mlroseplant

I used Dr. Martens "Clemency" boots as construction work boots for a couple of years. They were all right, but both pairs I had failed catastrophically during cold weather, splitting their soles clean in half. I was never tempted to buy them again because of this, and also the fact that I really don't like that "squishy" feeling when I walk. Some people love it, but not me. I had them in both black and a sort of burgandy color.

No offense to anybody here, all these piano videos are visually pleasant, but not really noteworthy. Like Joe says, and I'm paraphrasing here, anybody can play piano in high heels. It's not a big deal. Playing organ in high heels is MUCH more impressive.

Man, I'd have to do a LOT of shaving to wear that skirt.

I remember those days. Having different pairs of pants for different heel heights. I've probably got 10 pairs of boot cut jeans that I basically don't wear anymore. I went to a slimmer leg style a couple of years ago, and one thing that is liberating about that is that you only need one hem length whether you are barefoot or in ballet heels! Comfort is a strange concept. There are many layers to it, both mentally and physically. My feet can feel tired from wearing my shoes (I won't tolerate shoes that actually hurt), but it's a happy, comfortable feeling. Very difficult to express in words. I like about a 4" difference between heel and toe, 4 1/2" is the maximum I like to deal with in real life. If it's less than 3", I don't even bother. Sometimes, it would be more convenient if I didn't crave the height.

I will generally agree, but it hasn't always been! When I first joined, I felt a certain amount of suspicion and hostility. Considering who has come and gone over the years, and who has gotten banned, I know that this is not my imagination. I think we're in a reasonable comfortable place nowadays. Yup, I'm weird, but I'm the most normal weird guy you'll ever meet!

I am not being as productive as I should be. As far as income, I just found out yesterday that I will be paid for the next three weeks at least, so that's good. I don't see us getting back to work before May at the earliest.

So let me ask this question: Is it the butterflies that actually motivate you? If you dialed it back a couple notches, would you even bother? The reason I ask is because I don't see either of your pictured outfits as being particularly radical, except for the shoes. I wear stuff like that every day, but with. . . you know. . . more normal high heels.

Nope. I rarely get any discernible reaction anymore wearing such a tame outfit these days. I guess the only way I could make it any tamer would be to wear wedges! As far as the actual photographs go, I don't like taking any of them. Perhaps it shows. Now that I look at the last one, it's goofy as hell. I am trying to show off the heels, but it's awkward. I don't actually stand like that in real life. I live in a small community. I think after all these years, people just know me, even if they don't "know" me.

No, I don't play in stilettos. I tried that once, and it made my bad playing even worse! My keyboard skills are not that great, but I started on the organ at the age of 50 because there was a need for it. I also started off playing barefoot, but I bought some organ shoes after a couple of months of practice, and it was like I gained six months' worth of skill pretty much instantly. The thin felt bottoms allow you to "feel" where you're at (well, if you're any good, haha), but allow you to play the interval of a third in a legato style. The hollow spot just forward of the heel is barely big enough to clear a white key. My organ shoes are TicTacToe brand, as I did not care for the styles that Organmaster offers. I wound up buying the female oxford, which not only fits my narrow foot better, but I actually don't mind the look that much. I managed to find a video, and took a screen shot, which just happened to show the shoes I came in on sitting on the floor beneath the organ bench. I know this wasn't done on purpose, because obviously, I did not shoot my own video. I think my wife actually shot this video, which explains why it starts 2 seconds too late and ends before I am actually done. I have to play exactly once a year (by that I mean I have to cover an entire service) because our organist is so reliable that she never misses. Ever. Except that she goes to visit her mother in Korea once a year, and is gone for one Sunday. So I pretty much have a whole year to prepare. It about takes me that long! Only I don't have to play this year because COVID-19 put the kibosh not only on her travel plans, but also on church services in general.

The more time I spend at home, the more difficult it is to come up with anything to report. I did have to go to the supermarket yesterday, and though it was a blustery, gray day, by golly I was going to wear some sandals outside. I obviously did not dress up at all, sticking to the most basic formula of t-shirt and jeans, but I wore my new pair of BCBGirls "Bonny" sandals, which I bought to eventually replace my old pair, which has been pretty much beat to death. Now it's all coming back to me, how LONG it took to break in the original pair. This is one of those situations where I kept a pair of shoes which was not all that comfortable just because they were super cute and I couldn't bear to part with them. Eventually, somehow, they became not only wearable, but suitable for all day walking, as I proved a couple of summers ago during my trip to Chicago. Now we're back to Square One, and I had better get these slowly broken in before the old pair fails completely, as I'm sure it will one of these days. While the leather on the new pair is still incredibly stiff, I didn't get any blisters or weird marks on my feet even though I had to park far away from the entrance to the supermarket. Also, I finally repositioned the mirror in my dining room as I had been promising my wife to do for about a year. Good news: It IS better for actual use in real life. Bad news: It is now much harder to take selfies with. I'm going to need to come up with something different. The quality of my selfies has gotten even worse than before. I didn't think that was possible!

I opened up You Tube the other day, and somewhere at the top of my feed was this video. Given the sorts of videos that I usually watch, I didn't really think anything of it. Bach's Concerto for four harpsichords, which, if memory serves, is a transcription of a Vivaldi piece or something like that. This arrangement was for pipe organ. So it's an arrangement of an arrangement. Hmmm, mildly interesting, I thought. I clicked on it. The video started to play. I was listening to it, not really paying close attention to the screen, and was enjoying the recording, when I thought I noticed something out the corner of my eye. Wait just a minute. . . Did I just see what I think I just saw? I backed up the video. No way! I did just see what I thought I saw. Check it out:

Yeah, the streets are pretty empty here too, especially first thing in the morning. I know I'm not among the commuters anymore! But I'm long past butterflies.

It's interesting that I sort of vaguely know who some of these girls are. I'm not a huge Instagram user, but I guess due to my viewing habits, there is a certain "genre" of pictures that appear when I do a general search, and I can remember this Brazil on Heels gal. Of course, I never message anyone, nor would I want to, but you have fun with that! I will be content to either enjoy or grimace at what people are willing to share publicly.

Heh, heh, we've had this discussion before on JeffB's page. It may be that the angle of the photograph does have something to do with it, but by the time you get up to size 13, numerical heel heights can be deceptive. A 3 1/2" heel in my friend's size of 5 1/2 U.S. women's is a decent amount of steepness, not crazy, but definitely a "high" heel. The same 3 1/2" heel height in Jeff's size is practically a kitten heel! I think that's another part of what may be going on with this photo.

That's really all I have as well, so let us know if you find something that you really like. I did experiment some while the wife was away n VN, but the reaction was so negative when she got back that I haven't worn hardly any of it since, and now it's getting to where I won't have to worry about it until next winter anyway. I too, like to live. . . DANGEROUSLY. Remember the line from Austin Powers? Seriously though, since I order most of my stuff online, I am used to the gamble. I guess it's part of the fun. I have been sorely disappointed sometimes, but really thrilled sometimes as well. I have not kept accurate statistics, like @JeffB would do, but my rough estimate is that 75% of the stuff I buy online works well. Another 10% works OK or is marginal in some way, and the rest either has to be trashed, donated, or resold, depending upon the price range. It's not that I'm afraid to go into a retail store to try stuff on, it's just that I don't really want to. I guess you can say that other than church and work, "Shelter-in-place" is not really a huge lifestyle change for me!