Okay, do you remember when I waxed lyrical about these orthotic flip flops awhile back? (We can all thank Jen for the recommendation. Jen has the best recommendations.) (I am eventually going to buy a sous vide because of her, I know it.) (Oh my gosh, I should not have looked up the sous vide because it is hugely on sale.)
HEY. Let’s get it together, Suzanne. It is Tuesday SHOESday, not Tuesday SousVide-day because that would be ridiculous. We are talking about SHOES. Magical orthotic flip flops that I bought in August.
The thing is, I LOVE THE FLIP FLOPS. I wear them all the time. They have supplanted my sneakers as my inside-the-house shoes. And maybe this is obvious, but it is hugely preferable to slide on a pair of flip flops than to have to put on socks and then untie and tie sneakers, which is what I have been doing for YEARS since I developed plantar fasciitis. (And, despite acupuncture and foot stretching and horrifically painful shots – yes, multiple shots – at the podiatrist’s office, I feel like Wearing Shoes In The House is the thing that finally kicked my plantar fasciitis to the curb.)
I have just realized this is kind of a meandering, ridiculous excuse for a blog post, so feel free to pop back in next time if you’re bored. I am going to continue typing, such is the dearth of viable blog post topics occurring to me lately, but that doesn’t mean you need to continue reading.
This is going to sound like a non-sequitur: like many bloggers, I participate in the Amazon affiliate program, which basically means I get a few pennies if someone clicks on an Amazon link on my blog and then goes on to buy something. Anyway, Amazon has noted my intense affection for the magical flip flops and keeps recommending that I link to them on my blog. This repeated prodding has had two – well, now three – results: 1. I get annoyed that my computer is paying such minute attention to everything I do and say which makes me feel recalcitrant and want to stubbornly NOT do what Amazon is wheedling me to do, and 2. I keep seeing these flip flops and how reasonably priced they are ($33!!!!!), and now 3. I am buying A THIRD PAIR.
You may or may not remember me mentioning that I like these flip flops so much that I bought a second pair – an outdoor pair, which has become my go-to flippy floppy. The thing is, I somehow bought the wrong size in the second pair. Gourd help me, I thought I accidentally bought a size 9, because that’s in the realm of possibility; I normally wear a size 8.5, but I size up in sneakers because that’s apparently what you have to do. Turns out I did not buy a size 9 or even a size 9.5; no, I bought a size 11. What? Why? How? And why did I ever think they fit even remotely well?!? (They are such comfy flip flops I did not even notice they were nearly three sizes too big.)
Anyway, when a guest came over this weekend, a guest who also has Foot Issues, I had her try them on and they fit and she loves them. So now SHE has a pair and I need a new pair to wear outdoors. (Yes, our weather is – currently – still mild enough that I am wearing flip flops. I realize this cannot last.) And now I am buying a third pair. I don’t think this is how the affiliate thing is supposed to work; I’m not supposed to be influenced into buying things for myself. But, whatever. I love the shoes, I want the shoes, I own multiples of the shoes.
It’s not weird to like something so much that you buy multiples of that thing. It’s not. You do it, right?
I have multiples of so many things. There’s this one white T-shirt from Madewell. Do I have four? I think I have four. I have two pairs of these dressier but also orthotic sandals (black and “Cuban sand”) and have worn them for more than a year and still love them. I have four or five pairs of black high-rise Salutation leggings from Athleta, and just bought a pair in navy; I wear leggings pretty much every day. I have at least three pairs of these skinny jeans, none of which fit, but which could, at some unknown point in the future. I must have a supply of these gel pens on hand at all times, not that I even handwrite things all that often, and they have a disturbing tendency to disappear. (Perhaps they are hanging out with the spoons?)
Hmm. This is beginning to sound a little pathological and I have only just scratched the surface. But I swear it’s LOGICAL and SMART. Especially if you can buy several of something on a good sale. See? I am SAVING MONEY.
I am loving the thoughtful comments about whether or not I should tattoo eyebrows on myself. THANK YOU. I have truly found My People.
Here are six things on my mind this morning.
