What the hack is with the heel?

   I am back on a high heel rant again.

   It may have been started by an article I read. Or maybe it was an ad that popped up in my Facebook feed. It could be lingering resentment to the media that projects high heels as ultimately feminine to my daughter in the cartoons. Perhaps it was yet another unsuccessful shopping trip to find a pair of comfortable, nice looking shoes that I could actually wear AND walk in without killing myself.

   I didn't used to be this sensitive. After all, pictured above are a pair of my shoes. Ones I used to love to wear. Shoes I miss and seem to be unable to give up, even though I can no longer wear them and expect to do more than just sit or stand. Due to the stereotypes that we are both exposed to on a daily basis, I have a daughter who loves them as much as I do.  They now live in the play room where I can visit them and reminisce about the good old days when shoe buying was as easy as walking to the store, picking out a style, and walking out with them on my feet. 

   I miss those days. So do countless other women, who like myself, find themselves unable to adhere to social style guidelines and norms due to feet that won't cooperate. I miss the days when articles like the one in the Wall Street Journal from Feb 21, 2016 titled "Why Dressing for Success Leads to Success" didn't grate on my nerves. I actually thought the article was pretty good until I got to the part that indicated for a woman to look professional, she needed to wear heels. Okay, the actual quote from Annie Brumbaugh (founder of AB Wardrobe Works) was "Wear heels when it's important, like when going to a meeting. One option: Those who don't want to walk in heels all day can keep a pair at the office."

   If I did that, I wouldn't make the meeting as I would have to be transported in an ambulance for my efforts.  Why that comment after all the good advice I read? Surely I could be professional without the high heel? On a quest, I googled women's professional work shoes. Guess what I saw? If you said a lot of images of high heels, you get a gold star! Many of these high heeled shoes certainly didn't strike me as suitable for an office. Perhaps the internet has a different kind of profession in mind for me...

   You could say that I am jealous that I can no longer wear high heels and you would be correct. As much as I hate the stereotyping, I enjoyed wearing high heels. I miss the ease of coordinating my wardrobe. I also miss the extra height they gave my 5'3" frame. Moreover, I am depressed that my options are so incredibly slender when it comes to footwear. Options that are made even more limited by an orthopedic insert I use to add support where my feet need it most. Orthopedic inserts do not typically work with shoes that have a heel. They don't generally work well with ballet style flats either as most of them are too shallow to accommodate the insert itself.  Which is a shame, as this is a prevalent shoe style that comes in many varieties to suit all types of tastes and fashion needs. Some styles are quite professional looking while others are more dressy and suited to formal occasions.

   Unless you plan on attending a very formal event, like the Cannes Film Festival, where the fashion police are out to dictate a woman's every choice, including flats. Just as recently as the 2015 festival, security reprimanded producer Valeria Richter for wearing flat shoes despite having a partially amputated foot. Other reports indicated that she was not alone. Apparently a group of women in their 50's were also barred from entering the festival for wearing rhinestone flats. Some of them evidently had medical conditions. Valeria told the BBC "Obviously, I could wave my foot at them and that would make the situation a little less awkward for them, because I had a visible explanation."

   Gee, that only leaves all the people without visible evidence in a lurch. Literally. Add a set of high heels to my outfit of choice and my gait resembles Dr. Frankenstein's assistant Igor's walk. Yeah, you can't un-see that! I suppose it is a lucky thing I am not a film producer.

   Determined to find a shoe that fits , I took to the internet again to try and find a suitable footwear solution for me. Since I do not have too many formal events on my calendar, I was just looking for a casual shoe I could wear from day to day. Something that could accommodate an orthopedic insert, was not too expensive, but dressy. Something that didn't scream orthopedic shoes the way clunky black shoes with velco fastners did!

  The internet seemed to think that athletic shoes were dressy. They even popped up when I entered formal into my criteria. I have a pair. I would not define them as dressy and certainly not formal. They might be suitable for the gym or hanging out in the yard or even a walk around the block, but not really what I had in mind to accent a skirt and dressy top for an evening out. Did I mention that I don't particularly like athletic shoes? Refining my search brought interesting results. There were shoes out there for women that were not athletic or clunky black shoes with velcro straps, but after culling out the flip flops and high heels (yes, there are orthopedic flip flops, but how they accommodate an insert is beyond my humble intelligence) I was left with an interesting array of shoes that on average, cost more than my monthly grocery bill.


