boots

I love boots.  Sadly, it's not an easy feat to find boots to fit my feet.

Yesterday while out shopping, I saw some boots several aisles over that looked like they were sporting a very familiar logo. Then I mind corrected me - you now, the  "can't be; wrong state; you don't find that here" train of thought. So I quickly moved that direction, and sure enough, there were several SEC boots on a display table in ACC country.

I immediately started laughing, called my husband over, and shocked him.  I then turned the boot over to find the price sticker, and the shock became mine.

$399.00

Yep. You read that right. Four hundred mackeroos (plus some when you finish adding taxes) for cowgirl boots that have a school logo embroidered on them. That's just absolutely insane. And the even crazier part? I can think of two girls back home who would save up their money for them.

I went to double check the prices this morning before I typed this, just in case my vision was blurred or I saw it wrong last night when I was linking a friend to it.  But it's still there in black & white.  Now, there are a few teams that have their boots on sale for $150 this morning, which is still more than I have ever paid for a pair of shoes, including my specialized orthotics or running shoes. And I didn't look too closely at what schools had their boots on sale, but I have a feeling that could spawn a lot of sports-related jokes. The SEC fan base is funny in that way.

I'd heard the 2nd Bush President had his cowboy boots embroidered with the Presidential seal and often wore them with his suits. Perhaps that's where the idea came from. I don't know.

But if they ever start selling these in a wide or extra-wide width and bring their prices down to $75, then I'll start trying on some shoes. (and even then, I'll be holding a coupon!)  But this is Belks we're talking about, who like JCPenney do not think those of us with wide feet care about how we adorn our little piggies.

Reckon anyone will ever create a cowgirl boot for quilters? :)

feet

Last fall at the annual Wake County Library Sale, one of the books I bought, written by a podiatrist, dealt with why people's feet hurt. While the author discusses evolution in the introduction, so far the chapters have dealt with both scientific facts about the body and experiences from her own life and her practice. After reading four chapters, I can't help but put the book down and think of the verse from Psalms "we are fearfully and wonderfully made".

Did you know most of the bones in a child's foot remains cartilage until well after puberty? It's only after the foot stops growing that the cartilage solidifies to bone. How well designed is that? A female's foot will change sizes twice after that...during or after childbearing, and in the early 60's/ late 70's...due to relaxing of muscles, which allows the bones to spread. Again, how well thought out!

Also, circulatory problems can be detected in their early 30's (such as emphysema from smoking) even though other symptoms won't show up until twenty years later...by the color of the feet. I'd always heard Dad say you could always tell when a diabetic wasn't eating right by the swelling or discoloration in their feet, and I've since learned with other family members that the feet can also indicate how well the heart or kidneys are working. If the vital organs aren't functioning properly, one of the first places it shows is in the feet.

Unlike the Chinese, I've never considered feet beautiful. (In the rural and countryside of China, only immoral girls will wear sandals without hose or socks comparable to going bra less here). And yet I'm amazed to discover how vital and important our feet really are.

Five years ago I had to start wearing either orthopaedic shoes or a special tennis shoe. I hated it. But with two days of wearing correctly fitting shoes, my hip pains were 95% gone, my lower back totally disappeared, and the pain in my feet was 40% better. All because we correctly supported my arches. I would never have dreamed that something as simple as flat feet could cause so much pain throughout the body.

The more I learn about how our bodies, including our feet, interact, the more impressed I am with just how awesome our Creator is. His Design is amazing, and I long for the day when we are given the perfectly designed body free from all curses. When I think about how intricately designed this broken body is, I can't even begin to fathom what awaits.

the shoe grouch

When I was a little girl, every season Mom would load us up and drive to Jasper. I'm showing my age here, but near the courthouse was a Fred's Department store and J.C.Penney. I loved walking into the JCPenney shoe section and seeing all the beautiful shoes on display...until it became time to try them on. The nice smiling sales clerk would line us up in the chairs and measure our feet, one at a time. My sisters would get several choices. I would have one, maybe two from all those monstrous lines of shoes. It stunk. And they always looked something like this:

I absolutely HATED these shoes. The rise in the T always rubbed a blister, and none of the big girls had T's on their shoes. I was SO happy when I was able to get a pair with just a strap and no T to hold it in the middle. And then came the year of THE CHOICE.

Penneys actually had TWO pairs of girls dress shoes in WIDE WIDTH!!!!!! Oh my oh my! One pair looked something like this:

and I absolutely shocked and aggravated Mom by choosing a pair with the T! But mind you, this was no ordinary pair of shoes. Like the pair above, it had a HEEL, FLOWER cutouts, and the T and the strap WERE DAINTY! Gone was the 1/2 inch wide strap. To me it looked like a grown-up shoe. And I would have never admitted this to Mom after complaining for years on end about ugly shoes, but they didn't hurt my feet as bad.

To this day I hate shopping for shoes. I have no Biblical basis for this whatsoever, but one of the cool things about heaven will be not having to wear shoes. And if we do, I'm sure they'll be tailor made. That's worth waiting for!

feet

Yesterday on my way to work, radio announcers Bill & Linda were discussing shoe sizes. Linda had been to Crabtree to get fitted for tennis shoes, and was mortified not only to be told what size she wore, but also to be told that one foot was half a size smaller than the other.

I understand that it is normal for one foot to be half an inch smaller than the other. My questions is: WHY?

I mean, think about it. We don't have one big eye and one little eye, or one big ear and one little ear (not that I've ever measured my ears), or one big...actually we do. I remember now. The ring finger on my left hand is always half a size smaller than the ring size on my right hand. The jeweler said it was the hand you used the most tended to be a little larger. So does that mean my right foot is larger because I'm right-sided and always put my weight on my right foot first?

And if it's SOO important for us to be wearing the correct shoe size, then why don't they sell us a shoe size for each foot? I mean, why should the shoe on my left foot have extra space in the toe? I bet in the old days of tailors when people didn't wear shoes and when they did they were tailor made to fit their fit, each shoe fit the foot and NOT one size fits everything.

Can you tell I'm going to have to replace my tennis shoes soon? And I dread it. I'm almost tempted to try and order what I have online. There's nothing I hate more than walking into the store, telling the clerk the brand, the size, and the width, watching their eyebrows go up, then hearing, "Why don't we measure your foot to be sure?" Then after measuring, they nod, and say "Yes, that's the only shoe we carry in that width." DUH!! To be fair, I'm sure most customers probably don't know what shoe size or width they really need, but I actually do know. Once I got fitted in a proper size and width of shoe, 95% of my lower back and knee pain disappeared. Forget pride. I'll sadly forget fashion. Give me a shoe that doesn't hurt or cause pain! On most days. I did mortify Bobby by wearing my red fake crocs to church a few Sundays ago with a navy skirt. And if my fashion conscious sisters read this and gasp, don't do it too loudly or I might just do it when I come to visit you! :O) Yes, I still have the power to mortify and horrify my siblings.