I adore shoes

Oh shoes. How I love you.

On my "fat" days, I can put on a cute pair of shoes and they always fit.

On my "not feeling so good about myself" sort of days, a pair of leopard print flats always make me smile.

Oh shoes. How I love you. I have way too many shoes. I have a hard time letting go of old shoes. Even when it's clear I'll never wear them, I still can't toss old shoes. I recently went through my shoes and forced myself to purge and donate the shoes I don't wear. Even still, I have a massive shoe collection. I'm pretty sure I have at least four times as many shoes as Mike has, though that number might be higher.

I never, ever wear sneakers unless it's for exercising, which is ironic since I own six pairs of running shoes. Buy running shoes is a recent obsessions, since I started running regularly about a year ago.

If I'm going to walk a lot, I might wear one of the two pairs of Converse I own. I have a gray pair and blue plaid pair. That's as close to sneakers as you'll see on my feet if I'm not running. Those are the shoes I wore on our last trip to Disneyland. Three days of park hopping all done with my trusty Converse on my feet.

I have a lot of high heels -- 11 pairs to be exact -- even though I don't wear them much any more. In 2003 I feel down some stairs while carrying boxes. I was moving and hauling boxes out of my my condo in California. I couldn't see the ground and lost my footing on the stairs. I tore some ligaments in my right foot and doctors have since told me wearing heels would be a bad idea. Mostly, I listen to this advice. But I have found some cute and comfy shoes that have modest heels on them and go well with work attire.

My favorite pair of heels are red and have a cluster of red jewels just to the right of the open toe. I bought these shoes to wear to an office Christmas party. It was one of the first events my husband I attended together as an official couple -- it was our coming our event. I wore them with a simple black dress and a long, bold necklace with red beads. I've only worn the shoes a few times since that night, but the sentimental side of me just can't part with them.

My closet is home to five pairs of boots. Two pair of brown boots, one heeled pair and another flat pair of riding style boots. The riding boots I wore almost daily this winter. They are by far my favorite pair of shoes. I also have pair of slouchy, flat-heeled black boots; a pair of super old and comfy Uggs (something I wore a ton throughout both my pregnancies) + some of B3 products; and a pair of black boots that I wear with with slacks and other work outfits.

By far, flats dominate my closet. Brown ones, gold ones, leopard-print ones, purple ones, pink ones, snake-skinned ones ... I adore flats, almost as much as I love sandals. I prefer shoes that I don't have to wear socks with. Living in Southern Arizona, it's too hot most of the year to event think of wearing socks and my shoe wardrobe reflects that.

When I travel for business, I always take at least four pairs of shoes with me. Since I coordinate my travel outfits, I pick shoes based on the dominate color of the clothes I packed, which normally means I bring black shoes. I bring a pair of black heels, a pair of shiny black loafers and a pair of running shoes. I always wear a pair of comfy flats and I make sure those are the right color if I want to rotate them into my packed wardrobe.

All my shoes stay in my closet. It's a rule in our house. All shoes have to be put away in the closet they belong to. The only exception is a single pair of flip flops that I keep in our downstairs laundry room. Each family member is allowed to keep one pair of flip flops in the laundry room and I strictly enforce this rule (yes, I'm uptight like that). It helps keep clutter under control, but more than that it helps my little ones and my absentminded husband keep track of their shoes. Otherwise, shoes would be lost all the time and getting dressed each morning would be even more hectic than it already is.

Oh shoes. How I love you. Just thinking about shoes makes me want to go online and find a new pair ... or two.

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Written as an assignment for Ali Edwards’ class “31 Things” at Big Picture Classes.