New Shoes

I bought shoes today. Two identical pairs of gray Asics accented with cranberry, gel insoles, size 8 medium width. These are the first shoes I have bought in more than two years. Ever since Nathan's birth, the advent of my life as a stay at home mom, I have worn a wonderful pair of brown, earth-girl looking sandals. My sandals have been my summer shoes, my winter shoes (worn tacky with socks showing), my gardening shoes, and my walking shoes. I have bought the exact same shoe three times to replace the old worn ones, keeping the old worn ones anyways because I couldn't bear to part with them. They are the perfect shoe for someone who, like me, does not like shoes.

My feet like freedom. I am the barefoot queen of my own home. So what would possess me to run out and buy shoes? Well, in a word, Cathe. For two years now, I have been exercising barefoot in my own home to a variety of workout videos--pilates, yoga, in-home walking, The Firm, etc. I love exercising barefoot. I feel like I use better form and pay more attention to proper alignment which is easier on my knees and back. Earlier this year, I decided to use some of the money we got back on our tax return to purchase a health club grade exercise step and a couple of Cathe Friedrich workout DVDs to ramp up the intensity a little bit. Since the only tennis shoes I owned were a horrible pair that constricted my toes and rubbed blisters on my heels, I decided to give it a try with just my socks. Low impact stepping may have been okay, but Cathe is all high impact, high intensity, all the time.

After a few workouts sans shoes, my feet began complaining, so I resigned myself to getting some shoes. If there's anything I hate more than wearing shoes, it's shopping. Shopping wears me out more than a vigorous, sweat poring off my body workout. But it couldn't be helped. So this morning I headed out to the shoe store with two kids in tow and a resolution to find comfortable shoes. Thankfully, I had Mimi with me too. She kept track of Nathan while I juggled Daniel while trying on twenty plus pairs of shoes. After the entire bench was piled with teetering stacks of boxes, I finally found them. I walked around, did jumping jacks, pointed and flexed, and still my feet felt good in them.

I wanted to take advantage of the buy one, get one half off special so I continued to look for another pair of shoes. The pile of boxes grew as I tried on low heeled sandals, flats, and some ugly, chunky things that were comfortable until my feet started to sweat in them. By this time, we had been in the store almost two hours, I had taken Daniel for a nursing break, and my shopping energy was quickly flagging. I decided the best bargain was to get two pairs of the comfortable shoes and run for it. So here I sit, two pairs of gray and cranberry tennis shoes richer, waiting for the acid test of shoe comfort--a heart pounding, foot pounding, Cathe workout.