Walk a Mile in My Shoes...or not!!!

Yesterday I had one of those experiences that can't help but humble you...you know the kind...the incidents that just happen out of the blue and cause your face to flame and your pride to fall below the ground...they're good for us, but boy, are they embarrassing!

Johnathan and I got out of the house for a change, and I decided to make an afternoon of running some errands, finishing up Christmas shopping and maybe even getting in a little shoe shopping for myself. I realized a few days ago that I only had two, no make that three pairs of shoes that weren't sandals/flip flops/dress shoes! The weather here has been pretty chilly, and I've tried going without closed toed shoes for about as long as I can and have come home with frozen feet more than a couple of times. So, as I surveyed my shoe shelf, I figured that it was time to update to some more weather appropriate footwear. I simply added "look for shoes" to my mental list as Monkey and I headed out for our afternoon together.

After making a couple of quick stops to get some gifts and to get Baby J's second dose of the H1N1 vaccine I figured that it was time to look for shoes. The ones I had on were a favorite pair of mine...and I am pretty sure that I've had them for at least 10 or more years, so they had certainly held up well...or at least that's what I thought as I walked around the first shoe shop. I didn't have any luck on my first attempt...I didn't even try on any shoes...I went to Payless and they were totally out of everything besides sandals...and I already have too many of those!

Thankfully our Target is right next to Payless, so Johnathan and I made the short walk next door, glad that for the moment it wasn't raining, although it was a bit misty. I grabbed some popcorn and a juice to keep Monkey happy as I browsed the shoe aisles, but I still couldn't find anything that fit my ideal shoe description. So, not wanting to waste a trip to Target (I really like Target!) I decided to look at the maternity clothes, just for fun. While looking through the baby bump clothes section I kept feeling like I was tripping over something, but when I looked down I couldn't see anything on the floor. Thinking nothing of it I grabbed up a few things to try on and headed back for the dressing rooms. *Trip!* What was I tripping on?! I couldn't figure it out...not until I was in the room changing and saw that the sole on the bottom of my shoe had come completely unglued! No wonder I was tripping! The sole was completely unattached from the tip of my shoe all the way up the back of the shoe where the heel part went down to provide me with a couple inches of height. The sole on the bottom of the heel was still intact, but didn't do me any good since the main portion was just hanging on by a thread...a thread which I could not for the life of me break!

So, back to the shoe aisle I went, but of course I still didn't like what was there. I started to head to the registers at the front of the store, but I couldn't walk normally or the rubber sole would sort of flop off behind my shoe and trip me up. I did manage to sort of limp my way up to the cashier, keeping my right leg stiff and sort of just sliding my foot along the floor. The sole couldn't trip me up that way, but boy, did I sure feel self conscious about my walk.

After managing to limp out of the store I decided to try another shoe place in the same shopping area...still no luck...still having to walk with a limp, this time in the drizzle and through puddles...but all to no avail. Back in the refuge of the car I made the decision to try just one last store. After driving the 5 or so minutes to get there and dragging Johnathan out into the rain again, I finally made it into the store, right foot dragging and my pride completely gone out the window, washed away into the gutters by the rain. I spotted several cute shoes as soon as I entered and knew that I had finally arrived at my last shoe shopping destination. That was confirmed when the OTHER sole on my left shoe decided to come unglued too! So there I was, flopping and limping around until I finally said, forget it, and found the first most comfortable shoes on the shelf and decided to purchase them. My sad little shoes went into the shoe box and I simply wore the new ones out of the store...after purchasing them of course!

What a day, and what laughs I was having "on the inside" as I played my little sole-less shoe drama in my head! It was really quite comical, and thankfully I didn't have much pride to lose so I was able to see the humor in the situation! Isn't life grand?!!!!!!! ;)