First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

filed in Fashion Forward

The Red Shoes

July 16, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

In five days, I’ll be getting on two airplanes (one big, one small) to visit a friend, who lives in a small town in the mountains of Colorado. To acquaint myself with the surroundings, I google mapped his house, and it appears to be in the middle of nowhere. (Yes, it’s true. I live in L.A, and was born in Manhattan, so I have a limited frame of reference of what “anywhere” looks like.)  When I asked him, half jokingly, if I should pack my Manolo’s, there was a deadening silence on the other end, until he suggested, “no, just bring your hiking shoes.” Uh. Okay. I can do that. But first I had to go out and buy them.  

I dragged Miguel, my good buddy who hikes, to REI, which also required a google map, since I had no idea where in L.A. it was located. (Near fourth street in Santa Monica, if you’re in the neighborhood and need some gear.) Miguel told me exactly what to get. Salomon Trail runners. There was a pair in red, they fit, they were on sale, and I was out of the store in ten minutes.  The whole experience was surprisingly satisfying, and then I realized that shoes, no matter sporty or spiky, are in the end, still shoes, and can always be counted on to provide a lift.

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