   Yes, I know shoes are expensive. Yes, I put aside money for shoes, but I was really hoping to get shoes - plural, so that I could change them out according to the occasion. Thinking I had better stay on task and settle for one pair of shoes to start with, I began selecting shoes that appealed to me. This took me to a website that sold the shoes. However, turns out that the shoes I selected were not actually ones that would accommodate an orthopedic insert, they were just a shoe variety that the company happened to make. The ones that they made that actually would allow you to put in an insert...well, they looked an awful lot like athletic shoes. I had much better luck with the sandals I selected. They came in several styles and would allow you to take out the foot bed and replace with your orthic, but many were rather pricey. Less so if you ordered on-line.

    To make on line purchases seem less scary, I came across the website Barkingdogshoes.com put together by shoe reviewer Kirsten Borrink. Her website markets her as a reviewer of comfortable shoes, but she goes beyond that with a user friendly website that allows you to pick and choose between problems, styles and brands. Prices are also not a mystery, as I found so common on orthopedic shoe websites. Although I have multiple issues to deal with, I found this site helpful in my research quest.

My kids shoes - current formal dress shoes

   Still, I am leery of shopping on line. If it is anything like shopping in stores, I would have to purchase and try on dozens of shoes to find the one that had the right fit and the right look. Making things more complicated, many of these shoe manufacturers I had not encountered before. In the shoes I own at home, I wear a size 7, size 7 1/2, size 5 kids (I am thinking this is a fluke) and a size 8. Just how many shoes would I have to order to find what fits? While some of the prices were better than I would find in a store, many were just as expensive or more so since there is shipping to consider. Not to mention that I would sure need a heck of a lot of credit to ship all those shoes back and forth.

   Which brings me back to my original problem. Finding a store with shoes I could wanted to wear. A store that didn't focus on high heels or athletic shoes. One that had variety outside of ballet flats and flip flops. (I am still trying to figure out how flip flops will handle an orthotic.) One that carried some selection that might possibly accommodate an orthopedic insert. One where I could try the shoes on my feet with my orthotic. One where I could purchase shoes and still feel comfortable feeding my family next month.

My hiking shoes are looking pretty good these days.

Monday Musings - Things that make you go UMMMM...

   We sometimes come across things that make us go Um...

In Disney, we came across this. 

We wondered what sort of individual would lob off Micky's head, then sell headless Mickys in a store. It gave us the creeps. So we fixed the problem. Much better, don't you think? 

Guess the Gingerbread man didn't run all that fast after all.

I often wondered about this picnic shelter. Note the picnic bench underneath.

And Just who comes up with signage pictures?

She is safe, right?

Perhaps I am not the person intended for this cook top. I know, maybe if I just grow a little.

Gonna make teaching kid to cook interesting.

Not to worry, everything is labeled.

Well, alrighty then!

Blogger with a beak

   My person seems to be suffering from writer's block this week.

   I like to help out my person. I often do. Ask her, she will tell you I am good with the delete key!

   So while my person decided to go for a walk on this unseasonably warm day, I headed to her abandoned laptop and pulled up the blogging web site. I am quite accustomed to touch screens and very good at navigating them. After dusting off the keyboard I decided to get started.

   I had typed a great deal when I discovered I had a problem. I had written everything in Bird. Since most of her readers aren't birds, they probably wouldn't be able to understand anything I had typed. Bummer. I saved the file for a later day when I may publish my own blog for a bird audience, and started over.

   This project was a little harder than I anticipated. I headed for a cup of coffee to give me inspiration and opened the front door to let more light in the living room. It brightened things up considerably! And there were so many birds outside singing and playing and flying, despite the fact that it is pretty windy. I began to sing from my perch on my coffee cup and several of them came to the porch to talk to me. We had quite a good time catching up, but then I realized that the morning was passing and I still had this blog entry to write!

