Friday 1 October 2010

I Don't Need an Excuse - I'm Wearing My Brand New Shoes!

"Hey! I put some new shoes on,
And suddenly everythings right,
I said Hey! I put some new shoes on, and everybody's smiling,
It's so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
But long on time,
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
And I'm running late,
And I don't need an excuse,
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes"
-Paolo Nutini (New Shoes)

I'll admit, I'm not huge into fashion, I'm more of a tomboy than I am a girly girl. I'll wear what I wanna wear, when I want, when say I can. To be honest, jeans, t-shirt, and a pair of flip flops (or shit kickers in colder weather) and I'm a happy girl. In all honesty though, shoes are my down fall... I'm a self-admitted shoe hoarder... I've easily got 20 pairs, and by some people's definition, that's minor. If it's got a heal on it, I don't want them. I've never learned to walk in them properly and they bother the hell out of my knees and back.

This post isn't about being a shoe hoarder though... This one's about the new pair of shoes I picked up yesterday and have strapped to my feet today. I finally tossed an old, worn out, filthy dirty pair of runners. I work on my feet for a good portion of the day so I needed a new pair ASAP. My knees and back have been killing me for weeks because of not wearing proper shoes. I'd poked around and couldn't find what I was after... What I was looking for was a pair of black runners that didn't look like crap and weren't going to cost me an arm & a leg. (Or my soul and first born.)

Yesterday was pay day, my feet were killing me and I couldn't hack it anymore. I tootled to Wal-Mart after work to see what I could see and I was determined to walk out of there with a pair of runners. I looked through their selection and found majority of the sneakers were white/multi coloured, high top, expensive or down right ugly. There were a few black pairs in there that didn't look so bad, or expensive, so my selection was pretty slim. One of those pairs happened to be a Wal-Mart brand of those new exercise shoes. (Now, I'm sure some of you have seen the ads for these new exercise shoes... They're the ones that all you have to do is put them on and they magically help your posture and balance, while working and toning your calves, hamstrings and butt. When I first saw one of these ads, I thought "Damn! Anything to make a buck, eh? And you know all the lazies are going to run out and pick up a couple pairs!")

So I had the small selection narrowed down to two pairs of black runners, and the exercise ones were still in contention. The price was within a couple bucks - the decision had to be made... I slipped on the clog type pair and walked up and down the shoe aisle once or twice... Then I did the same with the "miracle" shoe. I didn't like the clog pair because there were no actual laces in them - they had those elastic criss-cross things - so there was no way to tighten them up. I didn't like the fact that they seemed to smack my heal the way a flip flop would with every step.  So I decided what the heck? I needed a pair, might as well give the Exercise ones a shot. What's the worst that could happen? My feet/back/knee would stop hurting if nothing else?

I'm a bit of a dork, but I was excited. I sprayed them down with your average shoe spray and almost couldn't wait to wear them today... I strapped them on my feet this morning and headed to work. At first they were a little weird to get used to, I felt like I was goose stepping down the street. After walking in them for four blocks, I adjusted and felt as though I had my stride back. I noticed that my calves were burning a little more than usual but not much else. Now that my day is half over, my feet aren't as tired or achy as they usually are by this time. (I don't know if that has anything to do with them being exercise shoes or just because they're better shoes than what I had been wearing.) So I'll keep testing these bad boys out and hopefully I'll see a difference in my calves, hamstrings and butt. If not, oh well - they were still a good investment of thirty bucks.

It's not always about me, this time it's about the shoes =0)

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