School Year Frets In Session: While it seems like a lot of the country has already headed back to school – in fact, school buses appeared this week in my neighborhood like a noisy flock of migratory birds – we are still holding onto the last tatters of summer with our teeth and fingernails. It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the impending school year, though. And I am STRESSED. Middle School, y’all.
Maybe I need to write an entire post about all the things that are freaking me out about Middle School (top of the list: MY TINY BABY IS GOING TO MIDDLE SCHOOL), but right now I am thinking mainly about the schedule aspect of it. A bunch of wonderful extracurricular activities have manifested themselves, and I am doing my very best to walk the fine line between “my kid would LOVE that” and “if she does this activity we will all go insane.” For instance, there is a local activity that she would enjoy SO MUCH, but it begins at 3:45 after school and school pickup begins at 3:10 and it takes 30 minutes to drive between school and the activity, so it would be doable but only if I got to the carline at, like, 2:30 and she got out the door immediately at 3:10 and we didn’t hit any sort of traffic or need to pee or any of the other delays we have faced in the past. So. That activity is just not going to happen this year, and I have to trust that it will be available in a more workable form at some later time, or it just isn’t Meant to Be.
We have also signed her up for two sports this fall, which is GREAT. But the one sport is notoriously weird about assigning practice slots – like, they wait until the week of to say, “Hey, your practice day and time is X,” and then they are unable to accommodate any change requests. I learned this the hard way last year, and fortunately the coach was very kind about allowing Carla to be on the team even though she was fifteen minutes late to every single practice because she had a conflicting extracurricular. So: I am trying to wait to find out the sports schedule before I schedule her for anything else, but that’s HARD, because spots are filling up.
I did reach out to an instrumental teacher who comes highly recommended, because I guess I thought we would have some sort of conversation about Carla’s experience with this instrument and how practices go and whether there are recitals and what practice expectations are etc. etc., but instead the teacher wanted to know Carla’s availability and I don’t know that. Whoops. I guess I should have waited to reach out????
The other sport is going great, but Carla has no set lesson time. This worked fine during the summer, because it was the only thing we had going on. But I need to KNOW. I want to have a calendar that has everything arranged very neatly IN ADVANCE.
There is an academic extracurricular I want Carla to take as well, but I am waiting until we know the schedule for the previously mentioned activities, and ideally I would want to see how school goes for awhile first, before adding it on, but I don’t know if that’s feasible????
And then Carla will probably try out for the school play, but auditions take place later in the fall so I cannot worry about it now.
I know this sounds like A Lot, but it feels a little bit more workable than last year’s extra curricular schedule. At least now, when it is half formed and entirely theoretical. I just want things SET.
Friend Visit Fret: While I am fretting about things, I might as well fret about an upcoming visit from my dearest friend. We have known each other for THIRTY-TWO YEARS which sounds bonkers to me. Anyway, she is coming to visit and I am so excited I can think of little else. It’s quite an emotional ping-pong match in my brain right now, what with the Middle School Scaries bopping around with the more Happy Excited Anticipatory Anxiety of hosting my friend. What will we DO? What should we EAT? Would it be nice for her to meet some of my Here Friends, or would that be weird for everyone? Do I need to schedule a bunch of touristy-type activities so she can experience the city? Or should we just take relaxing walks together and then hang out by the pool? I think she is looking more for the latter, in which case I need the weather to cooperate, but it might be nice to do one or two touristy-type things, just so she can say, “Yes, of course, when I was in City I did The Thing That City Is Known For” when people ask.
Listen. This is my best friend. She is probably still going to be my best friend even if she has a boring time here, even if she hates my cooking, even if hanging out with an intensely enthusiastic eleven-year-old drives her bonkers. I KNOW THIS.
Here’s why I am fretting: We have never spent this much time one-on-one together! In fact, the bulk of our relationship has taken place via phone. We used to see each other regularly once or twice a year, but I haven’t seen her in two years now, and before that it had been about a decade. Will we have enough to talk about? What if she gets annoyed with me???? Or sick of me??? Despite knowing each other for a million years, we are fairly new at voicing our needs with one another, so I am a little afraid she will just agree to whatever I suggest even if it doesn’t sound good or fun to her. Also, I am a little shy about her seeing me in Mom Mode, which sounds silly even as I’m writing it, but… the shyness is still there. She’s only met Carla once, and for a very short time, and I don’t know, it just feels weird to be this whole other person than I was when we grew up together.
