Birkenstocks

I've been alluding to my Birkenstock phase for awhile now.  So here's the story: When I was 19 the parents and I took a 3 week trip in which we drove to Washington DC, southern Illinois, and finally TX to visit my aunt.  We decided we needed really good shoes for all the walking we would also be doing, and decided to try Birkenstocks.  (side note:  my dad never goes sock-less so I made him buy short white socks so he wouldn't be wearing socks and black sandals on our vacation)  My first pair looked something like this:

 

Once I got them broken in I loved them and I started wearing them pretty much every day.  I wore them with shorts, jeans, skirts, dresses, you name it.  I took 2 1/2 years off between high school and college and did daycare.  It cools off a lot in MT at night, so in the mornings I would wear shorts, shirt, sweatshirt, Birkenstocks, and socks.  Yep, I was stylin'.  But I loved them.  I loved them so much I almost never wore other shoes.  I went into a shoe rut.  But I didn't have just the one pair.

 

After I got these I found the Papillio line and loved that they were patterned.  I couldn't find the exact pair I had, but these are sort of similar:

 

 

These became my "dressy" Birkenstocks.  After I got these, I became obsessed with getting a pair of slingbacks, and I really really wanted a blue pair:

 

 

I wore these 3 pairs of shoes until they all completely wore out.  In fact, I didn't give the blue pair to Goodwill until last summer (I had pretty much replaced them with my blue Keens, but I was nostalgic and couldn't get rid of them before that).

 

So I was obsessed.  Once I went to college I feel like all I ever wore was Birkenstocks and hiking boots.  I also stopped shaving my legs for about 3 years.  In fact, when my brother got married he had 3 stipulations for me being in the wedding:  I had to shave my legs, wear "normal" shoes, and dye my hair a normal color.  People who know me now probably wouldn't recognize the girl I was in college.  My family probably wishes they could forget her.  The BFF would hopefully just smile with memory.  Sometimes I miss that person.  It was a lot easier.  Although, my hair really did go through some unfortunate color choices.