The beginning of the end?

The other day, it hit me. The career path I've chosen isn't exactly on the cutting edge of fashion. Most likely, I will be stuck in scrubs and running shoes or some sort of tennis shoe on a daily basis. Worst case scenario depending on where I chose to work, it'll be some sort of plastic shoe that can easily be hosed off or disinfected (read: anything but Crocs. I refuse to submit. REFUSE, I say!). No more 4" heels of fabulousity during work hours. Soon, my fragile ankles and arches will no longer be able to tolerate a night of dancing in anything but my suede Pumas. This whole thing is really bumming me out!

The other day, I sat with my collection of beautiful shoes and gave them a good dusting. Yes, that's right...they sit, unused, day after day, collecting *dust*. It pained me so. Online, I recently came across a pair of Circa Joan & David t-strap gold and brown peep toe heels that were selling for the bargain price of $27.99, shipping included. They usually retail for $140. I couldn't resist. Here they are:


Oh, I love them. And then I thought, where am I going to wear these? Jeff would say, "Hello!? Grocery shopping!", and as hot as that sounds, I have about as much use for these shoes as I do for the trusty Trainer's Angel. At dinner the other night, a friend asked if my Uggs (yes, I wore them to dinner) were actually slippers. I've never been so embarrassed of my footwear choice! The Counselor, too, called me out on my Ugg-wearing at jury duty, although in my defense, the point is to look as disheveled and irresponsible as possible, thereby convincing the lawyers not to select me for their jury. See how that works? ;)

Because I don't really have a reason to dress up these days and with my future career in nursing, I have to ask, is it possible that I'm losing my sense of style? I *am* currently wearing sweatpants, for crying out loud. Don't believe me? Think I'm bluffing? Peep this, bitches:


Yeah, that's right. Keepin' it classy. Yes, these are the very same sweats that I wore during my bathtub caulking extravaganza and the remnants of my epic fail can still be seen there on the left leg. Is it all over for me? The way I figure, as long as I FULLY renoucnce the evil Crocs, there's still hope for me. But, bloody hell, I'm in some serious fashion dire straits.

In an attempt to avoid completely taking up residence in Frumpville, I did wear a dress and the above shoes to meet DJC for lunch on Friday. He looked surprised, but complimented my appearance and made me blush a little. It felt nice to hear that I can still pull it off when I want to. The problem is that I just don't really want to anymore. Weird.

My day at the Soulceity show

I'm a TV dance show fan. I'm currently loving America's Best Dance Crew on MTV. The show is in it's third season and there's some seriously amazing talent competing for this year's title. Periodically, crews from past seasons perform at various shows all around the country. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend such a performance.

Soulciety, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering and educating overseas youth, hosted a benefit yesterday in Alameda, CA, which happens to be where I live. In speaking with NancyT at Blogging America's Best Dance Crew and Ron Carino at Soulciety, I agreed to cover the event for the blog. Through her, I was able to get in early (during a run through of the show) to go backstage and interview two ABDC alumni crews, Supreme Soul from San Francisco and ASIID from Detroit. I will post a link to the article when it goes up. Thanks Nancy and Ron!

When I say that I was able to get in early, what that meant was that I was asked to show up at the same time as all the high school kids who were volunteering. The kids ranged from age 14 to 18 and WOW, was I out of place...it was pretty obvious that I was the old odd man out. 4" heels at an urban hip-hop event? Yeah, not so much. Mental note: if ever attending an event of this type again, the black suede Pumas would have been much more appropriate. Pumas, skinny jeans (which was the only part of the dress code that I managed to get right) and some sort of black oversized top that has been modified with scissors. Total apparel FAIL. Clearly, my time on the hard streets of the Blackhawk Country Club did not serve me well here.

Anyways, most of my day involved a lot of waiting. I assumed that the director of the event would introduce me to the groups so that I could interview them, but he had his hands FULL with the last minute event planning details and left me to sit in the auditorium. Totally understandable. I watched most of the show run-through and was really impressed with most of the acts even though they were just doing a dry run of their performances. After taking matters into my own hands and getting my interviews with the dance crews, I was satisfied and went home. When I left, I didn't really intend to go back for the actual show. I figured I had seen most of the performances and that was good enough.

But I did go back. And I'm SO glad I did. The run through was nothing. Put people in the seats and the performers come to life. Half of the people that performed didn't warm up their acts in the run through. I would have missed them had I not gone back. I sat there for the entire two hour show with a huge smile on my face. The audience's energy was positive and exhuberant. We were treated to two unreal beat boxers, DJs, DJs with a solo violinist, spoken word poets with cello and stand up bass accompaniment and some of the most unique dance companies I've ever seen. I was truly entertained. I'm SO happy that I went back. It was an incredible night for a great cause and I am happy to report about it now.

