mlroseplant

I didn't wear the boots in the snow--I wore clogs. The snow wasn't too deep, so I figured I'd wear my very high platform clogs, and the strategy worked. I did not have a previous picture of my giant Sam Edelman platform clogs, so I had to take one in the time honored location of the washing machine. Then I switched to the boots for church, and wound up wearing those well into the evening, including testing out my son's new-to-him, but very old, motorbike. I still say it's not all that fun to ride a regular motorcycle in heels. Here's something strange about how I'm built. The snow started falling on Saturday afternoon, but none of it stuck to the ground because the temperature was above freezing. As it continued falling overnight, the temperature dropped down to about 25º, or -4º C. I wore my clogs barefoot, and they were high enough that I didn't get any significant amount of snow in my shoes. I also wore medium weight gloves. Not super heavy, but some amount of insulation in them. By the time I got back home, my fingers were like little blocks of ice, but my feet were slightly damp from sweating. How is this even possible?

Sunday's outfit. You can't really see the outfit because of the coat, but it was rather cold and snowy yesterday. It seemed easiest to wear my Vince Camuto knee high boots. The platform clogs I wore on my morning constitutional seemed too casual for church, but they did leave some nice looking footprints in the snow. Edit: And once again, I have no idea why certain random pictures load sideways and can't be turned, at least not by me.

I'm probably headed up to my cobbler this week or next. I will ask Marty how he deals with this issue. Somewhere in my collection I must have hollow heels like that, but nothing that I wear regularly.

And even if you could, why would you? Those stock heel tips are crap! Although I don't do it myself, and after 11 years I seriously doubt I'll start, Vibram or other such material as replacement heels is superior in every way to these little things with nubs on them that come from the factory. One question, though. Why specifically softwood?

I have started my exhibition/blog project, and it is harder than I thought. Since I'm writing offline, I just have to make myself type out some words on the page, and then rewrite it later, or it will never get done. I notice that there is a spot on this website for blogs, but nobody ever reads that stuff. I was thinking of putting it in the "For Everybody" section. I think that's a practical and appropriate place for it to go. What say you?

Last night was the first jazz band concert of the season. My younger entered high school this fall, and for the first time experienced the pressure of actually having to audition to get into a group. I was seated on the very wrong side of the auditorium, but oh well. Good pictures shouldn't be the major part of the experience anyway. I can report that there were at least three girls wearing what you could call heels at the concert. There may have been more, but it's awfully tough to see into the back row, and I didn't hang around any longer than necessary. I would estimate the total number of girls participating in this concert was about 30. There were no boys wearing heels except for me. I managed to capture in incidental pictures, and then zoom in on later, an example of what was the highest of the heels, worn by the vibraphonist, who appeared to be a senior. Pointy-toed suede or faux suede boots. There was another girl in a different band who wore fuchsia mules with 3 or 3 1/2" block heels. The prescribed uniform for all of the jazz bands is "Solid black with a splash of color." I found it interesting and admirable that this girl chose her shoes as the splash of color. I'm gonna guess they were prom shoes, and have only been worn one other time. I guess heels are not completely dead yet, they are just on life support. One could say that during my own high school days, something closer to 15 girls out of 30 would be wearing heels. Yes and no, because the majority of those would have been 1 1/2" or less, and can you really call those heels?

I have yet to summon the energy to start my bloggy thing, but I have taken a few pictures this week. Yesterday's hurriedly thrown together outfit is as follows: Nine West "Versell" sandals, and yes, I am still somehow wearing sandals in the middle of November, and the rest is some hodgepodge of button down shirt, black trousers that may be a little on the short side, and some tie that I selected at the last minute when I realized that my t-shirt was showing through the outer shirt. I have said before that I don't wear these sandals often enough, but oddly, my own mother told me I ought to get rid of them. I asked her why, and she said, "They look so uncomfortable!" I gave her one of those looks like "Where have you been for the past 15 years?" We then had a conversation about the onset of dementia.

I also have a pair of Just Fab sandals which are quite steep, but I find they are designed in such a way that makes it a bit easier than the numbers would suggest. I hope you have luck with these.

The news people here in Midwestern sort of rural U.S. wear heels, but not as high as the news people in the city. And I guarantee you they're not on if the feet are not visible to the camera.

My totally unscientific hypothesis (and I stole this from somebody on here, but don't remember who) is that some people are born with the High Heel gene. I do not believe that this gene is slanted more toward the female side of the spectrum, either. It's just that the addition of a Y chromosome causes the High Heel gene to be latent, or recessive. Sometimes the presence of this gene causes other changes in surrounding genetic material, and sometimes it doesn't. Some of us are in it for the heels only, and some of us like the Whole Nine Yards.

Let's face it--at a basic level, most of the things we do in life are a waste of time. Including visiting this website. Doesn't stop us much, init?

There seems to be no category for "Having a woman's aesthetics." Perhaps that is an artificial construct. Actually, the whole thing seems like a rather artificial construct. I'm not going to be too critical, as I haven't actually read the book, but my basic question is, "Whose body? Whose fashion? Whose behavior?" It's not like there is one sweeping set of characteristics that we can slap on all women worldwide. You have to view this attraction through the lens of your own cultural and personal biases. For example, I do not attempt to emulate the woman I work with at the present time. It's not that I don't like her, it's not that I think she's ugly (I do, and she's not), it's just that my vision of the feminine look/aesthetic does not really match up with the way she presents.

