You Remind Me

My sophomore year in college, I fell madly in love for the first time..

....with a pair of shoes.

I had gone to TJ Maxx looking for sensible walk-around-campus-every-day shoes. At the time I was working one night a week and every other weekend doing reception at a nursing home so my paycheck was paltry. As I perused the shoe aisles I took note of sensible Mootsie Tootsie flats, some Nine West loafers, ho hum. Then I saw them.

Black. Strappy. Stiletto. Rhinestones.

Super hot Enzo Angiolini sandals that cried out to me. They were, of course, utterly innapropriate as most first loves are. They also cost most of my paycheck. This did not stop me from buying them however and as I immediately changed into them outside of the store to wear on my drive home, I knew I had made the right choice. Sensibility be damned.

And those shoes saw me through many nights of debauchery, ladies nights, elegant evenings out, misty morning walks of shame, house parties and dinner parties. I would wear them with a knee length black lace skirt and black sleeveless turtleneck. Or with black pants and a one strapped black top. Or with a dress. Or with jeans and a fun top. There was nothing these shoes could not do.

And it was a dark day for me when they finally had to be retired, due to overuse and a broken heel. Sigh. As I placed them in their shoe box, and into the trash. I swear I could hear Taps playing quietly in the distance.

And I am not exagerating when I tell you no shoe has done it for me in that way since then. I mean, you never lose it for your first love.

And so yesterday, I went to that same TJ Maxx in Braintree, looking once again for a sensible shoe (this time, an everyday black sandal) and once again, Shoepid's arrow hit me in the dressy sandal aisle.

Enzo Angiolini. Stiletto. Rhinestones. Strappy. But Gold this time instead of Black.

It was a modern version of my original True Shoe Love. And again all thoughts of an appropriate everyday shoe fled my mind as I tried on these beauties and sashayed infront of the mirror.

And it didn't hurt that they cost half of what Zappos advertises them for.

Maybe it would have been more sensible to buy those sensible black sandals instead of this glittering homage to shoes gone by.

But it wouldn't have been nearly as fun.