Shoe Shopping with Boys and Stunted Sadness

When Friday afternoon rolled around, and many people were thinking "cookout", "lake", or "remembering the thousands of people who have died for our country", my mind was on one thing.  One goal for the weekend: find.shoes.for.wedding.

I don't know how this snuck up on me.  I had to have them for the upcoming wedding dress fitting.  I think buying shoes online is sketchy unless it's a company you've bought tons of shoes from and you know the size you need.  Clearly not the case for wedding shoes for Steph.

I wasn't finding any shoes in stores that I really liked and fit my needs for the wedding.  Then the previous weekend we searched for shoes for the bridesmaids -- I thought that would be a good time to casually scope out the wedding shoe situation... not true.  So, by the time the next weekend rolled around, I was in Code Red.  I was pretty sure I wasn't going to find what I needed in a store, and that I would have to order five pairs of shoes online to ensure I had the right one for the wedding dress fitting.

I checked a couple of standby places here in Louisville, then resorted to picking the brand and styles I wanted to try online and calling a bunch of stores to ask if they have them.

All my girls were out of town on Saturday, so I ended up surfing websites with D by my side.  He showed an interest in helping me find what kind of shoe I was looking for, and I thought that was sweet, so I threw out the rule about him seeing wedding apparel before the wedding day JUST FOR THE SHOES.  Then I found a little bridal shoe shop here in Louisville called Mr. Louis Bridal Shoes.  It's been around for 30+ years, so off we went.

We walked into Mr. Louis Bridal Shoes, I started talking to the owner and noticed D walking around the store.  Before I know it, he'd done a full sweep of their merchandise and presented me with the three styles he thought I would like to try on from what he learned during our online shoe shopping.  So. cute!

AND, he was right!  Long story short: I found the shoes.  They are awesome.  And it was a great afternoon because D graciously helped, and the rest of my weekend was open.

Yay!

(light-hearted, flitty music suddenly segues into introspective, awkward chord progressions)

What else is going on, you ask?  Well, my BFF Ann is moving away.  Yeah, ANN.

Ann from Conversations About What It Means to be a Godly Woman.

Ann from all my awesome Bible studies.

Ann from This-Is-Important-Enough-to-MAKE-Time-For-Each-Other Friends.

Ann who dropped everything to be with me when I found out my cat was dying.

Ann who celebrated with me and Viv at the thought of the New Heavens and New Earth.

Ann from the Best, Most-Awesome Staycation ever, mostly because she was in it.

Road-ends-in-water Ann.

Stripper shoes Ann.

Ann who goes to see musicals with me.

Ann who tried to hook me up with a guy whose truck I'd just thrown up in.

Ann who wrangled me into the most awesome experience of working with the kiddos at church.

Ann who brings me magical Jersey Mike's sandwiches when I really, really sick.

Ann, the most famous opera singer in the world!

Yeah, you know the one.

She's moving.

Pretty soon.

It's becoming more and more real.  

And...I feel like I'm not giving it enough attention.  I feel like I haven't been still enough for it to hit me.

How terrible am I?  

There will be more on this later... mostly this post is a getting-ready-for-it post.

Getting ready for... saying goodbye to an amazing, beautiful, shimmering, glittering woman who has meant so much to me.

Oh, there WILL be more....

Standby....

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A Whole New Price is Right

Even though I dislike Drew Carey as the host of The Price is Right, that show (as long as it’s on) will always hold a bit of nostalgia for me.  It makes me feel at home, comfortable.  I used to watch it A LOT.  I watched it at Nannie and Papaw’s house… and my two favorite parts were 1.) Plinko (mostly because there was very little skill involved) and 2.) The Showcase Showdown.

 

My favorite thing about The Showcase Showdown is fantasizing about which of the fantastic showcases I would choose (if, of course, I was the highest-dollar winner from that day’s games).  Inevitably, one of the showcases is a trip for two to Italy, a speedboat, a motorcycle, NFL Fantasy Camp, a trip to the moon and one night’s stay in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House.  The other one is usually a recliner, a blender, and one of those thingies that removes lint from your shirt.

 

The endless drama for me as a child was when option number two was presented to the highest-dollar winner and they chose to pass.  IS IT POSSIBLE the next showcase that they now HAVE to take is WORSE?  It’s a toothbrush and a lava lamp!  Alas, that never happened.  The only thing better than that is when someone breaks the space-time continuum and gets within $100 (now its $250, how lame is THAT?) of theirs WITHOUT GOING OVER and then they win BOTH SHOWCASES.  ::sound of Steph’s head exploding::

 

Another thing I used to think a lot is that I just didn’t understand the people who were presented with option two, and were super excited about it, and didn’t pass that showcase.  I mean, they see a TV, a bedroom suite, and a refrigerator, and they’re hopping up and down like a lunatic!  They KNOW the next one is going to be a trip to Australia and the Hope Diamond.  And yet, they WANT the other one!

 

How bizarre!  How BORING their lives must be!

 

Until.  Monday.

 

I did the early shift on Monday, which means life after 12pm is about food and nap.  I grabbed some food on the way home and clicked on the TV for some mindless nothing until it was time to go to sleep (roughly 14 minutes later).  I hate almost everything on TV these days, so when I saw The Price is Right, I couldn’t resist.  And just in time for the Showcase Showdown!!

 

When I’d seen the bedroom suite, massage chair, grill and hammock, I thought, “THAT. IS. AWESOME!!!”  And even after I’d seen the next showcase, which was Rock Camp, Golf Camp and a speed boat, I still thought the first one was supremely better.  And then I realized: I’m a whole different Steph.

 

Bizarre.

 

 

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Zerbert Oblivion

Cute Names The Sanders Family Makes For Things:

1.) sleepy winkers - the stuff that is in your eyes when you wake up, many people call this 'sleep'. 'Sleepy winkers' is about 87 times cuter than 'sleep'.

2.) sugar bowls - your neck. Specifically, that part of your neck between your chin and your chest - giddy faux terror to small children: "I'm gonna get your sugar bowls!"

3.) zerbert - many, many people call these raspberries. It's a flatulence sound made with one person's mouth and another person's tummy/arm/fleshy whatever. Hence, one person gives another person a zerbert. Though I thought this was invented by my family, I have recently learned no, it came from the Cosby Show.

Things We 'Learned' From This Guy At Jeremy's Graduation:

1.) Corporations are horrible.
2.) Universities are doing a terrible job of educating people.
3.) The economy has ruined the world.
4.) Kentucky will be uninhabitable in 100 years. (No, I didn't leave off a zero.)
5.) We're all headed toward ecological oblivion.

Things That Are Not Fun While Teaching Children's Church:

1.) A kid getting a carpet burn so bad, it bleeds.
2.) Having about 30% more kids, and 50% fewer grown ups.
3.) Something (good weather? crack?) making ALL the kids 20-30% more active (read: crazy).
4.) A fire alarm.

How Steph Is Feeling Lately:

1.) Overwhelmingly grateful and happy.
2.) Infrequently frustrated and exasperated.
3.) Often sleepy.
4.) Very loved.
5.) Like things are kicking into a gear that is exhilarting and tiring and giddy and startling and it may. never. stop. You know, a zerbert oblivion.



Standby...

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