I'll keep you all posted on when the article and interviews go up on Nancy's site. For now, I'm off to get some work done. Peace. =)

New shoes! YAY!

Man, its been a while since I've done a new shoe post, and that's mainly because I haven't really bought any new pairs for months. But the recent email from Beverly Feldman and my upcoming birthday inspired me. That brings us to my newest shoe infatuation:

I never knew I could love a pair of shoes so much! I smile every time I pass them in the hall. These are the same beauties I posted about here, and once I started thinking about them, it was all over. I couldn't resist. So, happy birthday to me! And despite the 4" mega heel, they're actually really comfortable. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself. In reality, I've been out of the practice of walking in shoes like this long enough that my ankles feel weak and teetery. It's tragic, I know.

About 6 months ago while I was still gainfully employed, I bought several pairs of dressy shoes for work, knowing full well that most of my coworkers wore running shoes on a daily basis, and some didn't even bother to tie the laces. I could have succumb to the comfort of my New Balances, but life's just too damn short to look frumpy, ya know? So, even though they're not nearly as glamorous as the previous pair, here's a sampling of the shoes that I picked up for "work":

Although the heel measures only a mere 3", I still really like these. Best of all, they're from Naturalizer. Bet you never would have guessed that one, huh? Yes, Naturalizer actually makes *gasp* cute shoes. This next pair is also from Naturalizer:

Although most people seem to equate Naturalizer with dumpy, instantly comfortable nurse shoes, these guys were anything but. I actually had to stretch them with shoe trees for about a week before I could tolerate a whole day without kicking them off under my desk more than once a day. (Note that I generally wear these with pants and trouser socks, so they might look a little strange in the picture. Actually, they're really cute. The gray material is flannel and offsets the shiny patent leather nicely.)

Anyways, that's it for now. I'm gonna be strutting around my house for the next few days wearing the first pair with socks in an effort to break them in a little before their debut at the wine bar on Saturday. Hopefully, my ankles will remember how to walk in 4" heels by then!!

SHOE SALE ALERT!!

There are a few shoe designers that I am extremely partial to. Beverly Feldman is one of them. Her shoes are quirky, unexpected, and unique, while still being very wearable. Normally, her inventory is priced just slightly out of the range of what I can justify or afford, but every now and then I get a glorious email announcing a sale. Today, I got a big one with "UP TO 75% OFF!" as the title! Yeeeee!!! Shoes!!! I can feel my heart rate increasing!!

I clicked through, browsed the offerings and picked out four pairs I desperately wanted before coming to grips with the fact that I don't have a job and I need another pair of shoes like I need another hole in my head. I mean, really...do I need these when most of my daily activities involve slogging through the campus of the local junior college:

The hard truth is no. But damn it, my birthday is coming up soon, and I really, reallly, REALLY love these:

Holy shit, they are beautiful. But they might be a little much for a pharmacology class. But even if the first two pairs are pretty over the top, there are these, which are understated, classic and easily wearable:


You see my dilemma. What's a jobless, junior -college-attending shoe whore to do?! Maybe I will treat myself. My birthday is coming up, after all, and everyone deserves pretty things that make them happy on their birthday!!

(See what I'm trying to do, there? I'm trying to convince myself that I need, naaah, deserve a new pair of frivolous shoes. I'll keep you posted on what happens!)

If you're in the market for a new pair of funky shoes, hit up Miss Beverly's site. She won't let you down!

As much as this hurts to admit...

...I was totally wrong about Uggs. Damn it, I know. You might want to sit down. This is an EPIC post. Srsly.

So, I've gotta go to Milwaukee for Christmas. Yeah, you read that right...Wisconsin. In December. As you may or may not know, I don't do cold. AT ALL. In years past, when I've gone to Chicago for Thanksgiving, I've always made poor footwear choices. Whether bringing boots with heels that are too high and uncomfortable to do any sort of real, actual walking, or bringing along shoes that seem warm until the freezing wind, snow and slush on Michigan Avenue turns my little piggies into popsicles, trips to the Midwest have always been a huge shoe FAIL for me. I was determined to be more comfortable, warmer and drier this year. So, I bought a pair of Uggs. Black, classic, short, kids' Uggs, size 6M.

