I have been to heaven. I have been there and back. And it’s
awesome. OK, maybe it’s not the angels and harps and floaty white
wings kind of heaven
– but it’s still heaven to me.
Yes, I have been to online shoe heaven. And I will be back.
I have been to heaven. I have been there and back. And it’s awesome. OK, maybe it’s not the angels and harps and floaty white wings kind of heaven – but it’s still heaven to me.
Yes, I have been to online shoe heaven. And I will be back.
I’d heard rumors of its existence for years. Whispered words at gatherings, some off the cuff remarks from my fashionista sister. But I’d never gone to the site. Oh, I’d thought about it. But I was afraid. After all, I am a shoe fiend. I love shoes. I have tons of shoes that date back to the ’80s. My shoes and I are very close. We’re practically inseparable.
Oh, many have tried to come between my much-cherished footwear and I. Even Harry. He’s begged me to toss out my unused, unworn shoes. And I did, once. That was a dark day. Three large trash bags of shoes left my home, never to be seen again. Yes, there were tears – mostly Harry’s once he realized that he’d paid for many of the shoes and I’d never worn several of them.
But they went for a good cause. After all, they freed up room in the racks for all my goodies from shoe heaven. Yes, I have been to a place called Zappos.com. And I have been amazed.
It’s like the shoe store I’ve been waiting all my life to visit. It has a bazillion pairs of shoes. There’s so many I actually can’t decide what to order. Do I go with espadrilles? Or flats? Boots? Designer heels? They have everything. Women’s shoes. Men’s shoes. Kid’s shoes. Handbags. Oh, so much lovely stuff that a shallow, accessory-obsessed, small-town housewife worships. And it’s all in one place.
Heaven. I’m telling you, it’s heaven. If there were a bunch of harps and angels and St. Peter on the checkout page, I would not be surprised. It even has free shipping. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
So I started to look. And three hours later, I had 40 pairs of shoes in my cart. You can imagine how that would have gone down with Harry, not to mention the nice people at my credit card company who would have immediately shut off my card. Some people just don’t understand how important shoes really are.
After all, shoes are a woman’s best friends. A shoe sits in your closet, patiently waiting for you. It doesn’t care if you’ve eaten tons of ice cream in the past week and can’t zip up your jeans. It will always fit for you, no matter what you’ve eaten.
And it doesn’t mind that you are sticking a really stinky foot in it. It likes your feet. It doesn’t care if your toes are oddly shaped or your heels aren’t pedicure perfect. Shoes accept you the way you are. They don’t judge.
And if you buy a shoe and never wear it – just because it’s so perfect and pretty and someday you might have the right outfit for it – a shoe never gets upset about living its entire life in the dark, waiting in a box on a high shelf for you to decide the time and the outfit are finally right.
Yes, there are some bad shoes. Everyone has come across a pair. The ones that look wonderful, but squish your toes or your heels or make the balls of your feet feel like they are on fire the minute you step into them. There are evil shoes that rub your ankle until the world’s largest blister forms and disfigures your foot forever.
And there are shoes that are completely out of balance, making you walk all wobbly. Of course, there’s the meanest shoe of all, the too tall tower of a shoe that waits until you are in front of a large group of people and then trips you.
But for the most part, a shoe is a friend that will never abandon you. It will always fit. It carries our memories of times we dressed up, days at the beach, workouts and just everyday shoes that were so comfy you can’t get rid of them even though they are literally falling apart at the seams.
Of course, for me, my visit to shoe heaven was just a lovely morning. I didn’t buy any of the shoes in my cart. But I know that someday I might buy one or two pairs. Or three. Or maybe just 40.
