The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[Jkrenzer]

Excellent heels. Pumps are great year around. 

[Shyheels]

That’s a very impressive walk! I did a similar distance on Sunday - to a pub for lunch and then back again - but I was in boots with chunky 3.5” heels. That was enough 

[mlroseplant]

A long time ago, I mentioned something about my wife partnering with another Vietnamese woman for the purpose of selling food and making money. At the time, I think I mentioned something about not wearing heels to meet her so as not to project myself into something that is none of my concern. Today, that partnership truly begins, and I have already forgot about being invisible.

There is an Asian festival taking place in the city, and it's one of those things that is well organized, well funded, and well attended. We went to set up some things last night, and I didn't even really think about it, but I wore some casual heels. My wife didn't say anything, the other woman didn't say anything, and her husband didn't say anything.

Today and tomorrow, the festival is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. I am assured that I will not be obligated continuously for that long, and I hope that's right. I am not finding any joy in any of this. But, I am seriously not sure whether to wear heels to work this thing. Since I won't have a vehicle available right there (we have to park several hundred meter away), do I carry backup shoes with me on my person? I cannot recall ever needing the backup shoes in the past when I have brought them. And if I do decide to wear heels, which heels? Naturally, it is thunderstorming outside my window as I write this. It's supposed to be over by the time the festival starts.

[Shyheels]

Wow! For starters I wish I could go to this festival and stock up on some nice food! I love the sound of the stuff you guys have on offer!

to your point on footwear - those are long days. Although your vehicle will be a ways off it might be wise to bring a spare pair just in case - either because your feet need a break or because it may be useful or desirable not to be heels for some reason. If you don’t need them a spare pair don’t take up much space and if you do you’ll be glad you have them handy

[Bubba136]

On 5/21/2024 at 5:42 AM, mlroseplant said:

I did something that I rarely do during warm weather. I wore actual enclosed shoes to church. I did so because as I posted in the New Shoes section, I bought some pumps specifically to wear to church (and maybe a few other places). I keep saying that I do not need any more shoes, but I bought two more pair last week. These Steve Madden pumps, and a pair of Frye wooden heeled sandals. Sometime I'll post the Fryes--they're kind of interesting, but I thought the coffee color of the pumps was really beautiful, and the lady offered to sell them for 20 bucks plus shipping.

The rest of my outfit was based around the shoes. I often do that, but it was very particular on this Sunday, because I had decided to wear the shoes well in advance. So I picked out some earth-toney stuff I thought went with the coffee color, and then I realized, "Hey, wait a minute.  .  . It's Pentecost." To some of you, this will mean absolutely nothing. For others, you are chuckling to yourselves right now. Let's put it this way--the red tie is an add-on and an afterthought, but I think it works. I even got complemented on my tie. But not my shoes.

Nice crisp look.  Love the tie and shoes.

1 hour ago, mlroseplant said:

A long time ago, I mentioned something about my wife partnering with another Vietnamese woman for the purpose of selling food and making money. At the time, I think I mentioned something about not wearing heels to meet her so as not to project myself into something that is none of my concern. Today, that partnership truly begins, and I have already forgot about being invisible.

There is an Asian festival taking place in the city, and it's one of those things that is well organized, well funded, and well attended. We went to set up some things last night, and I didn't even really think about it, but I wore some casual heels. My wife didn't say anything, the other woman didn't say anything, and her husband didn't say anything.

Today and tomorrow, the festival is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. I am assured that I will not be obligated continuously for that long, and I hope that's right. I am not finding any joy in any of this. But, I am seriously not sure whether to wear heels to work this thing. Since I won't have a vehicle available right there (we have to park several hundred meter away), do I carry backup shoes with me on my person? I cannot recall ever needing the backup shoes in the past when I have brought them. And if I do decide to wear heels, which heels? Naturally, it is thunderstorming outside my window as I write this. It's supposed to be over by the time the festival starts.

Interesting situation.  If I were you, I’d take along a spare pair just in case.  You never know how deeply involved you are going to be anytime your wife is “involved.” Please let us know how things go.

[mlroseplant]

As it turns out, my presence was not really needed after the setup and settling in. I was only there for about 3 hours in the morning and a couple right around closing up time (10 p.m.). I wore some Bebe wooden heeled sandals with an effective 3 3/4" heel, and they didn't bite back. I was actually rather glad to have them when it came time to open up the side wall of our tent, as I am barely tall enough to reach the hooks. Their one inch platform with 4 3/4 inch heel gives me an effective 3 1/2 inch boost in height. Perhaps today I will choose some type of shoe with a really big platform for that very reason. Nah, probably not. Today I will have my son with me, and he will be my effective boost in height.

