is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Fluevogs and Dragons.
Fluevog is having a sale right now. I haven't gone to a Fluevog store or bought Fluevog shoes for quite a while, since I'm well-ensconced in Operation: Live Within Means combined with Operation: Pay Down Debt, and so on. But yesterday I just couldn't help it. It took two subway transfers on my way home from a meeting but I went to the damned Fluevog store to look at the sale shoes.
I didn't plan it this way, but I was wearing my robin's-egg-blue suede CeCe High boots. These are the best boots ever. The CeCe boots are so great in general that I have six pairs of them. I am not afraid of excess, I know. Most of them I have purchased on eBay for much less than retail prices, from people who get scared of the boots when they realize the commitment it takes to break them in. I feel happy for my gain but sad for their loss, as once you do break these boots in, they are more trustworthy than most of the dates you've ever had. BELIEVE ME.
Anyway, so I walk into the store wearing the boots, and a woman says "OH MY GOD HOW OLD ARE THOSE?" It's not that they look old or bad. It's that this particular color has not been available since some time in the mid-1990s. I said I thought they were at least ten years old. A man in the store said that my boots were a lesson to all the people who are afraid to buy suede because it doesn't wear well, and followed up that chestnut with a satisfied harumph. I admitted that the boots had lived in San Francisco for much of their life and had been sheltered from rain most of the time. But still, they're over ten years old and they look GOOD.
I asked to try some stuff on, and a third Fluevogger brought out my boxes. She looked at my boots and said: "OH MY GOD I'VE NEVER SEEN THOSE IN REAL LIFE! ONLY IN PICTURES!" Then she put shoes on my feet. Now they want me to wear the boots to the store in May when John Fluevog is there in person, so he can see them. I had the most amazingly geekoid conversation about the history of Fluevog shoes with the two saleswomen. We sounded like teenage dorkboys talking about Dungeons and Dragons, what with the weird names and over-the-top enthusiasm, combined with our endless internal struggles between buying and not-buying.
Anyway, I went there to get a particular pair of shoes but once I tried them on I had to admit that they looked pukey. Terrible. Ugly. Like I had hooves and fat ankles. And believe me, I do not have fat ankles. I have weirdly skinny ankles that I used to cover up with socks because they made me self-conscious. And I always have to get extra buckle-holes punched in ankle-strap shoes. So I passed on the Petrol Green Tillies and moved on to try on the red Wearever Gracias. I've coveted them for awhile. But they didn't look so great either! I mean, someday if a pair in black ends up on eBay for a reasonable price in my size, I'd buy them because they would be good to wear for teaching. But not at full price, NFW.
Then I tried on some cute cute navy and grey teapots and they looked really good. But there's no way I'm allowed to pay full price for them. It's all about eBay or future sales. Now I know what size I wear in that shoe. The end.
Then I tried on the Moonbeams. I've wanted these forever. They are the same style as the lovely lovely Lip Service shoes from years ago, a pair of which I own and love to death. Last fall when I took Gus to Fluevog and he bought some cute cute boyshoes I saw one of the saleswomen wearing a pair of Moonbeams and was mad with jealousy but had to stay true to Operation: Live Within Means. But this time they were on sale, 50% off, and it wasn't going to get better than that, and they had one pair left in my size, which is a miracle since I wear the most common size. And so they are mine. The saleswoman punched some new holes in the ankle straps and I took them home with me. 
So, yeah, I don't need them. But I also do. Gus, who appreciates how much shopping I haven't done, even said he was glad I bought them. I have EARNED them with my money-wise virtue. (That can't be true, but we'll accept it as partially true for now.)
3:49 p.m. - February 28, 2008
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