ode to boots

If I have one fashion weakness it would be boots. Boots and dresses. But today we're talking about boots. They are my preferred choice of footwear year round. I really believe that this stemmed from the fact that I have always felt limited in my choices.

Until college, I never really understood why women could be so obsessed with shoes. I mean sure, there were a lot of shoes I loved, but I begrudgingly felt like I could never join the shoe shopping club like everyone else. Why? Because I am 5'10. And everyone knows that the cutest shoes usually have a 2+ inch heel on them.





I have since come to terms with being a lady of height but it wasn't always easy. When I was younger, I was taller than everyone. Even the boys. And by eighth grade I was taller than most teachers too. No one ever made fun of me, they just made me feel super awkward without really knowing it..

Anyone: "OMG you're, like, soo tall."
Witty Classmate: "How's the weather up there?"
Strangers: "Excuse me, you're tall, can you reach this ridiculously high item for me?"
Random relatives: "Wow you've grown since the last time I saw you.. How tall are you now?"
Me: "Same height as I've been since I was 14, aunt/uncle so-and-so."

This lead to a lifetime of ballet flats at proms, squatting to everyone else's level in pictures, and hating that every rap song object of lust was dubbed "lil shorty".. or should I say "lil shawtay". Booooo.

I have since gotten over this (for the most part) and even own some really cute heels now (gasp!). I started wearing them to my internship last summer because they made me feel more like an adult and people cared more about their jobs than the general vertical range of people.




I also have an awesome boyfriend who is exactly my height and has told me he doesn't care if I wear heels. He knows all about my heightophobia :). Now, I know there are a lot of cute flats out there but I don't always like the way they look on me. I do have some awesome flat oxfords I love and a few others but they are not my favorite choice of shoes. I'm also not a huge fan of flip flops. Once again, they're something I don't care for on myself. I wear them to the beach, sure, but not really anywhere else. One big reason for this may be the fact that every male I know hates and ridicules them. They don't wear them and they hate when other people do. Conversations when wearing flip flops pretty much go like this..

Flop Wearer: "I'm cold."
Dad/Brother/Boyfriend: "You shouldn't be wearing flip flops."

F.W.: "You're walking too fast!"
D/B/B: "You shouldn't be wearing flip flops."

F.W.: "I'm laying on the ground with my shoe in the gutter because you just stepped on the back of it."
D/B/B: "You shouldn't be wearing flip flops."

F.W.: "I hear global warming is becoming a problem."
D/B/B: "You shouldn't be wearing flip flops."


That's where the boots come in. We're still talking flats here but with SO much more variety. The ones above are the ones currently on rotation at the moment. The reason I wanted to share these is because I just added four new pairs to the bunch. Remember that birthday I recently had? Well I took all of my birthday money and bought boots. There was a reason for that sort of madness. After last winter I had to throw out about that many pairs of boots because they got completely destroyed from walking many blocks to classes in the city, and sometimes through snow. The bottoms were all detaching from the soles and they had creepy salt stains from all the salt that remained on the sidewalks for months after the snowstorms which was reactivated every time it rained.





I wore those things to death and recently realized that I had almost none left for this winter so I went crazy and bought a bunch more. Hopefully they will last me longer since I don't do nearly as much walking as when I lived in the city.

I also had a couple pairs that had to go because they were literally melting.. allow me to explain before you think I'm crazy. Did you ever have a pair of boots that were about knee high and made of a fairly soft but stiff fabric? Well after wearing said boots for a while, the fabric gets softer and softer until it has finally fallen and bunched down around mid to low shin area. Not fun. No amount of pulling, tugging, cursing, or begging will make them stay up. This, my friends, is melting.

So here's to hoping I won't have to buy boots for a while, even though I'll probably want to! I also wanted to let you in on a gold mine for boots in case you haven't been able to find any good ones lately. Ready? Victoria's Secret. Not just for undies. They actually have an amazing section of shoes.. flats, heels, and the like. That's where I got all of my recent ones from. I originally started looking there because I had a birthday coupon from them and I was not disappointed. So I recommend checking this out at some point.

And that was my rant about boots, growing up tall, and the impracticalities of flip flops X).


Happy Friday!!