mlroseplant

At the opposite end of the spectrum, 8 cm stilettos, which used to be the gold standard when I was a kid, now look weirdly stumpy to me. I think if I could go back in time I would probably be rather disappointed by the shoes I remember so fondly. This probably has nothing to do with the shoes themselves, but rather my constant exposure to 11-12 cm shoes that makes 8 cm shoes look funny to me. I suppose this effect happens in other ways also. As an electrician, if I run large conduit for a few days or a few weeks, e.g., 3 inch, "normal" size conduit like 3/4 or 1 inch looks absolutely tiny and ridiculous.

I will admit to having a couple of pairs of extreme-type shoes, which I bought because I wanted to see if I could actually walk in them. The answer is no, and the problem is two-fold: 1) They are made so cheaply that they're not even nice to put on, much less walk in, and 2) I do not enjoy the experience like I thought I would. Even though no one has ever seen me in these shoes, I walk so badly and awkwardly that I feel silly. If I make myself practice, I do get a little bit better after a short time of warmup, but on the whole I do not like wearing them. And yet still I aspire to wear them. I cannot explain this paradox. I will say one thing for practicing in 13+ cm heels. After wearing them for 15 minutes, your 11-12 cm heels feel like butter! I wish I had some evidence to actually prove it, but I feel like I walk so much better in normal height high heels after spending a quarter of an hour in extreme heels.

I've got about half a dozen pairs that I wear regularly for each season, so there's about a dozen, or roughly 10%. Of these, there are some that I don't really wear out in public because they're a little beat up looking. It's not that I never wear the others, but the occasions are relatively rare. For example, I have a bunch of Steve Madden pumps that have gotten a lot of picture time here, but very little wear time in the real world. Speaking of wear time, I have been very lazy this month about keeping up on my walking. It's been an incredible year so far up until this month. Hopefully I'll get my act together again next month.

I have thought about this for a couple of days, and I still don't know what I would wear for a race. Actually, I absolutely know what I would wear, but they don't meet the 10 cm required steepness. I don't feel like any of my boots which do meet the requirement have sturdy enough construction for a race. I suppose I would wear one of the pairs shown below. Even though they are mules, they fit quite snugly and are sturdy. In fact, the black pair has over 275 miles on it (them?), and counting!

I think my feet look ok, but I consider my hands to be unattractive. There is no way I would want to draw attention to them. I keep four right hand nails on the longer side (when I can) for the purpose of playing fingerstyle guitar.

Also, there are few enough people who can walk well in 12 cm, much less 15. I have never seen anybody in real life walk well in 12 cm. There are a few on the internet who do a amazing job.

As far as I can tell, even the second and third tier manufacturers keep their heel heights at least somewhat proportional to the shoe size. I should have made it more clear--my personal collection of pumps, which are mostly Steve Madden, all measure between 11 and 12 cm. But this is on size 9, so I can't really say I've reached 12 cm in steepness on whatever they use as the standard measurement. I think it's size 7/38. This is a problem I've run into fairly consistently. Nobody much makes anything 13-14 cm (single sole). It's either 12 cm or below, or 15 cm or above, nothing in between. It's like there's a fetish line, and evidently that line is right at 12 cm. It's even hard to get a full 12 cm outside of the designer brands. I guess some designer brands, such and Christian Louboutin and Brian Atwood do make a number of specialty 13 cm, but nothing for us plebs.

I also really like the aesthetics of 12 cm, but there are certain shoes I like that are higher than that, particularly some of the 14 cm from Maison Ernest, which I can't afford. Or these days I should say I WON'T afford. I can do 10 cm all day, 11 cm for a good chunk of time, still workin' on 12 cm. Keep in mind that this measurement is on size 9 USW/ 40 EU, so my 12 cm is maybe the equivalent of 11.5 cm on size 7/38. Attached is a picture of my favorite 14 cm Maison Ernest mules which I will never own because of their ridiculous price, and I doubt I could ever walk in them anyhow. Look at that ankle flexibility!

I still don't understand how a person can just "step into" pumps and then walk normally. Getting my pumps on is kind of a production. I certainly would not pick them for a high heel race. Believe it or don't, I have certain mules that would be suitable for a high heel race. They are the kind that come a ways up your foot, not the flappy kind. The flappy kind would not be suitable for a race.

