Awesome Product

I love high heel shoes. It's not because I need the added height, I'm always shocked when I see a "very tall" woman in a store and as I come closer realize we're the same height. So I feel slightly self conscious at how tall I must seem in heels, but from my perspective it's only a few inches difference from my normal height and doesn't seem like that big a deal. I just love the way they look, and how dainty my ankles and feet seem. Yes, I recognize I have a problem compulsively liking things that make me feel dainty in any way. I know being dainty isn't necessary for being feminine, and I probably would hate it if I really were dainty, but logic and compulsion don't really go together, now do they?

But that's not really why I'm writing today. Heels need to be broken in so they're comfortable, yet it's hard to wear them enough to break them in until they are. And my stupid pinky toe that broke and healed wrong isn't helping. Oh, don't worry about me, I broke it in college tripping over this jerk RA who refused to get up from laying across the hallway. He got his in the end, though - his hall duct tape mummified him and left him in the lounge. Anyway, the toe was really bothering me after wearing my newest heels and my new toe awareness made all my shoes disturbingly painful to wear. I was disheartened to think I wouldn't be able to wear any of my pretty shoes again, and that if I tried I'd damage my feet. Then I found the awesome product that is driving this post:It's an old fashioned Shoe Stretcher, but made especially for high heels. You apply a stretching spray to the inside of the shoe (I think it's just rubbing alcohol truthfully) and stick the stretcher in. Then turn the handle to start stretching the shoe and leave overnight. Natural leather shoes stretch very quickly, but synthetics or shoes with a lot of stitching take multiple treatments. But it's totally worth it. Because I can once again wear my new green patent leather heels :)

Do I win a prize?

We got a fresh batch of samples to test at work yesterday. Someone said one of them had orange string in it, and showed it around while people tried to guess what the item actually was. I thought it looked pink, not orange, and could be a strand of bubble gum. After we had our fun guessing someone opened it and rooted around until they found the "orange string". And lo & behold it WAS a piece of pink gum, maybe Trident from the size. I threw my arms up in victory and cheered. Yeah, it was one of those days at the end of a long week where everyone is a bit more overwhelmed than they can handle and things get silly.

I do have a disturbingly accurate rate of guessing foreign objects in samples. Maybe it's my deductive reasoning that helps me recreate the whole picture in my mind and not be swayed by misleading evidence. Maybe it's just years of experience. But ultimately - Why? Why do I have both the skill and perverse desire to figure out what things are? It's always a little thrill when you realize what you've found, but egads, who really needs this?

(I reread my post and think it's "safe" unless you know exactly where I work)

It's showtime Synergy!

I hope the reference wasn't too esoteric. Just rub your star sparkle earrings and get ready to kick some Misfits ass. So yet another example of the weird synergistic connection my SIL and I share. We seem to have an oddly similar approach to things, down to having matching nailpolish. Here we are at xmas (my feet, her hands): Totally convergent evolution, never have we discussed these things. All of you who know me know that I always wear blue toenail polish. I may stray a bit and wear teal, but that's as far as it goes. So one day I got a wild hair up my ass and painted my toenails ruby red. I was stunned when I next saw my SIL and her nails were the exact same color as mine. Ok, this isn't like twins separated at birth who end up living identical lives on opposite coasts. But it does feel a bit more than just coincidence. Hey, you can see my rainbow sock knitting in the corner! Sorry, got a bit of the "ooh shiny!" distraction going on.

Socks socks socks... and chocolate

You ever have those days where you really want something chocolatey, but just can't figure out exactly what you're craving? Candy? Cookie? Brownie? Ice cream? High quality dark chocolate bar? Nope, nothing is calling out as the exact right item. That's how people end up drinking mexican hot chocolate and eating dark chocolate covered dried plums. Oddly, it seems to be satisfying the craving. Hooray!

