Friday, November 12, 2010

Big Foot

The days have been moving quickly here and I've been Lame-o Blogger Numero Uno for a few weeks running  now. I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath for my next post, right? Unfortunately, all that's happened is me punishing the Harry Potter series into completion.
The end. 
Bye. 


Kidding! As in kiiiiinnnd of kidding...but not really??? I did finish all 7 Harry Potter books in something like a month's time (embarrassing?) AND won half of a two-part bet concerning big reveals about Severus Snape and Albus Dumbeldore. Also, my knowledge of the following terms has potentially solidified my nerd status forever: muggle, horcrux, patronus, hippogriff, animagi, quidditch, snitch, dungbomb, etc. You can cross reference me here if you're a nerd too.
Oh well. It's been refreshing to vacate the non-fiction world for the last 2 months. I've read over ten awesome books since I've been here. However, I am missing the self growth/spiritual/unschooling/sustainability/industrial food system/occasionally political fiction web I had woven via my UT Courtesy Borrower and Austin Public Library cards. Me thinks a financially painful but necessary Amazon order is in the near future.

So the weather has finally made up it's mind and it seems the briskness of fall and impending winter is here to stay. We bought a small space heater and a thick comforter a la Gupo Market last weekend in submission to the change. Also, I've heard the heating bill can get atrocious so I'm reliving my senior year of college by keeping the heat off, wearing layers to bed under 3 blankets and blasting the space heater instead of lighting 40 candles this time around. Am I a cheap-ass or an energy-saver? Hmmm....difficult question.

The change in temperature has also pushed me into my first Korean shopping experiences (of the girly kind), which were instantly thwarted by an already somewhat-foreseen-but-nevertheless-embarrassing blow:

I have big feet. 


It's true. My sisters and Mom are laughing right now and if they were here I'd tell them to "shut up and leave me alone!" My Mom would then gawk at the bone that juts out at the back of my heel as a nonverbal sympathetic gesture of "it's not your fault, you were born that way!" as I storm off to my room to sulk in my heated waterbed and listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness for the tenth time in 2 days. Specifically tracks 5711 12, and 13 of Dawn to Dusk if you must know. 

However it is no longer 1996 and in my formative years I have experienced the occasional awkwardness of seeing non-family people's faces when they notice my giant tootsies. Before coming to Korea, it was most recently witnessed doing roller derby, where I would surreptitiously put on my skates in a group of 30+ loud-mouth girls hoping no one would notice. It didn't happen til I became a Hellcat and the odds were against me: 10 or 11 girls around the track were more likely to notice than several. My favorite part of this experience is the almost always accompanying question of "How tall are you?"...."5'2"...I KNOW I have big feet, okay?"

Anyway, these moments don't occur that often and I'd like to think I'm on the mend with my big-foot issues. However, living in Korea has revealed my "situation" to me yet again and it wasn't something I was looking forward to. Koreans are tiny, you know? And with their tininess comes tiny feet. Tiny feet to match their tiny selves. 

Now, as you've had a proper trip down my big-footed memory lane, we can return to the original subject of my shopping experiences here. The change of weather has put me in recent need of a decent coat and a few more durable pairs of shoes. It's my misfortune that shoes here are friggin' cute to the max and uber-cheap. To boot (accidental pun, Margaret Smoller!), shoes are my favorite thing to shop for. It's depressing and as the weeks go by, I'm a bit more self-pitying about my shoe situation. I did happen to find a Zara, which I haven't shopped at since I was in Paris. My feeling-sorry-for-myself extended to purchasing a pair of boots at a price I've NEVER paid for a pair of shoes. And I ain't gonna tell you how much here. Oddly enough, they're closer to a cowboy boot than I ever got after 4 years in Texas and I freakin' love 'em...so to hell with it, right? They look pretty okay if you ask me.



At least I've found ONE place to buy a non-sneaker pair of shoes to get my lady-fill, even if they are a bit costly. Ain't no tiny Koreans gon' keep me from buying shoes for a whole year. 

As always, the ever-faithful Depeche Mode sums my angst up. Listen hard.
And for the record, I'm ONLY a size 9 people! i.e. MOM.



Daily T-shirt: QUITE GIRLISH



2 comments:

  1. Your issues with your big feet suddenly make me feel guilty for all the hell I give Jessica about hers...

    I do it all in jest, but now I'm suddenly compelled to get her a gift card to DSW and send you a care package with shoes inside? Just think of the advantages bigger feet give you though:
    better balance, faster swimmer, higher vertical jump, can wear taller heels?

    It's good to see how things are out there. Same advice I give Graham; keep the posts coming. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Big feet are a sign of intelligence. Proven fact.

    ReplyDelete