Here I am again, less than 5 days before an international journey, shopping for shoes. Yes, I know the folly of this. Breaking in new shoes while abroad is inadvisable and could be a sure path to blisters and pain.
Like most suburb dwellers/indoor office workers, my daily life does not afford me many opportunities to walk. Travel is another thing. Business conferences tend to take place in large metropolises which feature good metros, abominable parking, and lots of hoofing it. Vacations with me tend to feature day long on-your-feet tests of endurance to get in all the exercise and sights one can possibly cram into one day.
Inevitably, before a trip I will suddenly realize I don’t have the right shoes for such an endeavor. What I’ve learned is that if I stick with some tried and true, high quality “comfort” brands, I am home safe right outta the box. Merrell, Keen, Born, Sofft, Clarks, Teva…and already I know images of Grandma or nurse clunkers are coming to mind! Alas, there are times being quite non sexy in the footwear department is worth the ability to maintain speed and stamina…and the designers really are getting much better at creating less homely comfort shoes.
The Sofft black leather toe ring sandals which tromped successfully up and down the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, draw compliments every time I wear them.
But this next journey is to China, where sandals simply won’t do as Fall sets in, and as my germ phobia kicks into high gear. ( I am packing face masks, hand cleaner, and have no intention to expose my half naked foot to ANYTHING.) My fantasy is brown boots, sorta like the 2 pairs I already own except:
new
supportive flat sole instead of stack heels
reliable maker
and
affordable.
Now, a previous years’ blog featured my getting literally stuck inside a tall brown boot, something rather common as I have massive runner’s calves. Much to the mortification of the Nordstrom salesperson and myself, we had quite a little bonding struggle. Having just run 13 miles last Sunday, I am really in the mood for something comfy, and capable of encasing a non-wimpy leg. On a whim after this morning’s run with B & hit of Peet’s, I headed to TJMaxx. Typical discounter-utter chaos, whining kids, lots of junk -but a patient forager sometimes hits the bargain value jackpot.
Row upon row of shoe which simply will not do. Too trendy. Too ugly. Absolutely ghastly. Too pointy. Too cheaply made. Then: Born boots!! Oh, can it be? They are almost ideal. Sturdy, flat, reasonably wide, not cheap but well priced…and…not available in my size. I only see it in black, which is close enough to my goal of brown, but the sizes…
Not even close, in fact. 2 sizes smaller or 3 sizes bigger. It figures. Damned discount stores!
I round the corner and meet a women trying on the same coveted boot. I tell her how much I love it, she shows me the Born shoes she is currently wearing and how she wants these for travel next Tuesday.
“Me, too!” I reply
“Where are you going?”
“China.”
“Oh wonderful. We’re going to Sicily…”
“Sicily!”
And on goes our blather about the places we go and the awful shoe experiences and how we’re now devotees of the stout families of footwear. I will always recall how the cobblestones of Paris clobbered me in my heeled boots.
I tell her that I wanted the Born boots but “as usual” they don’t have my size. She hands me one nearby that is “close”, a half size small, but doable. Maybe. Zipper is struggling to accommodate my leg but think I can stretch it…
The catch? There’s only one.
“Maybe I can ask the young lady to help me look for it…” I say, searching in vain for the teen who was stocking shoes a minute ago. Surely she detected a need for help and promptly, silently, vanished.
“I’ll help you look!” and off my traveling friend goes in pursuit of its mate.
In my head I think…how nice.
She returns after several minutes with 2 huge, long boot boxes and hands them to me. She actually manages to unearth 2 pairs of the same boot in Brown! My size! I tell her they are literally “perfect” and thank her profusely.
We wish one another very happy travels. Hurrah! Mission accomplished. Small kindness was a huge help to me, the boots are now sprayed with protectant and gonna be put to the acid test on the roads of Wuhan and Shanghai.
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