The End of NoBloShoeMo

From 22 pairs of shoes to 12. Not bad.

November Wrap Up

Augh. This jet lag thing is killing me. I meant to finish off NoBloShoeMo tonight, but I'm falling asleep as I type, so I promise I'll finish tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I'll introduce my December challenge! I'm very excited about this one, and I swear it won't involve a billion pictures of my shoes!

Do My Feet Look Old In This Picture?

I think they do. As old as feet can look. I am having one of those days when I am freaking out about how I look old.

Anyway, these shoes were bought for a friend's wedding I was in. They are my newest shoes. So I think they can stay, even though I don't know that they fill a specific need in my closet. I dunno. I guess I need to be more ruthless about getting rid of my shoes?

Survivor of the Boots

I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'll still be posting, but I won't be able to post any shoes. So tonight, you get three pairs of boots! And one pair's gotsta go. Which one will it be?

First up:



My Naturalizer Ankle Boots. If I were Ryan Seacrest, I would be saying, "Naturalizers, you are SAFE." They are comfy, still in good condition, and fill a need in my closet.

Next up:



My brown Aerosole Boots. I do not love these boots. They are not super comfy (though they are not un-comfy either.) And I don't adore the color. There's something cowgirly about these boots? And I am not a cowgirl. But, they are brown tall boots, and can be worn with cute skirts. And they are in extremely good condition and aren't even a year old.

Lastly:



These are my Steve Maddens. I love these. And as you can tell, they have been well loved for they are getting pretty worn. My head says these need to go, but my heart says, just one more winter! Just one more winter!!

So, which one goes? Keep in mind, no boots will be getting replaced. While I've decided that I am allowed to buy used shoes, boots are a little too much of a luxury. And I'm a little lean on the pocketbook right now.

I Am Running Out Of Ways To Title Posts About Shoes

These are the shoes I wear to work almost every day. I bought these in June to replace the old pair of shoes I used to wear to work almost every day. That pair looked just LIKE this pair. Because I am old and crusty and set in my ways.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Obviously, this pair is a prime candidate to go, because, um, I got them seven years ago at Payless and they look like crap. Oh also, they're not really that comfortable. It's weirdly like they're so worn down, they got too big for my feet.

But then I think to myself, well, what if I decide that my new style is to look like a cross between a hipster and a hobo? What then? Won't I be sad that I got rid of these shoes? WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET RID OF MY SHOES! AUGH!

But, in all seriousness, I need to get rid of these, yes?

And now ... Shoes

Apparently a lot of my shoes have pink in them. Hmmm.

So far, I'm keeping four pairs of shoes and getting rid of one. Tomorrow I'll pick another pair I'm getting rid of.

Freerice.com

The former SAT teacher, and the forever word geek in me is super excited about this website I found today called Free Rice.

Basically, it's a free vocabulary building site, and for every vocabulary word you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UN. I checked out the site a little, and it seems completely legit. The rice is donated by the advertisers (all reputable) on the website.

The awesome thing about the site is that they have a wide range of vocab words, so the site was equally challenging for me and my eleven year old cousin. It basically starts you off with a fairly simple vocab word, and then starts increasing the difficulty of the vocab as you answer questions correctly. If you get a vocab question wrong, the difficulty level goes back down. I got totally engrossed in the game, and my cousin joked that I was now going to be glued to the computer all night. Luckily I managed to drag myself away eventually.

And now your shoes for the day. I love these- I call them my "Claudia Kishi Shoes."

The First Pair to Go

I hate these shoes. I bought them on a crazy shopping expedition at Shoe Pavilion a few years ago. I bought five pairs of shoes, and somehow, in the mayhem ended up buying these as well.

Since then, I have probably worn these shoes 10 times? That's actually probably pushing it.

Why do I hate them? Mostly because they are too close to the color of my feet. So they make me look like I'm walking around barefoot except that I don't have any toes. I just don't want people to pity me for being toeless.

Cuz, I have toes.

Needless to say, these are getting purged.

Sometimes the Simplest Things Escape Me

So today I took my car to the dealer for its 30,000 mile service. Because it's kind of a long service, and because I had a coupon from the dealer for a free rental car, I ended up getting a rental for the day. I do not like rental cars. They freak me out, and I try to drive them as little as possible. But in this case, it seemed like the easiest answer. It was free, I wouldn't have to miss work to wait for my car, and I wouldn't have to ask someone to go out of their way to pick me up or drop me off at the dealer.

As I was driving my rental car to work, I realized that I had left my garage remote in my car. Okay, no problem, I thought to myself. My car should be done by lunch. I'll just drop off the rental and pick up my car then, and it won't be an issue.

Except that OF COURSE a whole confluence of events at work led to me not getting to leave at lunch, and by the time I left work for the day, the dealer was long closed. But still, no big deal I figured. I'd just park on the street tonight, and pick up my car first thing in the morning.

So, I found parking. I walked to my building, and then I stopped suddenly and realized that not ONLY did I leave my garage remote in my own car which is at the dealer, I also gave the dealer my ENTIRE set of keys. Which includes, you guessed it, the keys to my apartment.

I cannot believe this did not occur to me ALL DAY LONG.

Luckily, my very nice manager let me in. Which means that instead of spending the night in my rental car, I am at home sending you pictures of my shoes.

These are my pink and green sneakers. I love them.

NoBloShoeMo

So, November 1st not only marks the first day of NaBloPoMo, it also marks the beginning of yes, NoBloShoeMo.

And in honor of NoBloShoeMo, I'm getting rid of my shoes.

Ok, yes, I understand, that the point of NoBloShoeMo is to SHOW OFF your shoes, so yeah, I'm subverting NoBloShoeMo for my own purposes. Oh well!

But I realized that I have TWENTY-TWO pairs of shoes. TWENTY-TWO. How this happened, I'm not sure. I'm not even a shoe person. Ok, I do know how this happened. And it's because I have this terrible disease regarding shoes wherein I can't get rid of them. I mean, it's a serious problem. In fact once, several years ago, the situation became so dire that one of my friends got drunk and hid my shoes because she thought they were gross and she wanted me to never wear them again. But then I found them and continued to wear them for another year or so.

But this time, I'm going to get rid of shoes on my own, without any help from my drunk friend. I want to at least cut the number of shoes I own in half. Throughout the month, I'll show you the shoes I'm keeping, and the shoes I'm getting rid of. And then you can tell me if I'm crazy for keeping the shoes I'm keeping, or crazy for getting rid of the shoes I'm getting rid of.

First off, my black heels. Actually stolen from my best friend for ScienceMama's wedding. And then I never gave them back, because I love them. I don't wear them often because they have heels and I don't walk very well period, so heels are kind of questionable. But they are a pair of black heels suitable for weddings. So this pair is a keeper.