Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Gratitude and Shoe Shopping

About a week ago my last pair of dress shoes died.

Let me give some background. I wear 8.5EEE shoes, sometimes listed as 8.5WW. This means not just wide, but wider than regular wide width shoes. No shoe store in Raleigh carries this size, and most of them can't even order it. I have always had very wide feet, and I have always hated shoe shopping: these two facts are probably related. So, when my dress shoes died, my heart sank. I don't have to wear dress shoes to work, but shoes totally contribute to looking professional. I need new dress shoes.

I've bought sneakers from Zappos.com, so I returned there to order dress shoes. I even managed to find a pair on sale! The shoes arrived yesterday. The shoe box is labelled 8.5WW, just like I ordered. I took out one shoe, admiring it's sleek, petite lines.

Wait, what? There's nothing "petite" about 8.5WW. Inside the shoe I find the size 8M. I had to laugh. The other shoe is an 8WW, which doesn't even come close to fitting. It's just too ridiculous to be upset about :) Thankfully Zappos.com has a really easy system for returning shoes for no charge. I called them to make sure they didn't just re-shelve the box with the wrong shoes in them. As soon as I explained what happened, the rep apologized and put a $25 coupon on my account - I really appreciate that :) They would have re-sent the correct size, but the shoes were on sale and I had gotten the last ones. Clearly, I was not meant to have this particular type of shoes!

Hopefully there won't be any excitement in my next order :) I do still need shoes for work.

Tuesday Gratitude!
~finding rubber bands to keep my knee-highs up
~$25 coupon from zappos.com to apologize for sending the wrong size shoe
~having enough flexibility at work to take my headache home this afternoon
~really good short SF/F stories online like this and this
~Really enjoyed listening to One Among the Sleepless by Mike Bennett
~writing the bit of narrative non-fiction above :)

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