Yay!

Today was a good day.  Well, not so much for the hubby, who woke up with an icky tummy and thus couldn't participate in the good day.  Poor hubby.  But I got to drive to the East Bay and meet a friend for lunch.  But not just any friend, a friend I worked with at Christikon (Lutheran summer camp in Montana), and whom I haven't seen in almost 20 years!  Which is just crazy, since I know I worked at camp no more than 5 years ago.  It was really great to see her again and finally meet her hubby.  They have 2 children, a boy who is 7, and a girl who is 4 (she is 10 days younger than Laughter, and clearly they were both born under a very dramatic aligning of stars).  Their son spent the time telling me all of the Alcatraz facts he learned on their tour.  He was clearly fascinated, and he definitely paid attention to the audio tour.  Their daughter chatted about lots and lots of different stuff and may or may not have been thinking of a way to steal my wedding rings. :-)  It was so much fun, and so so wonderful to see her again after all of this time.  JJS looks great and seems happy, which makes me happy.  Her suggestion for tonight's blog was Wisconsin (where they are from), and plaid.  So here we go:

Of course when I looked up Wisconsin shoes I got sports results.  I don't know a lot about Wisconsin, so I didn't look up anything more specific.  I do know Bucky the Badger, though, because a friend of mine from Texas went to school in Madison.  Bucky was pretty much the first mascot I could recognize outside of the mascot from my own alma mater.

 

And of course the Packers.  Just makes me think of cheeseheads.  I kind of like the yellow one, though.

 

Moving on to plaid, which is more fun.  These look very bright and summery to me.

I like these too, but maybe they're a little more springy looking?   Or even fall?

I think JJS  was wearing Birkenstocks today, or at least sandals that looked like Birkenstocks. I opted not so be a shoe stalker for once in my life and didn't ask, but I thought some plaid Birks would be fun.

And these are just adorable.

I have no idea if JJS wears heels or not.  We worked at summer camp, so most shoes were very very practical (Camp/Author Friend's ginormous platforms notwithstanding), and I wasn't in a shoe phase at that point, so didn't have a lot of conversations about them.  Regardless, I thought this was a very cute plaid wedge.

So it was a good day, and I am happy I got to spend part of it with JJS and her family.

BFF

Today was Best Friend Day, so obviously tonight's shoes will all be purple in honor of the BFF:

The last 2 are way more the BFF's style (in fact I think she actually has that pair of Birkenstocks, or a pair very similar).  She's not a crazy shoe person like I am, but that's OK as I love her anyway.  She can always make me laugh no matter how crappy I'm feeling, she knows me inside and out (which is why she's stuck being my BFF...she knows too much for me to let her go), we have our own language, love the same movies, have the same mad love for the Beatles. and have a million inside jokes that aren't funny to anyone but us.  I don't need a day to remind me how lucky I am to have her as my BFF, but it's still nice to get to celebrate.

Palm Sunday Birthday

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and the day when we celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.  I had really good intentions of going to church but woke up with the sinus headache from hell and stayed in bed instead.  Which stinks, because I enjoy  Palm Sunday.  Although, I'm not as fond of reading the passion on the same day.  I get it, lots of people don't go on Good Friday, so don't hear the Passion, but still.  I guess I'm a Palm Sunday purist.  Oh well, let's look at shoes:

Very Beachy, not so much Palm Sunday churchy, but I'd still wear them.

Shoes made out of Palms!  This is waaaaay more complicated than simply making a cross out of your palm.  Not quite as symbolic, though.

Also Beachy, but I really want a pair like this for next Palm Sunday.  I do love a theme!

Or these!  Although the above pair would show better under my alb if I'm back in the parish.

These are kind of tie-dyed looking palms.  But I love the colors.

Today is also extra special for another reason:  It's DJ's 18th birthday!  I can hardly believe it's been 18 years since this little bundle of energy came into our lives.  She's about to graduate high school and go into the navy.  She wants to be a nurse.  She's currently taking EMT classes.  She's amazing.  Since she was born in 1997, here are some shoes from that year:

Ahhh...clunky platforms.  Not palms, but plant related.

