high heels

high heels are great. they make your legs look super foxy, give your calves an extra kick, keep your pants from dragging on the ground, and nine times out of ten they are cuter than flats.

but don't be fooled - because high heels are the plight of woman. maybe they're not the plight of all women but they are the plight of this woman. i hate high heels! they are incredibly uncomfortable. my feet are wide and were not created to be jammed into those skinny little shoes. they're fine for special occasions, but i don't like wearing them and towering above men.

i see a lot of women around the city put sneakers on with their nylons and skirts or business suits to walk to lunch. it looks ridiculous, but it makes sense. it makes so much sense that i find myself wondering who set up this whole ridiculous high heel wearing predicament in the first place? why are outfits designed to be worn with heels that are uncomfortable and bad for our bodies in the long run?

i should have known the heels i had on last week would pose a real problem when my feet hurt just walking from my house to my car. ouch.

they were cute black banana republic heels. but do you know what's not cute? looking down at your feet during a meeting to see ginormous red blisters. then hobbling around for the rest of the day. getting home and needing band aids for the monster blisters ... for an entire week!

i assumed that expensive banana republic shoes would be at least mildly comfortable, but no. and the fact is i bought them for $5 at goodwill. they looked brand new - and now i understand why. i bet the woman who wore them before me wore them exactly one time and knew she couldn't bare the pain ever again. and i pity the woman who buys them at goodwill next, because that's where i'm taking them.

another pair of heels that i actually loved - i called them my hooker boots, just a basic black leather boot - were a great asset for winter outfits. until lo and behold when i was walking through the state capitol one day, smiling and saying hello to a senator, i suddenly stopped, realizing my heel had just broken. it was dangling on, but i couldn't walk on it, so i literally had to hop the rest of the way to where i was going.

chivalry is alive and well inside the capitol, and as i approached the elevator, a gentleman held the elevator for me. of course he did, because it seemed like i was a modest distance away and i would be there in a few quick steps. but my heel was broken and by the time i shuffled into that elevator everyone was smiling, suppressing laughter.

"yup, my heel broke!" i announced, and the one other woman in the elevator sympathized and told me about when that happened to her.

when i hobbled back to the office and told my fellow intern what happened she cracked up and told me it's probably because i drag my feet when i walk. thank you. not only are my feet wildly uncomfortable in heels, it's now been confirmed that it's obvious to everyone around me that i can't walk normally in heels either.

but on the bright side, my feet have no trouble running or conquering nature. on one of my first dates with lance we went hiking, and he still talks about how impressed he was at how quickly i scampered through the creek like pocahontas. ha. i like that.

i've always been more of a nature girl than a material girl. but i'm just enough of a material girl that i hate sacrificing fashion for comfort completely. so i find myself dreaming of creating a line of shoes. ones that are cute and comfortable enough that they can be worn to lunch without a sneaker swap or blisters. but until then, if you have any suggestions for comfortable dressy shoes, please send them my way.