One person said something to me the entire time I was there, and it was some random 20-something woman, who simply smiled at me and said "Fabulous!"

[mlroseplant]

Not a lot to say this week. The Asian festival is over, everything is packed up and back home. The second day I wound up wearing my Bruno Magli blue suede wedges both for setup and teardown. We got back home at midnight, and then I had to get up too early to prepare for church. I feel like I keep repeating myself, and this week's picture is not all that great.

[mlroseplant]

This week's Church outfit. It was a special week at our church. We had a special service to commemorate the 175th anniversary of our existence. It was a nice service, and many people from the days of yore travelled a long way to attend this service, some of them pastors from my youth.

What I did not enjoy about the service was the music, which was contemporary Christian Pop, and the apparent contemporary band dress code, which was a red t-shirt proclaiming the 175th anniversary of the church. I don't normally play with them, but their guitarist was out of town. There's nothing wrong with a red t-shirt, but I looked much nicer than the rest of the band, if I may say so. I did don a red t-shirt after church to do a little bit of grocery shopping, this one featuring our arch rival college. I think I know how I came to have this t-shirt, but it's a long story, and nobody cares anyway.

[Jkrenzer]

You're a rebel.

Colors are vibrant. 

[Shyheels]

I like the pink and burgundy combo - very nice

[mlroseplant]

Today, I want to talk about heels, compromises, and peoples' comments.

As many of you already know, I bought a new motorbike about two months ago. I have now ridden it a total of 1,500 miles, mostly commuting to work. A good deal of the reason why I bought a scooter style motorbike is because I can easily ride in heels. Not that I can't ride a regular motorcycle in heels, but to me it's absolutely no fun, and I tend to damage my shoes in the process. The other percentage of the reason why I went to a scooter is practicality. Because of the layout, there is a lot of storage space underneath the seat. This allows me to lock up my helmet and jacket right on the bike, rather than lugging that riding gear onto the jobsite, where I might or might not have a good place to put it during the day.

The safety compromise I make every day is the fact that I don't wear leather pants. I wear a helmet, jacket, and gloves even in the heat of summer, but pants are too much of a pain in the neck. Around my town, I really make some safety compromises, and just wear whatever I happen to have on that is appropriate for the season. In the summer, it's often shorts and sandals. I live in a 25 mph (40 km/hr) town, and although statistical analysis might not be with me on this one, I figure I'm probably not going to get into a wreck around here.

If I need to leave town, usually to go to the capital city of Des Moines, I will not go in shorts and sandals, and here's where the weird compromise part comes in. Up to now, I've never had a scooter style motorbike that could do highway speed. Therefore, I've never considered wearing heels, except for around town, running errands and such. Now, I can leave town wearing regular street clothes. I recently purchased a pair of block heeled booties that seem perfect for riding in terms of safety vs. style, and I've been wearing those, but I wanted to wear sandals went for my appointment with the dentist up in Des Moines. I wound up bringing sandals with me, since I can do that now, and changing in the parking garage. It worked out great!

I have a new dentist, and a new dental hygenist (the old ones retired at the same time). The old gang would always comment on my heels to the point that I would make sure I wore something really interesting each time I visited, about every six months. This new bunch refuses to say anything, even when prompted. I can't even detect a sideways eye thing going on. They are much younger than the old crew, probably older Gen Z or younger Millennials. We all know that people notice, but it seems the younger crowd, if they're not interested in shoes, just moves on in their mind as if it were an everyday occurrence. I guess that's where we want to be, so I shouldn't complain.

[Cali]

I wonder if you wore a "celebrity sneaker" would they then be excited?

[mlroseplant]

Here is my church outfit of the week, which was kind of a sad one for me because my choir director of seven years has taken another position at another church. This was the last Sunday that my son and I got to make music with him. I think we finished pretty strong, even though once again, we had no rehearsal.

This week's choice was totally based around my new Stuart Weitzman shoes, the details of which are cataloged elsewhere. I actually have a pair of pants that matches their dark olive green color more closely, but they're getting a little bit ratty looking lately, so I chose a lighter colored, but newer, pair of pants. My shirt and tie were chosen mainly to not offend the rest of the outfit.

