I love shoes.

The other day I did something I hadn't done in a while. Years I guess. I purchased and wore some really hot shoes. Here they are in the picture- the BCBG girls slingback 'Saraf' shoes from Nordstrom. I miss fantastically cute shoes.
It seems like some people are always wearing really cute shoes. Like this one girl who works at Nordstrom in Provo selling shoes. She says she always wears high heels. What a fantastic thing. Also Jana always has cute high heels on at church and I think it is really nice looking. High heels say I think I am good looking enough and I have developed the skill to walk in these precarious things. Also they make you taller, which I have heard takes off pounds.
In high school I was in a school musical and had the opportunity to sing in Little Shop of Horrors. One of my most vivid memories was when we started staging the play and learned to walk in 5 inch heels. Incredible. I didn't realize that I wasn't feminine when I walked but luckily after about 5 hours of practice we were all ready to walk. I guess I had walked a little bit like a horse and a little bit like a football player.
On my mission I said goodbye to my cute high heels and hello to some really ugly black shoes that I got resoled a few times. I wanted to get comfortable shoes and tried to avoid the 25 dollar plastic boots that some sisters got in Germany since they were cheap. I discovered Josef Seibel who is a great shoe designer. after over a year of wearing flats I bought a great pair of brown shoes and wore them to zone conference- where I wouldn't be walking around all day. I have never felt prettier. The fact that a tanning salon opened downstairs from our apartment and we would go tanning at lunch time probably helped. This will obviously be controversial for some but I got 2 investigators from that tanning salon and they started having the book of Mormon in the Lobby for people to read. Actually there were some kids in that city that would follow us around and ask for book of Mormons- then sell them to people for five dollars. You have to appreciate their enterprising spirit. After one day of walking between meetings I realized something about high heels- they make your calves sore. I put my feet up after getting back to our apartment and felt like an old woman.
My journey into comfort shoes was accelerated by surgery and finally ended with pregnancy. I wondered how my massive pregnant weight could be supported by high heels. When you weight more than 50 pounds more than you did a few months before you start to question things like- will I topple to my death in my old shoes. My feet were swelling so big none of my awesome shoes fit me anymore. Come to think of it, no shoes really fit me except John's flip flops. A few months after Danielle was born I tried to wear high heels but my feet seemed bigger and I kept getting blisters. I told Jen none of the cute high heels I wanted to buy were comfortable and that is when her comment made me realize I had fundamentally changed. She said something like 'let's face it, you are a comfort shoe girl.' You can imagine I was crushed. But it was true. Luckily my sad descent into comfort shoes corresponded with a rising popularity in ballet flats but it has been about a year now since I was officially labeled a comfort shoe girl.
Last week I decided it has to change.
So goodbye comfort shoe lifestyle hello BCBG girls.

and hello blisters, incidentally. the journey back will probably take more than 5 hours.