I personally find pumps to be much more difficult than sandals. It's probably due to the shape of my feet, and I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that as much time and effort as I have spent measuring and analysing my shoes, I really have no idea how my feet stack up against an average woman's foot, even there is even such a thing. I know I'm a size 9 U.S. women's, and that I'm halfway between a B and a C width, so most women's shoes work just fine for me. What seems to be the case for me is that my heels must be kind of narrow left to right because a lot of the time I walk right out of pumps without even trying. I have found that Steve Madden pumps tend to work for me, but I have to wear them pretty tight, and some might say uncomfortably tight. Sandals do not have this problem, as they are held on by straps which are usually adjustable. Or there is no back at all (my preference), and you don't care how the heel fits because it doesn't exist. You and my both my sons have something in common. None of y'all ever wear anything but boots. Of course, theirs do not have anything higher than a normal work boot heel. Although I my older son (26) has got a pair of loggers that have pretty decent heels on them. 2 inch, probably.

My Church Outfit of the Week. I wanted to wear my red Via Spiga patent leather sandals, which I do not wear very often. I suppose at some point I need to either get over my reluctance to wear dressier shoes with everyday clothing, or I need to cull my shoe collection down to something more reasonable. It has remained at about 100 for several years, but the problem is, even if I wore a different pair of shoes every week, it would take me two years to run through everything once. I'm lucky that I have something to dress up for, because I really can't see wearing these shoes with shorts. The woman who sent me a picture of her feet two weeks ago was wearing flat sandals for church, disappointingly. She laughed about it and promised to do better in the future. I am trying not to overthink this, because it seems perfectly reasonable and normal to me, but it suddenly occurred to me two weeks after the fact, that most people would think it very strange that a woman who is certainly nothing more than an acquaintance would send me a picture of her feet. I did get a compliment during after church grocery shopping. A thirty-ish woman told me that she "loved my monochromatic look." Didn't say anything about the shoes specifically, though.

As it turns out, my son's motorbike started acting up the afternoon before we were to leave, and I pulled the plug on our plans. We took the car. Therefore, though I never wore my work boots, neither did I wear high heels. I wore these for the entire week, even in West Virginia. I got a few intense stares, but nothing bad happened.

Interesting that this conversation should come up once again, but in a slightly different way. Just yesterday I was setting up our tent at the farmer's market, and our neighbor vendor, a thin, fit-looking middle aged woman who sells fresh baked bread, said to me, "I just don't understand how you can do manual labor in heels. I could never do that!" By "manual labor," she meant setting up the tent and tables, &c. I told her that I'd been working at it for over 12 years, and maybe that had something to do with it. Full disclosure: What I was actually wearing was wedge sandals with a slight heel, effectively a 2 1/4". I wouldn't call them flats, but almost. As it turns out, this woman evidently used to wear heels all the time "for dress up occasions." Like all of us have heard a hundred times before. It doesn't explain everything, but it accounts for a good deal of it. Occasional wear is never going to get you the comfort and endurance you want, in the same way that picking up the guitar once a month is never going to make you a decent guitarist. In addition to this, you're tempted to buy a cheap instrument, which doesn't usually help your playing either. I never quite know how to respond to these kinds of things, because I am quite sure that I like to talk about all things high heel considerably more than most people. Since I don't want to seem like a crushing bore, I usually cut the conversation off short. In this case, I did not have to do so because at that very moment, the wind picked up suddenly, and I had to physically grab on to my tent to keep it from skating across the parking lot and blowing into the next county. This despite having double the usual amount of weight on each leg. Naturally, the conversation immediately shifted to whether this little squall was going to pass quickly, or should we just go home.

Hello from Kentucky! I finally got the chance to meet TBG in person after at least 7 years of online/phone communication. We played a lot of music together. My son proved that he can largely keep up with us, even at only 16 years old. Sorry to be a little cryptic, but I want to protect the man’s privacy. Those who know, know. I know many wonder what happened to him.