Also, I have asked her some questions like if there are any foods she hates/won’t eat, but my knowledge of her likes and dislikes mainly comes from high school. It’s kind of amazing how LITTLE you can know about the day-to-day life and habits of someone you love very much.
I am EXCITED, and I trust that it will be okay. But still, underneath all the happy anticipation is a little trepidation.
My Garden Continues to Delight: Let’s move on to LESS STRESSFUL THINGS, shall we? My garden is still producing flowers and I am loving it. The hydrangea bushes are scaling back, but we have several hydrangea trees that are in bloom and they are SO pretty. We also have an abundance of coneflowers, which are not my favorite flower, but which look quite stunning in a big bunch. The hibiscus are blooming as well, and they are ALSO not my favorite flower (and wayyyyy too big and unwieldy to cut and display in a vase), but they are pretty and a nice vivid red. Now I just need the garden to continue to look gorgeous for a little longer so my friend can enjoy it.
Who Recommended These Shoes? Because I LOVE Them: My plantar fasciitis is pretty well controlled these days, thank goodness, and I attribute that to regular shoe-wearing in the house. Usually I wear sneakers, but I have been wanting to try out some flip flops because I hate wearing socks, and it is a pain to tie and untie my sneakers all day long. I’ve had this pair of flip flops in my amazon cart for AGES, and I am pretty sure someone told me they were amazing which is why I added them to my cart. But I only just bought them in the past few weeks, and I love them so much. If you were the one who recommended them: THANK YOU.
They are much cuter than I expected; I guess I thought because they are “orthotic” that they would automatically be clunky and ugly, and they are not. Best of all, they are SO COMFORTABLE. I am getting a second pair to wear outside of the house because I love them so much. (Also, they are $30 right now, down from $50, so if you are looking for magic flip flops, this is a good time to go for it!)
How to Eat a Cucumber: There is just no way to write this bullet point that doesn’t sound like a euphemism, but please trust that I am looking for RECIPE IDEAS.
My husband brought home a cucumber one of his colleagues brought home from work. I am looking for creative ways to prepare this cucumber for consumption. (I don’t really like cucumbers.) I could make a big Greek salad, which I enjoy. But it is QUITE a large cucumber, and also I feel like that’s a little boring??? Maybe I should make this green goddess cucumber salad? Or this creamy cucumber salad? Or this smashed chili-soy cucumber salad? What’s your favorite cucumber recipe?
The Fall Birthday Procession Cometh: Okay I guess we’re back to fretting. ALL THE BIRTHDAYS are coming up in September and October and I am wholly unprepared and have no idea what to get anyone. My brother and his wife are typically very “no gifts, thanks” kind of people, but I would love to get them something little if possible. (They are both outdoorsy, they have a cat.) My sister-in-law and mother-in-law are always baffling, from a What to Give Them perspective. My friend who is visiting will have just had a birthday when she arrives, so I kind of want to have something here for her. (She is a runner and an avid gardener. I am thinking something garden-y? We don’t usually give each other presents, so I have no idea what she might want or need!) My husband’s birthday is also coming up! I have NO IDEA AT ALL what to give him! My mind is a complete blank. The only things that I know he has been looking at buying are a) a new external hard drive, which is a useful but way-too-boring gift, and plus I would need him to give me the exact specifications of the one he wants which would spoil whatever level of “surprise” goes along with “I got you an external hard drive for your birthday,” or b) a new travel backpack, but that again seems like something he’d really want to choose for himself. I guess it’s more exciting than a hard drive, but that’s not really saying much, is it?
Help???? Do you have any idea, based on the Very Limited Information I have shared about all of these complete strangers to you, what should I get them???? I am so bad at gift giving, and this year I feel especially useless.
