for those of you who know me, you know that i am not really into buying stuff and pretty much try to avoid shopping all together. you probably also know that, with the exception of one pair of sandals, one pair of work shoes, one pair of tennis shoes, and a random pair of tall boots, i have faithfully worn one pair of shoes for the last 5 years. what can i say? what would i rather have on my feet while out in this uncertain world than my trusty doc martens? when i first got them, i was in college and had never spent more than $50 on anything. i was a little bit hesitant of their over $100 price tag, but dug down into my consumerist roots and realized that i was not going to live much longer on the pair of nike cross trainers that i had gotten for indoor softball practice back in high school. so i splurged, and ended up with the most excellent and reliable pair of shoes i could have ever hoped for. but 5 years of hiking, moshing, driving, horseback riding, commuting, and general mucking about have taken their toll. first the soles started to split. then the threads came out of the seams. now there are holes in the backs of the boots where i can put two fingers through to pull them onto my feet. but they're still good boots, even if they are being held together only by the laces and some dirt.
so i started thinking about what kind of shoe i might like to try out next. last month i used my birthday money to buy a kick-ass pair of hiking boots for next year's new zealand conquest. but i still needed something i could run around in this summer. inspired by molly's small museum of converse all-stars, i decided to start there. i've never had a pair of my own, and everyone i know who has a pair loves them, so i decided to give chuck taylor a chance.
so molly and i met on state street, just outside of jack's shoes. it was a memorable experience on so many levels. approaching the wall of all-stars (seriously, the selection is almost overwhelming) we were greeted by a sales guy who was so friendly, that when i sent him to the mysterious shoe store back room, i asked molly if she knew him. she didn't. he was just *that* friendly. so we did the shoe selection process, which didn't take all that long because i'm not a good consumer. but in the mean time, the sales guy is telling us a very intricate (but not overly detailed) story about that morning's firing of one of his coworkers. apparently, it was the owner of the store's wife who dropped the axe, and the rest of the staff were so pleased that they were trying to decide whether or not it would be weird to send her flowers. i told him to go for it. i've never had to fire someone, but it must totally suck. and if the coworker was that much of a jackass, she deserves some recognition. but the fun was far from over. with the new chucks getting aquainted with my feet, and the coworker story behind us, the sales guy had one more trick up his sleeve. he wanted to shine my shoes. not the new ones, the old ones. turns out he's slightly OCD, and he wanted to shine my shoes. i don't remember whether or not i told him that it was the dirt that was actually holding them together, but i did tell him how much they'd been through. he seemed impressed, and in less time than it took me to type that sentence, he had retrieved the cleaning goo and a little sponge.
so now i have a new pair of chucks and a very shiny pair of very old doc martens.
the chucks even came with little all-star stencil stickers that i can use to spray paint them with. they'll be the new shoes that keep getting newer.
now playing: girlyman's first album, "remember who i am" which is about to be replaced by rasputina's "frustration plantation."
stay tuned for a new photo album designed exclusively for photos of our softball team, the L team. you will find said pictures when i post them under the "photo albums" list on the left side bar. it will be called "the L-bum." if you are a member of the L team, and i have spelled your name wrong, if you don't want me to post pictures of you, or if you have pictures that you would like to contribute, please let me know. some of the pictures will be pirated from abby's photos page.
