Rehoming the Shoes

It was my birthday the other week, and one of my daughters bought me what she considers to be the end-all, be-all of shoes.

And I mean, she's right on. They are glorious. But seriously. She's basically in love with them.

This made what should have been a joyous occasion one fraught with tension and tears, as I tried, like the step-sisters, to shove my big old mammoth man feet into the size eights she'd bought me.

I'm a size nine.

Of course, right after that we went on vacation, so today was the first day we were able to go back to the store to get the next size up.

Only not. Of course not.

They didn't have any nines. Okay, no problem. There's a lip quiver, but, don't worry, baby, they'll just order them and we'll pick them up later.

Nope.

Apparently, there is not one pair of orange peep toe heels in a size nine on the planet Earth. And they're never going to make any again, either.

This went over just about as well as you would imagine.

After crying some quiet, actually heartbreaking tears about this matter of greatest importance, Dulce grabbed the orange peep toe off the display rack. She cradled it like a baby.

"I picked again, Mommy!" She was very proud of herself. "This one! See! I found it!"

When I explained to her that it still wasn't my size, she went around to every person in the store and asked them if they  had a size nine of the magic orange shoe.

No dice.

She had to come to grips with the fact that she had to pick another shoe.

But before she did, she went around the whole store again, this time trying to find a home for her beloved shoes.

"Wouldn't you like to buy these shoes?" she asked every single person there individually. "I'm sure they must have them in your size."

She had no success. Apparently all the fervent orange-shoe buyers had already made their purchases.

Eventually, after soothing her for a long while, and then soothing my other daughter who'd gotten upset that "it's all about Dulce" and who also now wanted to pick out shoes for me, we were able to decide on a new pair.

I'm wearing them today, even though they are very high and very blue.

Here's to not breaking my ankle. Here's to hoping Dulce's orange display shoes found a good home.