When weird turns cute...

I went shoe shopping with a friend the other day with no real intention to buy any shoes. But when does that ever work? Anyways, I've been looking at these shoes for awhile but every time I see them I feel like something's wrong with them. They sort of curl up at the ends when not on a foot and while that alone wouldn't be enough to deter me from making a purchase there was just something odd about the strap placement. My assumption was it would end up under the leg of a pant and essentially render a black leather flat.

I'm not big on the whole trying things on for fun thing since, I mean, how fun is that for the salesperson? But I decided to go ahead and try these. I needed to finally see what was going on with these shoes.

And here's the part where I was totally and utterly wrong. First of all, as you can see, I was way off in guessing where the strap would land. Maybe if I was wearing wide leg trousers it would be covered but I would never wear these shoes with wide leg trousers so we're good. Also, it isn't noticeable really but the shoe has a slight wedge which gives you maybe an inch without really entering heel territory.

I still maintain they're weird shoes but as I was wearing them in the store they started really growing on me. I've never understood grown women being fascinated with Mary Janes but this shoe made me sort of get it. It's like an update on a classic yet they look vintage at the same time.

I'm in love.

Magna flat by Vera Wang Lavendar in black

Something Gross

I'm pretty good with the new shoes thing. I've gotten shoe purchasing down to a science that rarely results in painful feet even on first or second wear. The last time I remember shoes actually hurting my feet I was maybe 19. I wore some really painful flats to class. They tore up the whole backs of my feet. Teen me didn't have a car so I would take the bus. I remember starting to walk home from the bus stop that day and I finally just took off my shoes and walked barefoot even though it was raining.

Oh. Also one time I wore some very cheap shoes from Target as part of a Halloween costume that was meant to make me look a little cheap. They were black patent peep-toes with a wooden stacked heel that was about five inches tall. I was also wearing fishnets and at one point my feet hurt so badly I took the shoes off and walked through downtown not barefoot, but with fishnets. Which is worse. Because when you step in something damp and you don't know what it is you can wipe your foot off. Fishnets just stay wet.

I told you this was going to be gross okay?

Anyways, I have very little tolerance for foot pain so I make sure that shoes aren't going to hurt my feet before I wear them out. I must have been a little rusty though because those beautiful tan sandals from yesterday? They tricked me. I figured they were flat, leather, fit well...no problems. But by mid morning my toes were really hurting. There wasn't much I could do though because I needed to run some work errands. After work I needed to run some personal errands which is when I discovered my toe had fallen off.

Not really but that's what it felt like. I'd had a blister that had popped on it's own and the skin was all coming off. I had no choice but to tear it off and continue wearing the shoes. Which meant I walked around with an awkward limp and I'm sure people were wondering what was wrong with that poor girl.

Last night my foot was hurting enough I was having trouble sleeping but I'm lazy and um, tired in the middle of the night so I decided to ignore it until morning. That's when I discovered this.

WARNING! This is totally gross and involves an open blister (obviously) so if you're going to throw up on your keyboard or something go grab a trashcan before looking. If you're wishing it would be more gross I apologize for the less than fantastic cell phone pictures. If you feel the need to see things in more detail clicking on the pictures will help.

Here you go.



And in more detail.



I have to admit I'm sort of proud of the fact that my nail polish and injury match.