Just an FYI: for those of us ladies with smaller feet, say under a size 8 1/2, don't spend your money on adult Uggs. A kids' size 6M is equal to an adult size 8. Same shoe, cheaper price. You're welcome... =)

Anyways, when I taught high school not too long ago, all the hoochies young ladies wore tiny Abercrombie and Fitch microminis and Uggs. All year 'round. No matter the what the weather was like, the wardrobe never changed. Skirt that left nothing to the imagination, no tights, and Uggs. It was possibly the most HORRID fashion trend I could have ever imagined (keep in mind, the Crocs-virus had not yet been unleashed onto society). I loathed Uggs. They just looked so silly. I even seem to remember giving BT a fair amount of shit when she received a pair of Uggs slippers as a gift. And she swore that they'd never be worn out of the house!!

Well kids, today is a new day. Maybe because I wore 4" heels all day, and my right Achilles tendon has been hurting lately (especially after the amount of jumping I did in tonight's Core class), but I'm wearing my new Uggs now, and I'm serious when I say that I'm never taking them off. So comfortable! SO WARM! They feel like heaven on my achy feet. Even though I swore I'd never, ever, EVAR succumb to the Uggs, I have no doubt that they'll serve me well in Milwaukee. Feel free to rip into me if you must.

Yeah, I probably could have gone with something from La Canadienne and been a little more stylish, but hey, its Milwaukee and would anyone really think more of me for wearing a stylish shoe? My guess: No. The Uggs will do just fine, thanks. =)

Random photo dump

My new laptop has a slot for my camera's SD card and DJC recently found a good online program that re-sizes photos for those of us that don't have Photoshop (yet). I've been playing around with all the cool features of this program, hence, the 10,000 pictures you're about to see. Some of them are a bit older, but there's a good story behind each one. So, sit back and enjoy!

Here, we have a super-artsy, dark shot of SPL from the basement of Club Six I took last weekend. I'm impressed with the fact that this isn't horribly blurry, because seeing straight was not something I was capable of doing. Hooray for auto-focus! Such a great night. (EZ Sam!!)

I snapped this shot from a bench near a cafe that serves amazing pasta close to my office building. Can't really complain too much about the view, although it was a little chilly that day.

About a month ago, I walked into the Benefit salon on 4th Street to have my eyebrows cleaned up. As I was signing in, I noticed a shoebox sitting on the counter that looked like it was filled with elaborately ugly fabric. Then, the fabric moved, and this little guy popped his head out. I instantly melted, took like 15 pictures and cooed until my appointment time...and I don't even like cats!

I'm a total shoe-whore, but never, in a million years, could I pull these off. What I could do, however, is fall off of them and bust my head open. To add insult to injury (and increase my jealously), the person wearing these was dancing somewhat athletically...on a raised platform.

Bebel Gilberto crooning in smooth-as-silk Portuguese and transporting me to a sandy, sunny beach where the vacation drinks flow like water and the blue skies never end. This was taken at the Greek Theatre over the summer, where she opened for Thievery Corporation. Note: look at her shoes! LOVE!!

Nothing to see here. Move along. (Pizza FAIL!)

I spent yesterday afternoon oogling Lucky Girl's new little guy while DJC did his best to avoid the path of every child in the house (smart man). Eventually, we grew hungry and headed over to Don Pico's to stuff ourselves senseless. This picture is actually from the first time I was introduced to possibly the best mexican food around. The six of us decided to try the sopapillas and were quite surprised when this concoction showed up. When I commented about the size of the dessert (because usually sopapillas are not the size of a human head) stating that I had never seen anything like that, the waitress quipped, "That's because everywhere else makes them the lazy way". Sweeeeeet.

Holy cow, that's a long way down! Note the size of the cars along the right side. (From earlier this year at the Hoover Dam during my yearly Vegas birthday extravaganza.)

Taken from the balcony at the Otis Lounge in San Francisco. Every now and then, The Editor will play a super-sexy house set there and its always a good time. I love how swanky and pretty this place is. Strong drinks, too! Bonus!

Ok, that's it for now. Iron Chef is on and even though I ate WAAAY too much chili tonight, the squash battle is making me hungry. Catch ya'll soon!

Russell Crowe would not wear these

I have a burning confession to make. As a self-proclaimed shoe whore, I'm not afraid to say that I HATE the gladiator sandal trend. My good god almighty, they are ugly...and they're everywhere. It's kinda like the skinny jean trend but worse, because some people were smart enough to know that skinny jeans were heinous and shouldn't be worn. Not so with the gladiator sandal. Everyone seems to want to give these a go.

