Had a pleasant day yesterday. Quiet reading in the morning (finishing up a Heyer mystery, which, sadly, I guessed the ending of on page one, and only had it confirmed all the way through, which rather diluted my enjoyment of what would otherwise have been quite entertaining), followed by playing with Kavi. At some point, finished up green scarf for gift, which was good, because I needed to hand it off to Simone that day for mailing. Will post photos as soon as I check with buyer that intended recipient doesn't actually read this journal.
Had a mad organizational fit in the afternoon, and went from minor laundry finishing to major cleaning out of shoe closet. My feet grew half-a-size with Kavi, and so I had fully forty pairs of shoes in my closet that no longer fit. Sent away the most battered to charity, and boxed up the rest to send to Sharmi, who is still my old shoe size. Hopefully she'll like some of them. So sad seeing so many pretty shoes go away! Am left with only ten pairs of shoes! Two pairs of day shoes, two pairs of sneakers (light blue, dark purple), four dressy sandals (black, black/sparkly, dark silver-grey, red), and two tall pairs of boots (chocolate brown dressy, black hard-core kick-your-ass). This is actually almost enough shoes to go on with, although I could use some short boots (black/brown), dressy black tall boots, and will need flip-flops and casual sandals next summer.
Those among you who own only three pairs of shoes (casual, dressy, sneakers) can feel free to sneer now. But letting go of all those shoes was traumatic, I tell you! If you own more than ten pairs of shoes, please confess it now -- you'll make me feel better about going out and buying more as soon as the budget allows it. :-)
In the evening, Simone came by and we sent off all the signed book orders (so if you ordered books but haven't paid me yet, now is your chance to feel guilty). She also hauled away all the shoes, plus two big boxes of books, winnowed from my sf/f shelves, which are now neatly alphabetized and with a bit of room on them again. (We'll see how long Kavi leaves them alphabetized). In winnowing, a question arose -- when your friend writes a book that you a) bought, b) read, c) enjoyed, but d) didn't love enough that you expect to re-read it anytime in the next decade -- how long should you hold onto that book? Answers:
a) forever, because otherwise what kind of a friend are you anyway?
b) until they next come to visit, so they can gleefully discover their book on your shelves as they surreptitiously check while you're in the bathroom
c) it depends on how good a friend they are
d) toss that sucker!
What do you think?
Oh my God, Mary Anne, I had at least fifty pairs of shoes before I downsized recently. I think right now – for my temporary digs – I took the minimum, which is to say, about 20 pairs. (Cowboy boots, yellow wellies, sandals, flip flops, strappy heels, demure heels, Mary Janes, sneakers, clogs, and every major category in brown and black so as to match any outfit…)
Oh, the shoe thing! My sister ended up *down* a half size after her pregnancy, so I hoped… but no. Up a full size for me, and if I have another kid and go up another size I go from “often doesn’t come in that size” to “we don’t even carry that size at all, go online bigfoot!” Sigh. And I like my shoes expensive, which is usually a good investment, but not when they don’t fit a year after you bought them.
I now have two pairs of tennis shoes (one of which I can’t find since we moved), a pair of sandals, a pair of red maryjane clogs, a pair of brown maryjane clogs (backless) a pair of black maryjanes (that are really still too small) and a pair of Earth shoes I keep thinking I’ll return because they were so expensive and I can wear the (uncomfortable) maryjanes when I need black shoes. Oh, and a pair of red Wellies so I can still go out in the rain.
Hm… that’s more than I thought I had. But I have no dressy shoes at all, which would be a problem if I ever wore dresses anymore.
Pass the book along to someone else who’ll like it, so that you can tell your friend what you did—you got her another new fan.