I missed celebrating my 12th anniversary of "coming out" in heels. Perhaps "going out" would be better phraseology for shoes. It's funny, I don't remember the exact date for sure, but I remember what day of the week it was, so I'm calling it Wednesday, May 16th, 2012, as the first day I ever stepped foot in front of anybody wearing heels as my own serious footwear. Oddly enough, the location was at my church at a choir rehearsal. Perhaps this is why I think of it now.

The point of this last paragraph is not so much to celebrate my own accomplishments, but rather to note that enough time has gone by that the clothes I bought to match my new persona are starting to physically wear out. I have bought quite a bit of clothing over the years, but I have gotten rid of precious little, unlike my shoe collection. Some of that clothing, like most probably the tie I wore three days ago, predates my heeling days, and a lot of it needs to be retired for one reason or another. Perhaps this is a subject for another rumination in the future.

[Cali]

It's funny how we don't keep track of some of these dates. I just know I started my switch to women's shoes in October of 2011 and high heels mid-February 2015, but that's the closest I can guessimate.  I had a 22-year out T-shirt on this week.  How time flys.

[Bubba136]

Like my old dad used to tell me If you live long enough you going to get old.  
I guess that applies to most everything else, also.

[mlroseplant]

Just out of curiosity, I perused the shoe collection to see how many pairs I had left from the early years, say before 2015, and it's three. Not counting my first two pairs of heels that I keep for sentimental reasons. So out of a hundred-some pairs, I have rotated clean through to where the majority of my shoes are less than five years old.

The same cannot be said of my clothes. Most of my good dress clothes are probably in the neighborhood of 10 years old. Especially all of my suits. There's nothing wrong with the suits, and I still like them. What I don't like about them are the pants. They are all quite full-legged traditional suit pants. I used to have them hemmed long to accommodate my heels. I had a couple of suits for wearing flat men's shoes, and the rest required me to wear heels or the hem would be way too long. I'm not a huge fan of that look anymore. Even though that's sort of starting to come back, it's a different cut, and I'm still not a fan. I have a number of slimmer cut pants that match a few of my suits well enough to substitute for the pants that actually came with the suit. I usually wear those.

Life has gotten much more casual, and these days, wearing a shirt and tie with no jacket puts me in the top five percent of dressiest clothing at church, and that includes the women. When I say my clothing is old, I basically mean my dress shirts and ties. My pants and my shorts are actually on the newer side.

[mlroseplant]

Over in the "For Everybody" section, we got off on a tangent about whether I'm too old to wear shorts. And my friend from university told me that I personally can pull it off, but not everyone can, including her. After some input here, I finally decided, "Fine, I'm going to quit worrying about it."

About a week and a half ago, we changed directly from rain to heat. Because of my work schedule and responsibilities, I have been unable to take advantage of the situation until this weekend, at which time I pulled all the stops out. Whatever it is I'm doing, I guess I need to keep doing that. Within the last two days, I have received a number of unsolicited compliments, all by women, about my legs. Here is my outfit, which is obviously nothing special, just a t-shirt and shorts.

[Shyheels]

Yes you carry off shorts well. No question about it.

[mlroseplant]

Once again, we have this week's church outfit. I went back to pink again, though I no longer technically have any pink shoes. I tossed my last pair because one of the straps was broken, and it was starting to suffer from the whole chemical peel thing on the inside, which, due to the design of the shoe, was visible while wearing. I had essentially two choices, unless I went with black or something. I had some pink-ish stiletto mules, which I should really find an occasion to wear, but they were far too orange for this outfit. That left me with my Söfft cork sandals in fuchsia patent, so that's what I went with.

One of the advantages to wearing the Söfft shoes is that they are effectively 3 1/2" heels. I've been wearing higher heels quite a bit lately, so these are super easy to move in, and I needed all of my wits about me, as it was my first time leading the music by myself, without benefit of a piano player. It went fine. I wouldn't necessarily want to do that every week, but it was ok for a Sunday or two now and then.

For some reason, these appear quite a bit more bright red than they are in real life. Even if they were red, I don't think they look too bad. Maybe I ought to try actual red shoes with a future pink outfit.

[Jkrenzer]

Red pumps would cap off that outfit really well. Look good buddy.

[Shyheels]

Very spring-like

[mlroseplant]

It has been raining a lot lately. Not the violent storms of spring, but it seems like every other day we are getting some precipitation. I finally had to go walking in the rain or I wasn't going to get in my heeling exercise, and unlike Shirley Temple, I do NOT love to walk in the rain. It is a very important tenet of my life that I stay dry whenever possible.

