Retail therapy

I have a post-break-up tendency: shopping. After the Marinara Jar, I escaped to IKEA with friends and impulsively bought a dresser. A dresser? A dresser. It's not that I really needed a dresser either, but a little bit I did, and that little bit is what overtook my brain and made it unfathomable for me to leave that store without it.

This break up, however, has been very different--musings on that later this week--it's been healthy. And I feel really good about myself, the situation, and even good about New Friend. But just because it's different doesn't mean that my urge to shop dissipated, I've just been able to channel that energy toward more effective things, like shoes!

Let's get one thing straight, Little Ms. Notetaker does NOT like to shop, except if it is for shoes. And another thing, Little Ms. Notetaker is practical, so even in the midst of her footwear frenzy, she is always a) searching for a bargain, and b) thinking of the sensible shoe. Look and style are extremely important, but comfort and quality cannot be trumped.

This past weekend, I went up to Vancouver to visit some very dear friends, and as luck would have it, we stumbled into a shoe sale at a store that has now become the "happy place" I will visit in all future meditations. I went in looking for a pair of brown boots. Having no luck finding a suitable pair after trying on a dozen, I settled on finding a pair of dressy brown shoes, which I found and fell in love with immediately. I also proceeded to find a pair of red shoes, black shoes, and for good measure another pair of brown ones. Look and style, check. Comfort, check. Quality, check. And the bonus? All of them were at least half off. I will admit that it was still quite an amount to declare at the border, but I also emphatically declared to the border guard that they are well worth it.

Note to self: Sometimes little splurges like weekends away and shoe shopping sprees are just what you need--good for the sole and the soul.