mlroseplant

A Job Faire? Can you apprentice to be a cobbler? Or maybe a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker? Or perhaps it was a French Affaire.

I sometimes wonder what kind of dad I'd be to a daughter. Since I don't have one, I guess I'll never know. I suppose it would mainly depend upon the wife. My older son's mother was a bit of a helicopter parent, and certainly wouldn't allow him to do anything even marginally risky until he was nearly in high school. My younger son's mother (my wife) is pretty much the opposite. My younger son made it through infancy playing with scissors, plastic bags, and 5 gallon buckets that had a little bit of water in the bottom of them. He was mowing the lawn by the time he was 5. So if I had a daughter, I suppose I would probably let her wear heels at age 12. Then again, I suppose it depends on the kid. One of my younger son's friends is basically a walking disaster. She'd probably break her ankle within a week if she got anywhere near heels. Cute story, and good answer! I have not worn heels to a parent-teacher conference for a couple years. The main reason is because I know my wife likes it better. She's willing to put up with some slightly girly shorts with some slightly girly flat sandals, though. When we go to a school concert or other after-hours event, I'll always wear heels. No one has ever questioned or commented.

I've found this to be true, with some notable exceptions, in the last few years. What was kind of a big deal 10 years ago is now just a little unusual. I wear my heels pretty much everywhere nowadays, and most of the time I am the only one wearing heels, so in that sense, I do stick out. Oddly enough, the one place I go regularly where it is guaranteed that I won't be the only one in heels is church. But that's only on Sunday morning. On Wednesday nights, I'll still be the only one in heels. I've spent my time walking in the darkness, and part of it was being self-conscious, but part of it was I needed to learn how to walk in heels, and I didn't want anybody to see me struggling. Using the same logic, when I was learning how to play the pipe organ, I used to come to the church late at night to guarantee that I wouldn't have an unwanted audience.

I have no idea how I happened to find Galina Kuteryeva (several different transliterations are out there) on Youtube, perhaps it was because of high heels. In addition to wearing summer clothes all winter, she always seems to wear high heeled sandals with nearly everything, at least in her internet persona, if indeed that's what it is. I find this rather encouraging because she is closing in on 60 as well, and pulls off the short shorts and short dresses quite easily and naturally, giving me some hope that I don't look completely absurd as long as I keep myself in reasonably good shape.

After experimenting around and consulting old photos of me playing in college (in flats, of course), I realize it is the chair I was sitting in. We just rearranged the basement to allow both of us to sit side by side, which makes instruction quite a bit easier, but the second chair is a cheap metal folding chair, and it is not really suitable for a large tuba. I realize I am holding my legs like that to keep the instrument from sliding off the chair. In addition to procuring some more music stands, I guess I need to get some better chairs. I'm planning on jamming four people down there for our putative brass quartet. I know a horn player, and he ain't exactly a little guy!

I have been lazy this summer. I have always said that wearing very high heels successfully is like doing ballet or playing an instrument. If you don't practice, and practice efficiently and effectively every day, you lose something. I re-discovered this yesterday. It's not that I haven't worn heels this summer, but I've not walked very far in them, and typically my heel choices have been low-ish (for me) wedges. So when it came time to break out the truly high heels again, I should have thought my shoe choice out a little better. I was drafted to fill in for some instrumentalists in a couple of different church bands who were out for various reasons, and I wound up playing three services, which meant I was on my feet, standing mostly in one spot, for five hours. There have been times in my life when I wouldn't have thought twice about wearing my Nine West Plantera loafer pumps anywhere for all day. However, I'm not in high heel shape like I was. It wasn't really painful, but I was ready to get out of them by the time I got back home. My feet were really tired.

The time is drawing near when we must put away our shorts, as least in this hemisphere. Unless you're THIS woman, of course. It'd be kind of handy to be able to wear summer clothes in the winter. https://youtu.be/fRQUYCqZHf0

More instrumental action at our house this week. To complement our vintage Conn tuba, we got a vintage Conn euphonium (pictured below) which I am really excited about. The horn worked and sounded sweet right out of the box, and we are both having fun learning how to play the thing. After two days of practice, we decided we were good enough to record a video, which we did in two takes. This screenshot is from the first take, and was rejected for three reasons: 1) I didn't realize the videographer was shooting vertically, which drives me nuts unless there's a very specific reason to do so, 2) The videographer didn't realize that by shooting vertically, it showed my heels while playing, which drives her nuts and forces her to make up lies to answer awkward questions, and 3) we screwed up pretty badly the first time anyway. However, it did provide a nice screen shot suitable for posting here. Shoes are Steve Madden Crunk. I have no idea how or why they came up with that name, but they unfortunately did. One of my very favorite sandals in the "Candies" style. Denim shorts are Celebrity Pink, and are one of the few pants/shorts I own that are not modified in any way. These are my "long" shorts, and I like to wear them to practice various instruments for comfort reasons, where my legs might stick to a chair or bench wearing shorter shorts. I think these have about a 7" inseam, which puts them about 3" above the top of my kneecap when standing. I don't feel like that's the best look for my short-ass legs, but it's practical for certain things. Even when worn with slightly feminine flat sandals, I don't get a second look ever when wearing these. I need to figure out a different way to place my feet when playing tuba in heels. This screenshot looks very weird to me, but maybe this picture will serve as a "Conn-duet" for promoting fashion equality. Terrible pun, but I'm not going to apologize for it.