With a light rain, an umbrella will suffice, but what shoes to wear? I have quite a number that could be ruined by wearing them in the wet, so those are automatically out. As it turns out, I have found the perfect.  .  . ok, maybe not the perfect, but serviceable.  .  . shoes to wear in the rain, at least on pavement. You may think I'm crazy for wearing Prada in the rain, but hear me out. The entire base is made of lacquered wood, and the sole is actually rubber. I'm so glad they didn't stick a thin layer of leather on there like so many designer platform shoes have. The platform is 1 1/2 inches thick, so if one takes even the slightest amount of care, one's feet stay well above ordinary puddles.

When I have to set up for say, a farmer's market in the wet, I wear actual rubber rain boots (mine have a slight wedge heel), but I hate every minute I have to wear those things. I am quite happy to walk down the street in the platform mules, though.

Edited June 22 by mlroseplant

[mlroseplant]

This week I have given up the tie, maybe for the rest of the summer. Church does tend to be much more casual in the summer, although that doesn't tend to affect my decisions about what to wear.

In other news, look for me on the internet. I was out walking this morning, and some dude in a car actually went around the block and came back for a second look with a phone hanging out the window. At 5;30 a.m. He must not be from around here. The best part was, he came within inches of hitting a parked car, and had to swerve at the last minute from not watching where he was going. I really wish he would have hit it. That would have made an interesting police report. "Let me tell you EXACTLY what happened here.  .  ."

[Shyheels]

That would have been funny.

A couple of years ago I was out for an early morning bike ride and was churning my way up a long steep hill. The driver of the car behind me was furious at being held up - gunning his engine and tooting his horn - and the very second he could pass me he swept by within inches, on full acceleration, and screamed something at me. He was still accelerating when he reached the top of the hill where the speed camera flash went off. Instant karma.

i couldn’t stop laughing 

[Jkrenzer]

Today at the post office I had a women behind me snapping pictures with her phone. She stayed 2 or 3 feet back. I turned and you could tell she very specifically had her phone pointed at my lower legs. I expect there are hundreds of pictures circulating amongst unknown family and friends groups for many of us.

She knows I caught her but I didn't say anything, just smiled. Plenty of people there. The staff is so used to me they just go about their jobs.

For whatever reason the site won't alow me to search for an image let alone attach it.

[Cali]

6 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

 I expect there are hundreds of pictures circulating amongst unknown family and friends groups for many of us.

Hundreds, I believe it's more like thousands. I been wearing 4+ inch heels in public for over 9 years. And I know I get stares especially when I wear my knee high sitlettos or any stilletos.

[mlroseplant]

No picture this week, so I had to take a couple of poor quality screenshots from the church livestream. It is an interesting time in the life of our church, as we presently have no music director, no education director, and no pastor. We are getting a new pastor, but not until August, and there are as of yet no likely applicants for the other two key positions. As a result, people like me have to take on a bit more responsibility than usual.

[Jkrenzer]

What happened to all the leadership?

You look very natural. 

[Bubba136]

It has been my experience that Leadership positions in most churches are usually  voluntary unpaid positions.  Assuming a leading role by taking on the responsibility requires dedication and commitment that is becoming increasingly difficult to find.  While most parishioners are still willing to attend to listen to pastor’s messages, for one reason or another, are not willing to contribute their time.  I would guess the current economic situation in America has a lot to do with it.  People are working more hours trying to earn enough just to pay their bills and that takes more time away from their free time.  That plus the more secular mindset of our society has a great deal to do with it.

[mlroseplant]

In the Methodist church, we do not have pastors for life, nor do we hire our own pastors. They are sent to us by the Conference (regional administrative part of our denomination), and they switch them out every few years, whether things are going well or going badly. That is what is happening here, it's just the changing of the guard, and it's normal. What is not normal is that it coincides with two other staff positions being suddenly vacant. In one case, it was planned for a while (music director), and in the other case, I have no idea why the woman suddenly up and quit (education director). Both positions are paid, full-time jobs, but the salary(ies) is not exactly going to knock anybody's hat in the creek.

I have no idea if anybody talks about my shoes anymore or not. Perhaps they do, but it's probably mostly positive. Sometimes, it crosses my mind that if there's someone out there surfing the internet and they happen to land on our service, if I've lost us any potential new members. As you can see, depending on exactly what's going on, sometimes it's super obvious that I'm wearing remarkably high heels.

Edited July 3 by mlroseplant