I think there was only one time, and that was only because a salesman at some Big Box store approached me from the back, and I had long hair at the time. I remember having no real reaction to it one way or the other. I do remember thinking to myself, "Dude, quit apologizing. It's not that big of a deal." I notice there is no category for wishing to move like a woman, which is entirely different from "having a woman's body" or "having a woman's bodily functions." Then again, not just any woman will do when it comes to finding motion in the physical world attractive. I have been trying for quite some time to adjust my walk to my preference, with some amount of success. This carries over somewhat to my construction life as well.

I have always said that since I find women attractive, why wouldn't I want to emulate them? It is quite true that I have never tried going full "dress," or even close to it. I suppose if I were younger, I might see things a little differently.

All of those things are still things. Roosevelt, of course. Tasty Tacos is one of our occasional indulgences. I cannot believe how averse I am at driving the 15 miles to get there, but sometimes my son convinces me to do so. Adventureland is still there, and it has expanded/updated somewhat. They've still got that rickety old wooden roller coaster, though. I personally have not had a fun filled day for at least a decade, but up until a month ago, I worked right across the interstate from it.

I don't know if simply riding a motorcycle in your day-to-day life is necessarily all that risky, but I do know that it sucks to ride in heels! Scooters are a whole different story, and I sold mine this year. I'm aware. What do you call Primus, anyway? They're not traditional rock, they're not really proggy, they're not metal. My son came up with a category, Music Theory Rock. Good as any, I s'pose.

So far, @at9 has got my attention with "Confessions of a Heel." I probably won't call it that, but I don't care who you are, that there's funny! I don't think I'm ready to begin. It's Monday, I've got to go back to my real job, and the shoes in question have a lot of stories to tell, some of which involve the police. So it's a question of which to share and which to keep to myself. In other news, the sun is rather low in the sky these days, so I may have to find another time of day to take pictures, if I take them at all. 'Twas a beautiful day, but the sun was right above my head (or at least it appeared to be), so these pictures aren't the best. If you ain't figgered it out by now, right behind me in the usual spot is due South. Today was a little bit warmer than it has been for the past week and a half. So I decided to wear sandals to church. The sandals I chose were a little bit on the casual side, but my feet were too swollen to fit into my first choice footwear, and I didn't feel energetic enough to wear super steep heels today. So this is what you get, my Miu Miu wooden sandals in navy blue, one of the very few slingback shoes I own. I am partial to Miu Mius, they seem to fit me exceptionally well, and they seem to be well made, and not too fragile. The only problem with them is that they are related to Prada (specifically Miuccia Prada), so they don't exactly give those things away. I have managed to find three pairs of them used for a reasonable price, one of which is featured here.

Race car driver, eh? You know, Jerry was a race car driver. At least, that's what my son tells me. My son is into Primus. I risked nothing to tell you that little tidbit of information, it is true.

I am seriously considering doing a feature on my shoe collection. Maybe not individually, and maybe not every pair I own, but I definitely want to hit the high spots, and make some comments about the history and the life with a particular pair. Some might get grouped together, like all of the Steve Madden pumps, because, well, there's not much to tell about them individually. The question is, what to call such a thread. I wanted to use the word "exposé," but it has the wrong sort of shade to it, unless I meant to reveal how boring my collection actually is, and how the adventures are less adventuresome than most people imagine. Any title ideas for such a thread? As an introduction, I was going to start off with my most durable pair of shoes, and reveal some interesting statistics and observations. The "teaser" picture is here:

And he definitely walks better than Mark Bryan. Or me, for that matter, despite my best efforts.

It is not a great time of the year for photos, due to the shortness of daylight this time of year. However, there was this one, showing how far I have fallen down the food chain. My relatively cushy job at a major social media company had ended, and I have now been forced to take a real job again. I see we're playing the rotated 90º thing that somehow can't be fixed, so imagine it in a normal perspective, if you can. It was a pretty good picture, too.

Evidently, those boots are gonna walk all over you. Funny thing is, actual combat boots are not all that big compared to normal shoes.

Hello all, I have been considering starting a "jaunts" type thread for some time, but I don't really "do" jaunts. In other words, I don't ever dress up for the sole purpose of going out dressed up. I just simply go about my everyday life wearing heels and usually close-fitting women's jeans. So, in light of that, I thought I would start a thread which will feature probably rather random thoughts about high heels and perhaps other traditionally women's fashion that I might like to incorporate into my wardrobe. I have decided to start this thread with an introduction, or re-introduction, rather than jumping right in with thoughts and insights into the world of a male who likes to wear high heels. My name is not actually Melrose Plant, that is a work nickname which has fallen into disuse over the years. However, it persists on the Internet, as I prefer it to my current work nickname, Squirrel. I am married and I have two sons, aged 6 and 16. The boys are fine with my choice of footwear, even the teenager. My wife tolerates it, but I am sure she wouldn't mind a bit if I decided one day to throw all my heels away. That ain't gonna happen. As I said, I plan to share random thoughts about wearing high heels and perhaps other traditionally women's clothing from time to time, and I hope it becomes an interesting thread. I welcome all comments and opinions.