A Craze of Destroyed Giddiness

If you've known me since high school, you know how giddy I can get over a new pair of Keds. Call me geeky but Keds are cool.

I haven't really indulged my Keds habit at all since Jeff and I got together. He really feels they are "unsupportive" and "not hiking shoes." I guess on an early date, he had the great idea to go hiking together and I automatically reached for my trusty white Keds.

Well by the end, my feet ached, they weren't very white anymore and Jeff convinced me to go A16 in LA and buy some "real" hiking boots. Five years later, they still gather dust despite their special shoe home with all my other shoes in their special shoe neighborhood. (Bottom row, far left).



(I'm so tempted to disguise my Virgo tendencies by making this photo black & white but screw it, here's my closet in all its glory with clear tidy shoeboxes, matching hangers and clothes in sections by color.)

Actually now that I think about it, I have busted these shoes out once (maybe twice?) in five years. I think I even smiled.

Back to the Keds story. Jeff's bad attitude towards them must have really rubbed off on me. Although I have admired many a Ked in the past five years, every time I got to the register with a box in my size, I couldn't reach for my wallet. They were so, well, impractical, for the sporty girl that I am now. My sports are running (errands), lifting (a preschooler) and swimming (in a sea of dishes). My point is that Keds are cute but highly impractical for the stay-at-home-mom life that I lead. If this is not making sense, that's okay. My life doesn't always make sense.

Fast forward to yesterday. After my oncology check-up, and the huge shock that is my low white count (ha), I needed a little retail therapy. So I went a few blocks down the street to check out the new Campbell Kohl's. I was just minding my business when I found myself in the shoe aisle where they had a whole row of Keds. Earlier that day, I just so happened to go into my overflowing Hotmail account and actually opened one of the Keds emails where I promptly fell for a black mary jane version.

Well guess what they had at Kohl's? Yes, they had the beloved mary jane in white. But NOT IN MY SIZE. I spent about 10 minutes wondering if I could make a 7 work for me somehow (I wear a 6). I asked if they had my size in "the back." Nope. Did another Kohl's have my size? Apparently Kohl's won't even get an employee to answer the phone for other employees, even after 14 minutes on hold!, so I gave up.

But I am persistent. I went to the other location in person myself first thing this morning. And guess what? They had the mary janes in a different, way better color (blue). This time I spent another 10 minutes wondering how to make a 6.5 work for me. I asked again if there were some in the back. Nope.

I picked Jaden up from school and he asked me for a story. "You tell me a torie please Mama?" So I told him all about my long, two-day, fruitless search for the mary janes. And that I really was giving up. He said, "Not in our family Mama, we don't give up." (Where does he get this stuff?)

So I said, OK! and called Marsh & Bob who are really good at missions and happened to be on their way to the Nordstrom Half-Yearly sale in Oregon. Less than two hours later, I got the call: the mary janes were in hand! on sale! and no sales tax!

Like I said, I feel giddy. Here they are, direct from the Keds site, my beautiful new Craze Destroyed Mary Janes. Is it the shoe or the name that is so appealing? Who cares! They're mine now.