I used to hate shopping for shoes, mostly because it was so hard to find any I liked. I could go through an entire mall in the States and not see a single shoe I felt like bothering to try on. When we were trying to spend our State Department clothing cash allowance in Virginia I bought several pairs of shoes just to fill the shoe requirement, even though they were ugly and now spend their days gathering dust.
Now that I’ve escaped what was apparently Shoe Hell, I’m surrounded by cool shoes. I can’t go through a single store without gathering up three or four pairs to try on. I’d NEVER seen an entire SHELF of cool shoes until I got here. I didn’t know what to do.
Try one pair on? Two? Only certain colors? All of them? Should I take a peek at my checking account balance first?
The last shoes I bought were for our Cinco de Mayo party and even the cashier lady in the store laughed at me because I came up to the register with two pairs of shoes: “You couldn’t decide which pair to get so you’re buying both, aren’t you?“
Sigh…she must have been watching me…
I am a female Marine currently in the Individual Ready Reserve. I like to sleep, travel, read, eat, explore, and take photographs. I read lots of news and I like reading about life in other countries. I am easily amused and my dream job is to be snoozing in a warm patch of sunlight, hopefully with a piece of tasty cheese nearby for when I wake up hungry.
I felt that way when I lived in Rome (and coincidentally dated an MSG at the Embassy) about JEWELRY. Here in the States it is all pretty much derivative, overpriced dreck (now bling); every mall has the same stuff and I can ignore it all. There, it was all interesting, beautiful, unique, cool, sometimes even affordable. Even handmade, in an artisinal not a cheesy, homemade way, and certainly not a mass-produced way. Consequently, like you with the shoes, I stocked up :-)
Yeah I was never a jewelry person either. I haven’t bought jewelry in years, but when I was in Turkey I was surrounded by the kind of pieces you said you saw in Rome. I couldn’t resist buying a necklace…I haven’t worn it yet but I pick it up once in awhile and smile at it.
I laughed at the “sometimes affordable” part. That’s the bad thing about shoes here, most of them are not only awesome, but always affordable! Makes it that much harder to not clean out whole shelves…
You did the right thing, absolutely!
As I always say: “If in doubt, buy the whole store out”
xxxxxxxxxxxxx