I don't know about us being great parents, but we do have a very unusual kid. He does get some screen time in to be sure, but he spends a substantial amount of time doing things here in the real world, and most of that is working out in the garage getting dirty--and driving his mama crazy. He's good at that part. The tuba weighs 28 pounds, or nearly 13 kg. It's unusual in the fact that it's a vintage instrument, made in 1966. It is, as far as I know, one of the largest regular production tubas ever made. The forward facing bell seems to be an American thing of that period. I have never seen a British or Continental instrument made that way. Of course, my son found this thing on ebay and brought it to my attention. He never lusted after a shiny new Yamaha or Besson or Mirafone, he wanted this giant old beat-up Conn. Don't get me wrong, it is a great sounding horn, but it looks almost comical by today's standards. In other words, it's perfect for our family. I can tell by his demeanor and his attitude that my son doesn't see anything "wrong" with guys wearing heels, but he is acutely aware that he may will get some static from his classmates should he ever meet them unexpectedly while wearing heels. I haven't heard him say anything about his classmates' reaction to my wearing heels for a couple of years. I guess that's good?

Last night, there were no high heels. It was no big deal, he just didn't put any on when he came home from school, didn't say anything about it, didn't ask about it. It's not like he didn't have any exposure. As you can see, the tuba has been banished to the basement because it drives Mama crazy, and that's where my shoe collection is. Perhaps he was distracted by his new etude book I just bought him, which luckily he likes a lot better than his school band book. I told Mama to just ignore it and it would pass. You think she ever listens to me? He's never really asked me about it before, or if he has it's been years and I just don't remember. I suppose if that's all you've ever known, you don't really think about it. I can tell you what Mama answered if he ever broached the subject with her. "Because your Daddy is CRAZY!" Or whatever the equivalent of that is in Vietnamese.

He's my son. The mom in question is my wife. My wife, as I have previously mentioned, is tolerant, but not by any stretch of the imagination enthusiastic about my choice of footwear.

I've got this boy, 10 years old, in the 5th grade, who has never shown any interest whatsoever in shoes of any kind. He'll wear out a pair of shoes until they're barely holding together, then complain when we want to buy him new ones. Suddenly, two nights ago, he figured out that his feet are really only a size smaller than mine, and that he can wear my shoes without too much trouble. So he's been walking up and down the driveway, back and forth, back and forth, practicing walking in heels of various sorts. His mom is kind of freaking out. I told her to keep calm, just let it ride, he'll probably lose interest in a week or two. I truly believe that this is likely to be the case. However, he did say he had plans to wear my Dansko clogs all winter. Who knows? Incidentally, @HappyinHeels has actually met this kid. Twice. So I'm curious to hear his take on this especially.

Ummmm, I think it was, actually. I can't recall ever going out on a service call in heels before. I would agree wholeheartedly, except for one thing: We've known them (the nail shop girls) for about 10 years, and in that 10 years, they've never allowed us to pay for any of their services. Fantastic, huh? There's only one problem with that. Paying customers always come first, even if they're right in the middle of your pedicure, or whatever. Back in the day, 2010 - 2012, the economy wasn't so great, and there was always time for us. Today, the shop is always so busy that it's difficult to squeeze us in. And yet, they refuse to let us pay like regular customers. It's a bit like traveling non-rev on an airline, eh @pebblesf? Finally, you just throw up your hands and just laugh. That's just the way it is.

I'm sure it's not only in your mind. As someone who does wear sandals and open shoes all the time in the summer, I seem to get a lot more attention than when I'm wearing long pants and boots in the winter. I would wear sandals all winter if I could get away with it.

Moving right along here. . . I was called to the nail salon two nights ago to solve a technical difficulty. It has been a very long time since I have been called there to fix something, but of course I dropped everything and went straight there, having NO idea what the hell they wanted, as they aren't really good at explaining things in English over the phone. It turns out that they are finishing up a remodel of the shop, which the franchise forces them to do every so often, and the last step is freshening up the pedicure/spa chairs. When I got to the salon, which is located within a Walmart, there were big cardboard boxes piled in front of the entrance, and a salon full of customers. The owner asked me to wait just a few minutes. I sat down at one of the manicure tables which was unoccupied, on the manicurist's side, not the customer's side, opposite three ladies who were all getting pedicures. After a few minutes, the owner got up briefly from her manicure table, where she was working on another customer, and went to fetch her phone, pulled up a video, and asked me to watch it. The video was in Vietnamese with English subtitles. It was at that moment two things happened: I finally figured out what they needed help with, and the lady across from me figured out that I wasn't a customer. I guess I can understand the confusion when I waltzed in there in my shorts and high Michael Kors wedges (non-mules, by the way). I didn't really look like I was there to fix something, but I figured that whatever it was, I would have to go back home and get something anyway, so I could change clothes if necessary. Once it was clear to all that I was there to fix something and not there to get a pedicure, the lady across from me said, "Oh, I'd trade you legs in a heartbeat!" I laughed sheepishly, and said I would be right back with the necessary tools to do the job at hand. When I returned, the errant pedicure chair had been emptied of its occupant, and I proceeded to disassemble the chair and not fix it. The part they sent was not the source of the problem, which was rather disappointing. However, I did get a compliment out of the deal.