Not familiar with this unbelievably ridiculous trend? Here...take a gander:

I liken these to the Crocs phenomenon. Someone, somewhere publicly stated that Crocs, despite being designed by the Devil himself, were stylish and cool. Suddenly, Crocs were EVERYWHERE. High falutin ladies that carried small dogs in Burberry bags wore them with pride. They showed up at Nordstrom, for crying out loud! It was bad. Thankfully, Crocs' popularity has waned a bit, but I can't help think that the gladiator sandal has picked up where Crocs left off. Why are gladiator sandals cool? Because someone high up in the fashion world said they are, and because the majority of the public cannot decide for themselves, that's why. I see nothing attractive about them. And can one really get away with wearing them sans toga?

Ok, Ok. So, Russell Crowe might have worn these...but only for one movie and HELLO...it was a period piece! I really don't see where these fit in with today's current fashion.

Now, don't get me wrong. If I were forced to choose between leather strappy sandals or plastic insults to proper footwear, I'd choose the former any day. But, I still hate them. On everyone. In every style. Hopefully, they'll soon fade away into the annals of fashion, never to be heard from again. But until then, people, just say no to this silly trend. Like the skinny jean. Just walk away. Kthnxbai!

Stuff from all over

Ok, so we've got a lot to discuss tonight. First and foremost, dance. SYTYCD continued its current snooze-streak with another series of numbers that left me pretty cold...all except for both of Mia Michaels's choreography contributions. Here's the second one, featuring Twitch and Kherington in their PJs:

Oh goodness, Twitch is stunning. And I love the bedhead Kherington's got going in this one. The only negative...the excessive rose petals. The last time Twitch dropped them, it worked. All of the other throws seemed like overkill to me. The dance was gorgeous on its own. If you find yourself distracted by the flying rose petals, watch it again, and try to focus on the dancers. Lovely.

And despite the fact that I HATE the song, Will and Jessica's lyrical piece was also great. In fact, Will is my new hero. That leap at the beginning? WOW. (Thanks, as always, to kelxk3l for the uploading the vid! I don't know who you are, but you ROCK for always getting the clips up so quickly after the show. You must live on the east coast...)

Secondly, I almost feel like this news deserves its own post, but I'm just too lazy and writing about Brian Campbell is just something I can no longer devote any sort of energy to. The Sharks traded away my dear Big Bear (Steve Bernier) for the strawberry mountain man (Campbell) midseason and boy, what a flop of a trade that was. Bernier caught fire in Buffalo, while Campbell just sucked it up with the Sharks. All I can say is that the Blackhawks are a buncha chumps to cough up that much cash for an inconsistent Campbell. That said, good riddance, Soupy. LATES!!

At least five people came to my cube today to comment on my shoes, hair and clothes. Everyone stated that they all dressed like me when they started, but soon realized that the office is much more casual. Worth noting: I had trouser jeans on today...and yeah, I might have worn a pair of Beverly Feldmans, but sheesh! After my last wardrobe experience where I was constantly unprofessionally dressed, I'm not yet OK with how casual my new office is. It's OK, though...I'm sure I'll get there.

New song posted over there in the sidebar. Love this one. =)

Lastly, it happened again tonight. About two weeks ago during my Bodyflow class, I had an overwhelming urge to cry. I choked the tears down , but man, it was a strange thing for me. Crying during yoga? I've heard of such things happening, but had never experienced it. Earlier tonight, the same thing happened. I don't fully understand it, but I know it happens when we're going through the hip opening series...and I carry a TON of tension in my hips. I guess letting that go and giving in to the stretch is just an emotional thing for me. Weird shit, though.

Ok, that's it for now. Going to crash. Catch you back here soon. HUGS!

Serious opinions needed!

I have an interview tomorrow. While that's certainly a good thing, I'm kinda freaking out about what to wear. Ok, that's not entirely true...I've chosen a black pin-striped pants suit, with a gunmetal gray top underneath. What's stressing me out is the footwear.

My previous employer...let's just say she didn't feel any of the shoes I chose to wear to work were "appropriate". And for those of you who know me, I am a designer shoe whore. It's not like I was wearing flip-flops or Crocs, for God's sake! But despite my discerning taste in footwear, she wasn't feeling it. So, I'm a little worried about my shoe choice for tomorrow. I'm being interviewed by a man, who most likely wouldn't notice if I showed up in Aqua Socks, but I don't want to make the same mistake again. I need opinions. I need help.

So, what say you, people of the interwebs? I have several choices to run by you:

Option #1: Closed toe, patent leather Mary Janes with red heel. Fairly conservative, no?

Next we have these:

Closed toe, aubergine patent leather d'orsays, with gunmetal bow. A little less conservative because the inside is open. But I have a necklace with the same color in it that would look dope with the suit...

