do laundry every other minute. Thank G-d for cheap Old Navy jeans. And when I get back down to my comfortable self, I'll splurge on a new pair of Joe's.

On another note, the damn writer's strike has finally sent us a direct hit. Clive's a finalist for an Big Studio Talent Fellowship. He's been happily jumping through their hoops for a month while he finishes up school. We've been expecting "The Call" at any minute. Well, they called today, but just to tell him that there will be no call until they figure out what's going on with the strike. Fair enough, but it means more waiting, and that's kind of painful. I'm sure there's a good Zen lesson in all this. I keep thinking of the story where the moral is you never know if something is good luck or bad luck until the future unfolds. I'm grateful he's still in the game. Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!

I went to THE dinner party last Saturday night. After panicking for about a month, I got a babysitter, gussied myself up and went to town.

I looked great. I did! I cleaned up nicely. I had borrowed jewelry and shoes, but the dress, hair, and make-up were all me. But what struck me as I was getting ready, and again after I saw some pictures, was that I looked my age.

Ok, maybe really good for my age, and maybe a few years younger than my actual age. But I did not look young. I did not try to look young. And I'm struggling a bit because it's kind of weird to see myself looking like a handsome middle-aged woman, you know? Like, "Who is that woman?"

So, I'm still kind of sitting with that idea (back in my gray cargoes, black tee shirt, and sweat shirt, no make-up).

Then today, while packing up the shoes (black velvet heels, pointy toes) and the small gold hoop earrings and matching gold chunky necklace (costume),  I got a glimpse of what the celebrities must feel when they have to return their Harry Wintstons after a red-carpet event. I so wanted to keep everything! It was painful and a melancholy parting.

I haven't had time to blog ages...here's a summary of recent highlights:

We spent a month in  Maine this summer, which I won't do again until I have my own house/hotel there, survived, and started the oldest in first grade. She's also started soccer, which officially makes me a soccer mom, much to the amusement of some of my friends. I find soccer-momming unduly stressful, what with team snacks, and 2 trips a week to the field, picture day, awards ceremonies, and wet grass.  Queenie's fast, and really seems to like it. There's also a couple other toddlers and some pups around to entertain the little one. Luckily, it's only an 8 week season and we're already half way through.

The kids are obsessed with Annie. Spit-spot spends her days singing "Tomorrow" to everyone's amusement. I miss the days when Queenie used to sing "Moonraker."

I got rear-ended in the supermarket parking lot and am in negotiations with the Insurance folk. Just a fender bender, but I intend to get justice.

Spit-Spot woke me up a couple weeks ago proudly yelping, "Look Mommy, I ate it all! I ate it all!" and holding open an empty bottle of thyroid medication. Let me just say that the Poison Control people are the nicest folks on earth and deserve a big raise. She's fine, I just about had a nervous breakdown. Because I learned that the one thing worse than thinking your kid is about to die, is that you just killed your kid.

I've apparently become asthmatic. Technically, it's EIA, or Exercise Induced Asthma. Either way it's kind of bumming me out as I'm now on 2 additional medications and feel alternately that my body is failing me, or that LA is killing me. Fire Season here is not helping my opinion on the latter.

Mentally preparing to go back to work. Sad but true, I fear the time has come. Now my goal is to find a well-paying, low stress job with super-flexible hours and convenience to home and day care and easy parking.

Counting down the days to when Clive finishes grad school and we can get some semblance of a normal household back and I can stop feeling like a single mom (which is kind of unfair as Clive really does help a lot but still I want a man with regular hours).

It's been shoe month here as I've been shopping for an outfit to wear to a  cocktail/dinner event for a friend. My friend Maryann came down from SF to help and is lending me some fabulous jewelry to ensure I don't look like the poor cousin at the party. We bought a gorgeous pair of ruby red patent leather peep toe pumps with 4 inch heels that I have been petting like a new kitten. Too expensive for our current situation, however, so I asked Clive to return them for me, as I did not have the heart to do it myself. 10 bonus points for Clive! I did, however, buy a lovely pair of every day peep toes with a short heel for me for my upcoming birthday in an attempt to class up, a bit, and an agreeable  pair of black patent peep toe pumps for 1/3rd the price of the original ruby red pair. Also, some new makeup and bras. Just need some new hosiery and a compact and I'm done. I may even skip the hose. I mean, it's LA, right?

When sweet Maryann came down to help me shop, we also went out to a movie (The Darjeeling Limited) and drank a bit too much. All in the same day. Wooo!

I've taken up yoga, finally, in an attempt to become a more flexible and balanced human being. I think it' s going well, although I'm a bit squirmmish with the chanting. One of the teachers calls us "Oh Great Ones" and I'm finding myself jonesing for that every once in a while.

I've also taken up drinking macha, thanks to MA, and have given up half and half in hopes of fitting back into my favorite jeans.

I'm trying to finish some felting projects and it's not going well at all as I keep falling asleep when I put the girls down to sleep.

To that point, I'm going to sign off now and go back to sleep.

I am in baby shoe hell.

My 16 mo old has one pair of shoes, Bobux, with holes in the toes. They are otherwise pretty shoddy looking - cracked, faded, and scrunched. Sad booties, basically, but easy to get off and on and they work well for trashing through sand piles. Not so good in puddles, as they only have thin leather soles. These were free, from my mother-on-law. Have served us well. But she needs a pair with good soles that will keep her dry and help her climb things.

She also has a pair of beautiful berry suede Ecco mary-janes with little suede flowers stitched on them. They cost about $60 a couple months ago, and she has begun to fuss about them. Getting small. I didn't want them in the first place, but at the time they were the only pair of shoes I could find that fit her properly.

I saved all of my older daughter's shoes, but somehow I only seem to have one practically brand new Adidas shell top in size 5 1/2. No clue where the other one has gone. I did, however, miraculously manage to save both in a pair of navy blue leather, Stride-Rite mary-janes. She's been wearing them, but they seem a bit big. This was confirmed at the zoo today, when she lost one of them in the Orangutan habitat (it was saved when I fished it out with a long stem of bamboo). It had gotten loose in between two slats in the fence she was trying to scale.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to get her into a sweet pair of See Kai Run trainers. I tried some one a couple months ago, but the 5's were huge, so we got the Eccos. Went back to the store last week, but they were out of size 5 SKRs. Ordered some online thinking they'd be perfect now. Unfortunately, they are too perfect and look like they will fit about another 4 weeks. Maybe 6. Now, these are only $40 shoes. A bargain, right?

But I'm not really keen on spending $20 -$30 a month on shoes for this kid. I also am a bit embarrassed by shoddy hole-ridden mocs. What's a girl to do? I do have a pair of Berry sock/mocs for her for Christmas waiting in the wings. She could alternate those with the Stride-Rites. I was thinking of returning the SKR's for a size 6, but then realized they are way too easy for her to take off, now that she has become Master of the Velcro (and of keys and locks, but that's another story). So, I think I either have to suck up the $40, knowing they at least don't have holes, and hoping that she'll keep them on, OR, I have to just return them, and deal with the holes in the Bobux until she hits the next size of something, or Channukah. I was going to order new shell tops, as they are lace-ups and should stay on better, but they've changed the design over the last 4 years and now I think they look ugly.

It's mind-numbing, isn't it? I mean, this is so tedious and boring that I'm going on autopilot and not even listening to myself. Sigh. And my husband won't help me, either.

More upsetting, is the fact that this isn't about shoes for me.