Shoe Archeology: Excavate Your Psyche

I used to think: There’s no such thing as too many shoes. Not I’m not so sure.

It all started with this outfit:

— floral cardigan sweater and top to be worn with matching green crops — that  I planned to wear to work last Friday.

At my company we have “Casual Friday” every day. For most of the employees, it’s morphed into “Scroungy Saturday” do-your-chores clothes OR “Sleepy Sunday” read-the-paper-in-your-sweats attire. I’m no Anna Wintour and don’t wear Prada to the office. But I do try to put together a semi-professional (not too stodgy; not too wacky) outfit I call “Business Eclectic.” (Or maybe “Business Eccentric?”)

After I got dressed I went hunting for a pair of shoes. I recalled I owned a pair of sneaker/loafer/step-in/skater shoes — with a floral print similar to that of the sweater. Perfect! Now where could they be?

Under the bed?

 

 

Or here?

 

Maybe at this end?

No, no, and no.

How about the bottom of the closet?

 

Or the top?

 

Or in this stack?

No, no, and no.

But wait, there’s more! Next to the night stand?

 

Next to the wall?

 

In closet number two?

 

Under the desk in my writing room?

No, no, no, and no. This getting ridiculous.

In this corner?

 

In the laundry room?

 

In the guest bedroom? (Ha ha ha what guests??!)

 

In this room?

Or the garage?

 

None of the above. DRAT.

Along the way I did find these step-in/loafer/skater sneakers:

Shoes by Kitson, Sketchers, Vision Street, Roxy. (Love the houndstooth print.)

Found these:

Some of the shoes by Red, Poetic License, Tommy Hilfiger, Keds.

And these:

Some of the shoes by Rocket Dogs, Diesel, Puma, Sketchers.

And these:

Some of the shoes by Coach, Nike, Rocket Dogs, Sketchers.

And these:

Some of the shoes by Dereon, Levi, Adidas, Red, and Converse.

And these:

Some of the shoes by Rocket Dogs, Lands End,

And my collection of Converse All-Stars — which I like to add shoe clips to for a “one-of-a-kind” look:

(Note to color afficianados:  the grape purple Converse in this group are not the same shade as the darker purple Converse two photos above — in case you were wondering.)

 

More Converse:

(Note #2 to color peeps again: Those are two different colors on the bottom left.)

 

Wait, there’s more Converse!

 

But no floral skater shoes. Oh, no, don’t make me go in there!

 

Of course — way under a pile of stuff — finally found them:

 

But wait, they don’t match! The sweater has a fuchsia color. The shoes have a magenta color.  Not close enough in color to me.

(Note to physical fitness peeps: Shoes and sweater are displayed on top of a Whole Body Vibrational Training machine. It shakes, rattles, and rolls your body into shape. More on that later in another blog…)

I ended up wearing a pair of green skimmers. (Don’t get me started on that collection…)

Because of the archeological dig, I was late to work. On the way I thought about the waste of time and energy. I thought about the expense, the maintenance, the space requirements, the mental requirements (to remember so many shoes!) I thought about the real reason I have so many shoes. It’s psychological/illogical/pathological in a not good way. Secure, confident, squared-away people do not give a rip about what’s on their feet.

Hmmm, I thought, do I really need all these shoes?

Only a lunatic would say YES. I hope I’m not that insane.