I don't have a pic of the third option and DJC is not home to take one for me! But they're a gunmetal patent leather pump with a peep-toe. It's the peep-toe thing that has me second guessing these. They'd look great with what I've chosen to wear, but is it unprofessional to show one's toes? I used to think that toes were not a bad thing, but after my last experience with the footwear-nazi, I'm not so sure.

And now, I pose the ultimate question: Stockings or not? This one keeps me up at night, people. Seriously. I hate the idea of knee-highs almost as much as I hate country music or onions, and I just don't know what to do here. Help!!

Any and all opinions are welcome. Interview slated for tomorrow morning at 9am. Wish me luck!!

New products and stuff

(Note: I cut the ever-living HELL out of my left thumb yesterday while trying to cut bread. My left thumb is my space bar thumb. Typing is really hard. Needless to say, my knife privileges have been revoked.)

I'm skipping the Tuesday Couch Potato Report this week (obviously). Because of the holiday weekend, most of the usual shows weren't on, and I just watched lots of movies....

On another note, I've been wanting to do a post for a while now on new things that I'm in love with, and I don't know why I picked today to do it, but recently, I've picked up a bunch of new items that deserve a little blog space...

First, I bought a new pair of running shoes. In the beginning, I LOVED them. But then, inexplicably, they went all sideways on me, and now I can't stand the way they feel. I have no idea what happened. I went the way of the Asics Oberon Gel and I think I'm feeling the reprocussions of betraying my love affair with New Balance. I'm still trying to make them work (with various inserts and whatnot), but I'm not holding my breath. Bummer...

Ok, so despite my love for hockey and burly sports, I love me a good pedicure. Here are a few cool things I've picked up recently to make my feets look bettah...

Not that I've worn anything but flip-flops and running shoes lately, but I used to spend lots and lots of time in stylish high-heeled torture devices. Apparently, Yoga Toes are great for stretching the feet out after a long day of modern-day footbinding. So far, I'm liking the way my feet feel after wearing them for about 30 minutes. I can't tolerate any longer than that, which apparently means that I need them! Stay tuned!

For super-smooth feet, look no further than the Ped Egg. Strange name, great product. Just be aware that even though the product description claims to catch all the dead skin, it doesn't. Using this thing should still be done over a trash can.

And lastly, once your feet are relaxed and dead skin-free, polish them up for sandal season with Nic's Sticks from OPI...if you can figure out how to control the brush. In theory, putting quick drying nail polish in pen form is a great idea. You can take them with you wherever you are and touch up chips in no time. YAY! Right?! Well, not quite. The execution of said idea is all kinds of off. First, the polish is too thick and doesn't go on smoothly, leaving lines and clumps. Secondly, the brush is the strangest thing I have ever seen. It's too wide and very hard to control, leaving polish all over the surrounding skin (note: this could just be due to operator error, but I struggle even with my dominant hand). I picked up "Feeling Girly" and "Do You Deliver?". Despite the problems, one coat of the light pink polish looks pretty cute. Any more than one coat, and its a mess. I've given up on "Do You Deliver?" even though I LOVE the color itself. It's a great red.

Ok, so it took me nearly an hour to type this post out, so I'm gonna give my thumb a rest for the day. Catch ya'll tomorrow, when I'm sure I'll have more amazing SYTYCD audition videos to post. Cheers!

Stuff from around the way...

As a former diver, this totally cracked me up.

What? It's Monday morning, I'm still jobless, the Sharks lost last night, and I have to go to an interview today at the EDD to prove that I've been looking for work. I needed a silly, harmless laugh, OK?!? Hee-hee! =)

In other news, damn it, ITS TRUE!! I totally love New Balance running shoes, although my reasons have less to do with Nike's sweatshops and more to do with the fact that Nikes just DO NOT fit human feet. I implore you to find a single person on this Earth who wears Nikes because they actually fit or feel good on his or her feet. Damn you, Air Jordan, for making inferior footwear so popular amongst the masses of teenage hip-hoppers and amateur thugs who will spend hundreds of dollars on one pair, but then cannot afford a simple belt to hold up their sagging pants. Damn you, indeed! But I digress...

When you meet a person wearing New Balance shoes it is a good idea to ask them about the marathon for which they are inevitably training. If they say “I’m not training for a marathon,” this is a good opportunity to raise your status by saying “oh, I thought only runners wore those. My running club all wear New Balance except for a few jerks who won’t shut up about Asics. I’m still a bit sore from the 10k run this morning.”

And ya know what? I like Asics, too. Both Asics and New Balance are very good shoes for people with feet that tend to pronate...like me. But again, I digress. The above paragraph is just awesomely hilarious. Raise your status... AAAHAHAHAHA!

Go out there and have a great Monday! Cheers to ya! =)