listersgirl | (no subject)

I'm not much of a consumer, and I work hard at being a very conscious consumer. I'm not a shopper, and for the most part I only buy things that I need (I still have bowls that were in the apartment I moved into in Montreal in 1999, despite the fact that they were never mine in the first place, and are from the dollar store).

Where I fall down, though, is shoes. This is not your stereotyped "all women are crazy for shoes" story, though. I don't like shoes. I kind of hate shoes a lot of the time. And shoe shopping drives me crazy. But I'd bet that about half the shoes I buy get worn three times before being sent to Goodwill, not because I'm fickle and easily bored (...although I often am), but because shoes are nasty evil things that hurt my feet and give me blisters and make me cry. Evil! Also sneaky, because I always *think* they're going to be comfortable, as I walk around the store in them. And then, fail.

This post brought to you by the sandals that I'm attempting to break in a work today even though they gave me blisters last time I wore them, but I really don't think it's too much to ask that I have 2 pairs of sandals that I can comfortably wear, especially since I hate wearing the same shoes everyday, and one of these days it's going to be hot enough outside that I can't fake it by wearing sneaks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

uck! shoes! I'm vegan and a clutz, so I need solid shoes that aren't made of animals...too much to ask? It's all sneakers and vinyl mary janes here, no pretty sandals :-(

I had a sad, heartbreaking moment a few years ago where I gave up trying to find non-leather sandals. It was very hard for me to do, and I still try for vegan shoes whenever I can. But going back to Birkenstocks made my feet much happier.

you're the 2nd person today to mention Birks to me....I must investigate!

They make vegan Birkenstocks. My brother-in-law only wears them. I think it's called Birko-Flor or something like that.

thanks, I'll look closer at the Birks!

If it's any comfort, foot health people say that you shouldn't wear the same shoes every day. Shoes need at least one "day off" from wear so they don't accumulate sweat and general foot gunk.

I SO hear you about the shoes that SEEMED comfortable...until you actually tried to wear them to work. *sigh*

M.n

Oh, exactly - my feet get very cranky when I wear the same shoes every day!

One day I will be rich and eccentric and then I will wear slippers all day long.

Yeah, I don't do the shoe thing. I have three pairs of boots, and one pair of sandals that were necessitated by a trip to Arizona, home of 110 degree heat. Even then I wore my boots instead. I prefer to live in bare feet, and when I was in The Village I would drive bare foot, teach bare foot... and then inadvertently have to go to the pub (post-class outing) bare foot, too. I can remember walking to the village shop at the age of seven or eight in bare feet, too.

Your consumer vs shopper approach is very inspiring! I hope you and your sandals can come to some kind of amicable agreement.

I used to wear boots all the time, and then they rebelled against me and gave me achilles tendonitis, so now I have to be very careful about shoes/boots that go up past my ankles. Sigh.

WEll, that is just unecessarily cruel!

I find that most of my shoes need quite a few wearings before they stop hurting. The only ones in recent memory that were awesome immediately were the rockports I bought last year (can't find them online, but they're of the sporty casual, leather variety). They're really awesome.

What I really freaking hate is heels. I love the look of them, but maybe 5% of them are comfortable. I bought two pairs of Nine West strappy high heeled sandals at Winners last year (same kind, different colours) because they seemed awesome...but I can't actually stand or walk in them for long before the balls of my feet hurt like a bitch. How dare they make shoes you can't walk in?

It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? And the idea of wearing shoes that you can only sit in is useless.

Oh, your poor feet!

Oh, they're fine. The shoes didn't even hurt them *that* much, but they weren't as comfortable as I'd hoped. Sigh.

They never are! :(

Oh, seriously, to all of this. When I was packing my shoes the other day I was terribly tempted to just Goodwill the whole batch. The Birks, my runners, and maybe one pair of my winter shoes are comfortable -- that's it. FAIL.

I'm curious which bowls are the dollar store found bowls!

The two white pasta bowls that we never used, but that have now come back into use since you packed your colourful pasta bowls!

I can't believe someone was so un-fond of them as to leave them behind -- maybe they were their "leave out till the last second" favourite bowls! Oops. Still, good find.