Climbing in Skirts

I love shoes.
Dancing was an excuse to have even more shoes.
I stopped dancing for about 2 years or so and gave away a lot of shoes.
I started dancing again back in April and realized that the shoes I had left, just weren't good enough. They were worn out or aggravated previous dance injuries.

I did some investigating and found that in the time I had been gone there were no new developments in the world of dance shoes. I want something that looks like a pump and feels like a sneaker (and preferably costs under $40).

Ideally I wanted wedges. They force you to lean forward and dance into the floor (if you don't, you will fall on your ass, and potentially roll your ankle on the way down. As far as the available shoes go, they are expensive and open toed.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B

I even did a few searches and found that most European Comfort Shoes have a cork/lightweight heel that is wedge shaped.

Unfortunately there is the problem of the open toe.

Then I found a pretty cool shoe on Zappos.com. They are a closed toe wedge by Dexter. I don't really like the decorative thingy on the front though. I also don't like the fact that they are $76.

So what's a girl to do? Make her own shoes.

I started out with a hand-me-down pair of Swivels (Exhibit A).
Then I took them apart (FYI, they are glued not stitched).
I traced the existing (slightly mangled from previous user) upper onto a new piece of leather.

Here's what the process looks like...




Next step. Find a good lining for the leather and decide on the edge finishing.

Times are changing. I finally told my father about Chris moving in with me. His response, "I would reconsider that if he drops out of school." And that was it. Chris told his father and he stated, "Yah, like he would really want his daughter to live with someone with no future." All things considered, the revelation went extremely well.

Chris and his parent's dog are now basically living with me. I forgot how much of a responsibility a dog is, especially when you live on the third floor and the dog has been used to living with people who keep "normal hours." In addition to this transition, I interviewed for a new job this past Friday at Seton. The interview was tremendous. We spoke for over an hour and the nurse managers introduced me to some of the staff. I am expecting to hear back from them any day. The only catch is that for the past 2 years I have been a psychiatric nurse. Meaning, no IVs, no blood, minimal vomiting, mucous, and other noteworthy bodily fluids and their odors. The managers stated they would be happy to review skills with me, but I don't know that I want to regain these disgusting skills. I've dealt with only one colostomy (poop bag) and tracheostomy thus far, however these will become commonplace to me. However, I hope in doing so I can feel more confident in being a nurse while attempting to return to school to become a nurse practicioner. I hope I am up for the challenge. Now more than ever, I feel like I need to keep repeating the famous mommy mantra, "I can be anything I want to be when I grow up."

Ok, with all that has happened in the last week (Katrina) I have been spending a lot of my free time volunteering. Part of me is doing itbecause it needs to happen. Part of me is doing it because I would hope that someone would do the same for me. Then there is a little piece of me that is a little like Ed Norton's character in Fight Club (other people's suffering makes my life not seem so bad).

The other project I have been working on involves putting a scrapbook together for a friend who has cancer. I have dedicated a big chunk of time to scanning and printing and supply shopping. Next comes the whole assembly part.

I took a break from it all this afternoon for couching and remote fondling. I am I doing all of this to avoid something else in the grand scheme of things or am I being genuine? Does it matter?