the last time I bought new sneakers

[fflo]

The last time I bought new sneakers was in 1999 or 2000, at an outlet shopping center on I-70 between Columbia, MO and Kansas City. I was with my boss at the time, whose Grand Cherokee was providing our transportation home from a nuthin' conference on a lousy computer system the bookstore has since scrapped. I was delighted that she was willing to shop separately, if we had to stop (and we did); I ended up in a discount shoe place and came away with a pair of Reebox walking shoes for about 30 bucks. Turned out one of them had a flaw in the heel; that shoe made a popping, squeaky sound whenever you took pressure back off of its heel. So for a good deal of the rest of the time I worked at Varney's, you could hear me squeaking when I walked around the warehouse.

Last week squirrelykat and I were at the discount shoe place up here, and I musta tried on 15 pairs of sneakers that I could find in my size---surprisingly many choices in a women's 11, so most of 'em were even women's shoes. Sadly, only one pair seemed to fit right and feel good, and they were the most expensive. So expensive I wouldn't have even put 'em in the stack to try on if I'd seen the price correctly. I hemmed and hawed and decided to come back another time and try to find more options.

A few days later I returned, tried on at least 20 pairs, and was waffling, on the verge of buying none at all, when I noticed that the expensive ones came with a keychain bearing a little cast iron replica of the shoe---complete with the orange and black paint job this very model of shoe had. That finally made it okay, and in a light-hearted way; so, thanks to my love of gee-gaws, I went a little further into debt and now have my first new pair of sneakers this millenium.

I just wore 'em to traipse down to the park with the basketball I bought at a yard sale in Ypsi in the spring. No, they're not "court" shoes, but I made a few baskets anyway. And did a lot of dribbling.

Dribbling is good for the soul.

Comments

Re: P.S. re: kite

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

OK. Sit down, honey. Let me tell you. I _despise_ Jim Carrey. But some Washington Post reviews convinced me to go, and I was glad I did. I wasn;t what I expected-- that extreme, physical humor (not funny to me) that gets annoying the first moment you see him. He was an actor. A damn good one. With good but not overdone facial expressions and this perfect, unshaven, hangdog look. You could totally see this movie.