Whoa.  And damn.

Doc Martens.  I never owned a pair, but man were they popular.

Stripes, good.  Rainbow colors, awesome.  Platforms this crazy, well, crazy.

This is the exact shoe I wore for a good chunk of 1997.  This or hiking boots.  I did have some dress shoes, but I wasn't going through much of a shoe craze at that time.

DJ, of course, spent 1997 in adorable baby shoes, and being adorable in general.  Happy Birthday, oldest niece!  Love you to the moon and back!

Grumpapotamus

That has been me the last 2 days, grumpy grumpy grumpy.  For no real reason that I can articulate.  I've just been a snarly, moody mess.  Maybe hormones.  Maybe not.  All I know is blah.  And that I want to kick the hubby.  (just because he's around.  but I haven't.  but he is the one that has had to put up with the grumps)  I'm pretty sure I need this shirt:

This way, on mornings I wake up feeling snarky, I could put it on and give everyone fair warning.  Maybe I should get more than one, in multiple colors.

In an effort to cheer myself up, and sort of going with the theme, tonight's selection of shoes features hippos.

Blue baby hippo shoes!  I'm cheerier already.

These are hilarious.  Maybe I need to start a collection of whimsical Birkenstocks with animals on them.  People already think I'm weird, so why not?

These look rather snuggly and comfy .

These are adorable and I want a pair.

These might actually be cows...

Must.  Find.  Pattern.

I almost missed these, and I'm so glad I didn't because these might be my favorites.

That helped.  The grumpapotamus has been cheered up by the hippopotamus.  Lots more than one, so technically hippopotami.  Hopefully the cheer will carry over into tomorrow.s

Sheepses

Today the BSF sent me this:

Sheepies!  Why did she send me such a picture, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  When she and I were taking Homilectics (that's a fancy word for preaching class) in seminary, the text for my first sermon was the one where the sheep recognize their master's voice.  So there I was, nervous as hell and talking about sheep when I made a little bouncy sheep motion.  Did you know sheep were bouncy?  Anyway, it has become a silly joke with us and we make the hand gesture whenever we hear the word sheep.  Clearly this was a sign that tonight's post needed to be about sheep shoes (say that 10 times fast).

 

Sweet little baby sheep slippers would definitely inspire the hand motion!  I kind of want these in my size...

I don't really know what to say about these.  They're just too cutesy for me.  I guess they're sweet in a 50s nursery wallpaper sort of way, but as much as I like the style of the shoes I just can't get on board with this pattern.  And what's up with the bondage sheep?

Way more adorable.  I saw these in pink and blue, too.  Or maybe these are pink?  I thought they were red when I first saw the picture, but maybe not.  Either way, I like them.  Cute but not creepy cute.

 

Is it wrong that I want these?  I find them hilarious, and I would smile every time I looked at my feet.  And then do bouncy sheep motions until people thought I was crazy.  Or crazier.

 

OK, these are just wrong.  Seriously?  What the hell is even going on here?  I'm scared of the wedding that would involve these.

 

Much better.  Like a little green palate cleanser.

And we're back to the bondage sheep.  This time in a heel with a polka dot bow.  Who wears these??
 

I honestly like these best of the 3.  At least the spikes and the black bow make more sense, and help to balance the creepy cute bondage sheep.

Sheep Birkenstocks!  You didn't think I'd leave you with that last pair, did you?

Blast From The Past

I wrote about my Birkenstock phase recently.  Then as I was going through some pictures this past weekend I found this:

 

I think I was about 19 in this picture.  Maybe 20.  I was out with a friend of mine and she took this picture of me showing off my Birks. No idea if there was more of a backstory to this picture, but here you go...proof of my obsession.  I don't usually post pictures with my face in them, but since this one is almost 20 years old I figure it's not bad.  This could almost be anyone.  My mom made the overall shorts that I'm wearing.  I had 2 pairs, and loved them.  Ahhh...the 90s.  I miss overalls.  Of course, I looked an Eastern MT, corn-fed farm girl in them and would look worse in them now, but I loved them.  With hiking boots and flannel shirts. Is it any wonder I didn't get many dates in college?

 

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.