estar

Road apples

Tomatoes

Ham

300SL

Hippie

Hustle

Ball

Jacks

Kings

Thanks everyone. The demons are truly only in our own heads. I'm still pretty reserved about where and when I go out in heels. Part of it is the fact that, let's face it, stilettos are not what you call practical or sensible footwear. Lots of times I'm working around the farm in muck boots and carhartt pants. If I need to run to the store, I'm not going to sport a pair of stilettos in my grubby clothes. Most of my shoes are stiletto pumps, but I think I'm going to get some lower and chunkier ankle boots that are at least a little more sensible. My wife seems to be more OK with those too because, as she says, "they're less girly."

Famine

Champagne

Pixar

Celluloid

Cedar

Towel

Universe

Grail

Knight

Georgia

Button

Exactly one year ago on Halloween was my first journey out in high heels where people could actually see. My backstory is pretty much the same as everyone elses so I won't bore you with the gory details. Facination with heels at an early age, hiding them and only wearing in private. The only other person who knew was my wife. Last year in early October, I told my wife that I wanted to wear heels to work on Halloween. It gave me an "excuse" to wear something out of the ordinary and allowed me to see how I felt about having people see me heeling. She reluctantly agreed that it was as good a time as any.

That morning as we left the house, I had a pair of grey faux wool 5.5" stilletos in tow. It was an odd feeling walking out of the car in heels. It was early and still dark and as I walked to the office door, I passed a woman walking the other way. Did she see? Was it too dark? Who knows. I walked out of the elevator to my desk and passed a few other people who were already there. I heard one woman say, "look he's wearing high heels!" Then another person said, "hey, you're right." Someone else said, "I like it. It's a very subtle costume." Throughout the day, people made comments like "nice heels!" and "dang you're tall" and all the while thought it was my Halloween costume, even though I wore the same clothes as I usually do. I was walking around the office all day without worrying at all about what people said because I was "protected" by the fact that it was Halloween.

For the next few days after that, I would get the occasional, "what no pumps today?" comments and I'd usually say something like, "not today but the week's not over yet!" One morning, a woman made the "no pumps" comment and it happened to be the same day that a new pair of stilletos arrived. Before I left that day, I made it a point to stop by her desk and say, "funny how you made that comment this morning because I just got these" as I opened the shoe box. I think she was a little surprised, but she said "holy smokes, those are some serious come ---- me shoes! Those are awesome!" I decided right there and then that I would wear heels to work again.

I waited another week or so and brought up enough courage face my office crew in heels. The biggest reaction came from my boss, who said in a really loud voice for everyone to hear "are you wearing high heels??" I calmy looked him in the eyes and said, "yes I am." Other people didn't know what to think. It's after Halloween, why's he still wearing those heels? I even had one woman run around the corner to ask me "why are you wearing those?" My answer to most people was, "because I like them." My favorite comments were "I see you're rockin' the heels again. Cool" and "I think that's really cool of you to wear those. Very bold." Since then, I typically wear heels about once a week to work. A year later, people are used to it and it's really no big deal.

While most of my heeling has been just to work, I have worn them to the grocery store and the pet food store. It must have been strange to see a guy in heels walk through the door, toss a 30lb bag of dog food over his shoulder, check out and walk back out the door. I've gotten a few hushed negative comments at the grocery store but no one has ever said anything to my face. That is, until today. Today I wore my Steve Madden Vixxen stiletto booties to work. I met a friend for lunch and got the restaurant before she did. As I was about to sit down, a man at the next table said to me, "wow, those are great shoes! They look like they hurt." I thanked him and replied that the didn't hurt at all. The woman he was with chimed in, "I guess you get used to it" and I said that "yes, after you figure out how to balance and walk in them, it's not so bad." He again said how great my shoes were and I sat down to wait for my friend. Let me tell you, that felt GREAT to hear something like that from a complete stranger.

For those of you on the fence about going out in public, let me say that Halloween is a great excuse to go out if you need an excuse. It opens the door wide for future heeling. And if you have a bad experience, you can close the door again and no one will be the wiser.

Jeans

Bound

UN