And all these birthdays are right before CHRISTMAS, so there will need to be gifts for all of these people – and more! – again, and ugh.
Okay, Internet. That’s all I have for you today. Shoe recommendations and flower brags and double entendres and tons of random fretting. Hope you have a glorious weekend!
You may recall recently that I asked for your advice on cute, feet friendly sandals. Despite your excellent suggestions, I have not yet found the perfect pair of black flip flops – which is a shoe I require in my summer wardrobe. This is because my feet are super prissy. If they even exist in the same room as a shoe, they get blisters. I have had prissy feet long before I developed plantar fasciitis. But the PF makes things so much harder, because while I can deal with a blister, I cannot deal with incapacitating stabbing pain in my heels. Well, I can but that’s not really how I prefer to spend my summer.
Anyway, I bought some new walking shoes (Brooks Ghost 14s) and some new sandals and some black flip flops, and then I sent them back and had to buy more and I have been going round and round on this for awhile now. Still looking for the black flip flops, as I said. The ones I have tried have all been slightly wrong in a way that I just know would end badly. One pair had a weird curve in the arch that hit my foot in such a way that I kept feeling like something was stuck in there. Another pair had a strap across the toes that was stiff and scraped my toe-skin. Another felt uncomfortable between my toes. Another was too wide. Another felt great in the pale tan color, but I hated the pale tan; and then when I ordered the exact same shoe in black, it hurt my feet. Et cetera, et cetera. I am still looking for the Prince Charming of black flip flops.
But. When it comes to sandals, I have found The Shoes.
Now, I recognize that aesthetically they may not be your jam. But they are totally my jam. They are strappy in a way I find appealing. They have a wedge heel that makes me feel better about my short, stubby legs. They look good with shorts and jeans and dresses.
But. BEST OF ALL. They are extremely comfortable. The straps are made of faux leather that doesn’t scrape or rub against my toes. The sole is cushioned and provides decent support for my arches. The wedge isn’t super high, do I don’t feel like I’m tottering around. There’s a strap that fits over the upper heel, to keep the shoes in place, and it doesn’t rub or chafe.
One of my Big May Events was my twentieth college reunion, and I brought the sandals with me. They were one of four pairs of shoes I brought for what was essentially a three-day event. I just didn’t know what would happen, as I hadn’t really worn them much beforehand. (I did wear them around my house a bit, and then I took them on a spin to a PTA event, but there was a lot of sitting at that event so it wasn’t a real test.) I wore the new sandals on the first day of my reunion. The reunion was delightful, but I was on my feet constantly, standing and mingling or walking around campus or dancing.
The first day, my Apple watch recorded 18,520 steps. My feet were extremely tired when I fell into bed at 11:30 that night. But I had zero blisters and zero excruciating pain – just the normal tired feet feeling I have after a normal day. The second day, my Apple watch said I took 17,537 steps. Again, when I fell asleep well after midnight, my feet were exhausted – as was I – but they didn’t feel any worse than they do when I’ve walked five miles in my sneakers. My shins were a little tired, but I think that’s because there was a lot of walking up and down hills that day. On day three, I only took 12,441 steps – but my feet felt great. No blisters, no excruciating stabbing pain in my heels or arches. Just the feeling of feet that have been used for their intended purpose.
Some reviewers noted that the shoes feel slightly loose or too big/wide. And I did notice this, with some concern. However, I think it worked to my advantage. My best guess is that my feet swelled a little during the day, so I didn’t notice any looseness after the first time I put them on. But neither did the straps cut into my skin the way a more fitted pair might have.
My new sandals were the only footwear I wore the entire weekend. I am going to go ahead and say that these shoes are magic. Because I have NEVER had such a good experience with shoes, pretty much ever. Especially not brand new shoes that haven’t been worn in! Plus, I really didn’t feel like I was compromising on cuteness – I felt like they were plenty cute enough to wear with sundresses and shorts.
Anyway, these are the shoes. I cannot speak highly enough of them and probably should order just ordered them in black as well. If you typically suffer from foot pain, but also like your shoes to be cute now and again, I highly recommend these.
