Yesterday had highs and lows. I struggled early in the day with a situation that went against my values. I’d like to write about it but I don’t know if I can do so fairly, because it made cranky. And, as those situations often do, they kind of leave a bad feeling over the day. I kept reminding myself that it is a small thing (if highly annoying thing) that actually doesn’t need to affect me that much. But then, little things compound a bit on days like that. I was at work a lot later than I had wanted to be. I was stuck in traffic with a car so loud that it gave me a raging headache and I actually took a different route home to avoid it. I spent the day reminding myself that everything was just a small thing. But I still felt frustrated.

 

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

 

I headed out after work and arrived at a FRANKiE4 showcase evening a tad late. Ok, maybe nearly an hour late. What can you do when work runs overtime? It was a weird one for me personally, because I feel incredibly out of place at such a female & fashion oriented place. Give me mud and dogs any day. But, even since I saw fellow blogger & friend Gayel from Modern Mummy Mayhem wear their shoes, I’ve been hearing about their comfort level – shoe that talk about comfort as important? Sold. I started seeing them even more when Nikki from Styling You became their brand ambassador and then they were on my Instagram feed regularly.

 

You see, I have a crappy ankle tendon, and wide, size 10 feet. The combination of those three factors means that I hate shoe shopping because I can’t wear a large amount of shoes that exist on the market. Especially summer shoes – where is the support!? I’ve spent some time looking at what shoes women wear while I’m a shopping centre (ok, that sounds creepy in a way I hadn’t intended) and basically, I now call most sandals ‘cardboard shoes’ because I think it looks like a thin piece of cardboard that people are walking on.

 

Sadly I missed most of the showcase where Nikki was talking everyone through the FRANKiE4 range, but I went into the shop afterwards to have a look at the range of shoes. Also sadly, I was hoping to be working full time by this event to buy a pair (as they had a discount on the night) but alas, no. So I didn’t want to try any on given that I can’t afford to buy them. What I am looking for is a good quality pair of supportive shoes that cover work primarily, but also aren’t SO workey that I can wear them outside of work. I think one of these two styles will be what I look at when my bank account is healthier again:

 

 

 

My only hesitation about buying a pair of shoes that cost more than $30 (my usual shoe price) is that Brisbane gets a lot of rain. Especially in summer. It’s not unusual during summer for things to flood and you have to stomp through ankle deep water just to get on a train or a bus to get home from work. Now, obviously I don’t want to ruin a nice pair of shoes. But a giant pet peeve of mine is when people have shoes they only wear to work – for example, the bright white sneaker wearing brigade in otherwise really corporate suits & stockings (or tights, what the fuck is the difference?). I don’t know. I understand why they’re doing it but also I am never going to carry two paris of shoes on me. If I put a pair of shoes on to wear for the day, then I expect to wear them for the day.

 

 

 

Can I just talk about being an introvert for a moment? I actually never really thought of myself as one until I started reading  Quiet by Susan Cain after Clint from Reservior Dad reccomended it to me last year. It’s a funny thing, because I have no problem talking in front of groups, making a fool of myself, telling people in work situations that they’re wrong (in some situations, yelling until people listen because that’s all they will listen to – LONG story, that one!). I used to equate shy to introvert. And frankly, I’m a) not one for labels and b) possibly an ambivert. But I most certainly do recharge alone. So last night, when I finished work a lot later than I had expected, with the event having started already and with a half hour drive … “should I bother” was the first thing I thought. I got to my car and called my husband to complain that I wanted to come home, only for his irritating logic pointing out that if I just left now, I would be there for more than half the event at least.

 

As the image above suggests, I went out. I also sat in the corner a bit. But you know what? That’s cool. At least I went out after work instead of going home. I’m counting it as a win for me personally.

Just to add to the introvert’s bag of tricks excuses for not wanting to go out, I’m not a huge fan of driving. I appreciate the convenience and freedom of it, but I can’t say I’m a fan of ever doing it. Frankly, as a kid (before reality stepped in) I always assumed I would just have a limo that would drive me anywhere. What can I say? I have expensive tastes.

 

I don’t like hills. I don’t know why, but I found out randomly the other year I have a driving phobia on big hills. Ever since I realised I have the phobia, I feel worse on small hills. Stupid brains. I am mostly find around Brisbane because they’re all small hills, even if I do have to spend some of my time driving telling my brain that it’s being a douchebag. I had a vague idea of where the event was but it’s not a suburb I’m famliar with. As I was driving closer, I realised we were approaching hill territory. Cue another internal battle to just turn around and go home. A battle that I won, as opposed to my stupid brain.

 

I also don’t like driving in the inner city or city. Again, what can I say? I live in a place with quiet roads. This was particularly evident to me earlier this week when there were four cars (myself included) at a small intersection at about 7.30pm and I was all like “whaaaat? I have to pay attention to give way rules because other cars are in sight?” Thankfully I was going against the traffic last night so it actually didn’t matter much.

 

So that’s part of yesterday in my life, in a long blog post.

 

Tell me something about walking in your shoes that I might not know.