Sperry's

I have been in dire need of new shoes lately. I've always been a flip flop lover and I think that I always will be, however, flip flops aren't really good for your feet. It's also Autumn now and I need some closed toed shoes. The trendy shoe that caught my eyes were actually being worn by a man. I called them boat shoes. They looked like the kind of thing that I would wear, they would probably match most things that I own. Plus they looked stable. I go through shoes so fast I knew I needed something to keep up with me.

On Friday my husband and I went on a search for these boat shoes. We went to the Galleria and I was sure I would find them in Clark's. No such luck. But I did find some in the men's section that looked a lot like what I was thinking I wanted. My husband then had the bright idea that maybe they don't make women's shoes like that. So we headed over to Belk or J.C. Penny's and walk around their shoe department. He was right. No boat shoes for women. But I did find some really fantastic Yellow Boxes and, you guessed it, flip flops. It's like no matter what I do they find me. And I want to buy them all!

We head to the men's department looking for manly shoes and I found them! I found the shoes I was looking for! They had them in so many different colors!! And the smallest size they had in men's were too large for me. Seriously? I asked the women working there where I could find shoes like this. She said there is a kid shoe store that sells boat shoes and the boys sizes should go up to a 6 1/2 in men's. My size. That store was all the way out on 280. No way was I going to travel down there. I haven't been on 280 in months and I don't plan on going back anytime soon. I consider that a part of Birmingham that I just don't need anymore. Plus it was getting late, and we hadn't had any dinner. No more driving.

Husband suggests that we look around at other shoe stores in the mall for the illusive 'boat shoe'. I swear that I have seen these around, even girls wear them. Why on earth was it taking hours to find? We stop by a store called Journey's where all the hip new shoes are and lo and behold. My boat shoes, in women's sizes. And their $80?! What?! Some little 16 year old hipster in clothes that a woman should wear was helping me out and while he was very kind I couldn't help but think of myself as 'older' and more importantly.. my mom. Not that this is a bad thing because I love my mother (I do love you mom). But I have very clear memories of shopping with my mother as a small child and if my mother didn't think something was fair or heaven forbid that someone overcharged her the world ended. I felt just like my mother must have felt, looking at this shoe in this trendy teenage store that was about to take $80 from my monthly spending account. That poor child who was helping me kept asking me how things were going and I would say "I'm just not sure if they are comfortable" thinking to myself 'comfortable enough for $80'. When he came back around to ask again how I was doing I looked at him and said "$80 is a lot to pay for a pair of shoes and I don't like spending money". I might as well have been talking gibberish, he walked off to take care of someone else. My husband sank down a little lower in his chair. I don't remember word for word but I know he made at least one comment about my 'hormones' while we were in that store. Hormones or not 80 bucks? Seriously?

Ok so the point is that I bought the shoes. My right foot is still adjusting (I'm picky it's true) and the money hasn't been deducted from my online account just yet so I still feel semi-rich. I spent almost 3 hours trying to find these illusive shoes, these shoes that I felt were somehow just out of my reach, only to have some teeny bopper sell them to me like $80 is what he spent on his hair do. We ate Mexican food later and that solved most of my angry mother moody syndrome.

I was sitting down at a piano lesson just yesterday when a young student, not even in high school, looked at my shoes and said "nice Sperry's". I wanted to drop my jaw. I went to almost 5 stores looking for these shoes and she knew them by name? What's with kids these days?