   I bid my feathered friends good-bye and had another drink of coffee and tapped at the keys. As I listened to the wind blowing and felt the sun warming my feathers I thought about camping. I sure wished I was camping. Both my person and I get lots of inspiration when we are camping. Maybe it is because the scenery is different. Maybe because we are relaxed. Perhaps it is because none of the nagging day to day responsibilities are present. Unfortunately the camper is still under its winter tarp and probably will be for the next month. I am a bit saddened by this thought as I really like camping.

   To take my mind off camping, I preened my back feathers. The warmth of the sun made this a pleasant task. Feathers require a lot of care and preening. Yesterday my person gave me a bath in the sink with nice warm water (I am partial to warm water) and I am still fluffy and shiny today. To keep up my good looks, I decide a quick bath is in order, so I hop in my water cup and splash around a bit, then I preen very carefully, making sure to leave feathers everywhere. My person likes feathers, after all, she picks them up all the time. Just the other day she told me that she had enough feathers to make an entire bird out of! Just think how cool that would be, a bird that looks exactly like me.

   Excited by this prospect, I check out the mirror. Just as I thought, good looking bird looking right back at me. I offer the good looking bird some kisses and snack on my treats. As I am eating, the timer on the dryer goes off, indicating that it is time to change loads, but I don't think my person is back yet, which reminds me, I am supposed to be writing a blog!

   I fly down for another drink of coffee, but find it has gone cold. I am sure a second cup will help, so I make my way to the kitchen and ponder about what I should write. Should I talk about kid who lives in the house and plays beautiful music? I especially like the violin piece she is working on right now. Sometimes I sit in her room and listen to her play.

   Perhaps I could talk about the fella that lives here. He is pretty good about feeding me and telling me how wonderful I look. It is enough to make a bird vain. I like chewing on his glasses case and pushing his phone off the couch and onto the floor.

   Or should I write about the time I flew around the house and disappeared for about an hour while my family looked everywhere for me?  It was interesting to see how and where they searched. In the end they found me on a shelf among the toys and stuffed animals. My person scolded me, though I don't think she was too serious. Kid said sometimes she wished I was more like their last bird. He apparently talked more people talk, played ball on the floor and would fly to them when he was called. I cannot think of why I would want to do that! My person explained to kid that I had a different personality and was special in different ways. She is right. I am very different. I do speak a little people (I am especially fond of the words "Uh Oh" and "Peek") but unlike their last bird, I like to climb into things, like my Kleenex box, which my person calls my playhouse. I prefer being in my cage where I can easily hop up to look in the mirror and get a snack any time I like. Mind you, I like the door to my cage open, but only so that I have the option of going out...if I want to. I am also terrific at shredding and picking apart things.

   But right now I am concerned that I am not getting very far with my blog entry. Utilizing the delete key, I edit what I have already typed. Seems I have to do this quite a bit. Editing is a lot of work. It tires me out. Perhaps I should take a nap.

   Well, would you look at that? There is my person now. She is kinda possessive of this laptop. I think now would be a very good time to publish this post and go take a nap, leaving all this writing stuff to my person.

Talk to you next time I hit the keyboard!

Chocolate....

   This weekend I had a birthday! It was great!

We had chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream.

  There were Dark Chocolates and Chocolate covered cherries..

There was a bucket of chocolate (M&Ms inside)

AND Chocolate Cherry Coffee!

Spent some time eating this chocolate in front of the fire.

People seem to have the idea that I like chocolate.

They would be right.

Especially when it comes to dark chocolate.

I was taken out to breakfast and dinner. No real responsibilities....

It was sooo nice.

Today it is Monday. Today I have to adult. 

Sigh.

How Romantic are you?

   Someone sent me one of those How Romantic Are You quizzes...

   I didn't really like the answer it gave me. What did they mean I was not at all romantic? I have to be romantic. Heck, even my birthday is on Valentine's day! I decided the quiz was just stupid and determined I could better measure my romance level by analyzing my life and surroundings. So I began by going around my house and labeling things as romantic and seeing how they measured up.