In just 24 hours, my son and I will embark on a motorbike tour, kind of like we did last year, but more ambitious this time. We will be staying in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Indiana for our overnights. I have reluctantly decided to wear work boots on this trip, and I might bring along one pair of heels, I might not. Part of this decision is a practical one--it's simply easier to do everything in work boots rather than heels. The other part is social. I asked the guy in West Virginia about wearing heels in his neck of the woods, and while he didn't have a violent negative reaction to the idea, I decided right then and there that I was going to wear my work boots and not high heels. I mean, what would really be the point? It's not like I'm going to be doing a whole lot of walking on this trip. Anyway, I probably will not post anything until I get back at the end of next week. There will be nothing to post if I'm not wearing heels, innit?

Welcome back! I was idly wondering what happened to you. Sorry to hear about your injuries. I hope you have managed to recover. Although I haven't given up my HHP habit, I have spent less time on here in favor of pounding the pavement most mornings before work.

Update: My achilles tendon seems to be just fine for the first time in a decade. My big toe joint is much less painful than before, and even my hands feel pretty good lately. Of course, that may be because it's summer, and it's been a hot one. We'll see if this lasts another six months.

My friends and I call it Home Despot. However, I can't say that I've had any bad experiences at Home Despot. I'd rather go to my locally owned lumber yard or hardware store, if I can. They don't mind my heels, either.

I'm pretty sure I could hang, even on cobblestones, but I wouldn't really want to be around that many people by choice.

Wow, over a year has gone by already! The black True Religion mules have 270 miles on them now, making them my most durable shoes ever. I actually had to have new soles put on them. The brown ones are an adequate substitute for the black comfort-wise, but for whatever reason I don't wear them much. I've barely worn the orange ones at all. They just rarely seem to be at the top of my "what to wear" mood. It will be interesting to see what eventually makes the black pair fail. Number one reason for my high mileage shoes failing is a broken shank. These mules do not appear to have a shank, as I would guess the wood composite material they are made of is rigid enough to not need reinforcing. If I can keep from losing a sole or a heel without noticing it, I predict these sandals will wear out on the inside first. They are starting to show signs of that now. Even though it's embossed into the leather, you cannot read the brand name of the shoe on the footbed, or tell that it was ever there in the first place.

HA! I got a private message on social media after church today saying, "I didn't see you after church to beg for your approval on my improved shoe choice." Accompanying this was a photo of her feet in red sandals with wedge heels. Pretty cute overall! I feel a little bit funny about sharing it here, so I'll just share what I wore. I was kind of ambitious this week, with Michael Kors almost vintage sandals (circa 2012) with 5 1/2" heels, 1" platform.

The stories I seem to remember predate the skorts. And they involved Steve. How is Steve these days? Haven't heard from him in an age! Here is what I wore to church today. Ankle breakers, is what my friend called them.

I have tried to read Leviticus several times, and I just can't get through it. Somehow or other I always gloss through all that stuff and wind up at Joshua.

In neither case of forced shoe removal was it a broken heel. I suppose my hypothetical sign should have said, "MY SHOE BROKE." I've only had two heels actually break in 13 years, and neither of them were stilettos. I've had stilettos come loose before, but that's easily fixed. Usually what happens is that the shank breaks, allowing the heel to go all wonky. But these you can sort of deal with without removing your shoes. You might look a little funny, but you can deal with it. The reason I chose to remove my shoes in the two cases mentioned above is because if I didn't, it would have ruined the shoes. In one case, I lost a top lift (heel tip) on one of my sandals, and whatever wooden composite material the heels are made from does not resist abrasion very well. Once replaced (several times by now), those same sandals have lasted 268 miles and counting. I would have hated to lose that pair over a matter of pride. The other time I had to hoof it home shoeless was when the entire sole peeled off my pump, seemingly without warning. The only thing holding it on was the bit that's on the front part of the high heel. No amount of extreme high stepping would make this shoe wearable. Ripping the sole the rest of the way off seemed like a foolish option when the repair was so easy once I got home. The other sole had just started to come loose in the same way. I chose contact cement for the repair, and they seem to be doing just fine.

I've had it happen to me twice where I basically didn't have any choice but to walk home barefoot. It's funny you should mention being more mature and not caring what others think, but carrying a pair of heels while walking barefoot adds a whole new layer of self-consciousness for some reason. I felt like I wanted to hang a big flashing sign around my neck that said, "MY HEEL BROKE."