Ok, I'm not really talking about chocolate, I just wanted to set the stage for my real post. SOCKS! Last month I dyed a sock blank with my SIL. In case you're asking what the hell a sock blank is--I used a knitting machine to knit up yarn into a big chunk of fabric, then we dyed it, then I unraveled it and used the yarn to knit a pair of socks. Ridiculous? Just wait till you see the final product! Dyeing the yarn this way allows for color gradations that wouldn't be possible if dyeing the yarn in a skein. And for some magical reason using this yarn and pattern makes the sock knitting go twice as fast as normal. I had these done in about a week! Holy speed knitting batman! Here's the awesome socks I knit for my mom's birthday present. Dang, I sure hope she doesn't see this post before her party. And best of all there's enough dyed yarn left for a pair of knee socks for me!

Second sock-related item: I've been trying hard to keep up with the laundry and not doing a very good job at that. But how can I be totally to blame when the Sock Monster is hard at work disrupting my sock matching? Sure, I can accept having one or two mismatched socks in the middle of a laundry day, but this is just ridiculous: I know in this photo they look like matched pairs, well maybe not the knee socks, but in reality they are all different sock patterns. I really don't know where all the sockmates are, I hope they turn up in the next load, or things are going to start looking silly. Because handknit rainbow stripe socks aren't silly at all.

Insert: frustrated muppet noise

You know that noise the Muppets - Kermit in particular - make when they're frustrated. They press their lips together, pull their mouth back into their neck a bit, grimace, and go hrrmmppff. You know they're irritated, but it's ok because hey, they're muppets! Yeah, that's kind of how I feel right now. Nothing's "wrong", things just don't feel quite right. I feel like I don't have time to do everything I need to, yet I also have free time that I'm not sure what to do with. Ok, ok, before you say that sounds like an easy answer and maybe some bad planning on my part, can I try to come to my own defense? The 30 min. I have free before I need to get ready for bed is not when I want to start tackling my to-do list. Often the things I need to do aren't compatible with an almost-4-month-old puppy who's starting to lick the baseboard moulding. Ah well, I better go see what's she's into before I head upstairs for bed.

Jewelry - nom nom nom

So the Pub has these fabulous onion rings. The kind that even people who don't like rings will devour. Reminds me of this restaurant my parents used to take us to as little kids. I feel like we went there somewhat often, but all I remember are 3 things: Dipping lemon wedges in sugar packets when we were getting fussy because the food was late (How cool Mom was for teaching us that!). Peeling the bubbly cheese off the outside of bowls of french onion soup. And the onion rings. I didn't like the onion itself so would break the ring and pull out the wriggly onion and put it on Mom's plate, then eat the savory crispy batter. The Pub's rings are like that, but I'm happy I enjoy the onion part now as well. In fact I always root around in the basket for the endcaps that have a high onion ratio. Juicy, sweet, crunchy, soft inside - so fantastic. One night the onions they used were particularly large, and turned into Oniony Bangles. I wore them a few minutes, then the silly got a hold of me and it came time to eat them. Cell phone photography in a dark bar - Brilliant!

I can give myself a black eye

I picked up a dark hot pink eyeshadow at MAC when I visited my mom last week (hey, I had a merchandise credit!). I thought with the blue, green, and purple shadows I already owned my color wheel was unbalanced. And this pink is serious enough to counterbalance all the cool shades. So I tried a couple different looks, one with pink on the lid blending to blue on the browbone. Yeah, that one didn't work so well. The blended region was purplish, and the overall effect was of a healing black eye. But flipping the colors so the blue is on the lid and undereye blending to pink then purple did work. I also went a bit further with the eyeliner than normal, thanks to my SIL's encouragement. And I really like it, I hope I can do it on command for my next dance performance (next month!).

Still not happy w/ the photography--it always looks better in person. Like you can't really tell how bright the colors truly are, or how neat it looks that the inner corner of the eye is filled in blue. And I dusted blue sparklies over my cheekbone & temple which add a lot of fun to it. Ah well, learning process all around.