I started with my pet. I have a romantic pet. She is small and can stand on your shoulder but doesn't like to cuddle. She chews on things and refuses to answer when she is called. She swears at you when you try to coax her out of her cage and has been known to throw the cell phone on the floor. And even though she is small, she can leave a huge mess. Like leaving feathers in my favorite beverages. She bites too.

And why does it look like she has set the room on fire behind us?

Okay, I don't have a romantic pet.



  But I definitely have a romantic car. It has seating capacity for seven! Seven people in a car is romantic, right? The seats even fold down for extra storage capacity, for things like groceries and stuff. Nothing more romantic than groceries, is there? Well, perhaps it is the smooth clean lines of the vehicle that make it romantic.

Okay, the car is dirty. So I don't have a romantic car.

   But I definitely have a romantic job.

Well, maybe not that romantic...

 All right, perhaps not at all.

   At least I do a lot of romantic things....like candle lit dinners.

Oops, that is a lamp and sunlit breakfast.

   Since I did not seem to be getting any positive results with my at-home study, I felt I should do some research on the subject. Perhaps I just didn't understand the definition of romantic. My research indicated that being kidnapped by a pirate/highlander/cowboy and being swept away and held against one's will was supposed to be romantic. This was kinda depressing since I had my doubts that a pirate was going to be wandering down our suburban side street any time soon. Moreover, I am not sure that I would want to be swept away by some sweaty highlander who mostly likely hasn't had a shower in a week. And a cowboy? I get saddle sores just thinking about it.

   More of my research indicated that flowers and candles were involved as well. That sounded nice. I like flowers and candles. Candles at restaurants are even better. When you get bored waiting for your meal you can make little wax people and balance them on the end of your butter knife, hovering them over the flame, pretending to sacrifice them to a volcano. That's fun. There was also a suggestion that chocolate was romantic. I like chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Unfortunately chocolate usually involves sharing and that can get pretty ugly when dark chocolate is involved. In addition to this, I read that it is considered romantic to take moonlit walks along the beach. Whoa, I draw the line there. I mean really, a moonlit walk on a beach, in Chicago, in February? That reads more like frostbite than romance. Count me out!

Perhaps I am not very romantic at all.

   At first I was sort of sad, but then I got to thinking: Who decides what make something romantic? Looking at images on the internet, I started to suspect that this whole romance idea was thought up by greeting card companies and florists. That sounded more like profit than it did love. And isn't love at the heart of romance? Perhaps if I explored what I loved, I would find my romantic side. With this in mind, I did a reassessment.

Turns out, I have an excess of love!

  

   My pet plays hide and seek and does things that things that make you say Awwww. I absolutely love that! And I love playing with her in her little "houses." While maybe not truly romantic, it works on my love scale. 

   I have a daughter who would melt your heart. She does mine. Anything that melts your heart and makes you warm inside gets top billing on my love scale.

Finally, I found my romantic side!!!

     I have a sexy, romantic husband.

Because absolutely NOTHING is more sexy than a man with a vacuum!

   He gets top billing. It just makes me go all mushy inside watching him waltz around the dining room with a cord in tow. Maybe later we will sit down to a candle lit dinner and sacrifice little wax people to the volcano at some classy establishment. After that, we can forgo frostbite and snuggle under the afghan in the living room while watching some cool action flick. Now that sounds like real romance! That is my romance for sure.

How romantic are you? I would love if you would share!

    

Pet musings

   When considering a pet it is always important to consider the size of the pet you would like to take care of. For our family, this meant a small pet. One that would be easy to take care of, yet fun for our family.

Chirp came to live with us.

  Even though she was small, she was  lots of fun to play with....

Peek-a-Boo

Aww, aren't they just cute?

But there were unexpected things that we had not fully taken into consideration.

For instance, Chirp needed her own bathtub.

So we got her one.

This proved to be quite messy.

   And like any other pet, Chirp felt she was just another family member...

She wanted to eat what we were eating.

Using our utensils. 

And off our plates.

And from our bowls.

Did I mention she liked our drinks?

No matter what we were drinking....

We really have to keep a close eye on her.

She likes to help with writing too...

Sometimes a bit too much.

I really enjoy her company and have gotten used to sharing with her, But as every good pet owner, I draw the line at some things.

Hey! That is MY COFFEE!