Shoes-ing

After approximately 25 wardrobe malfunctions, I found the dress. One that fits and will (please God) stay in place throughout the ceremony and reception. Then my step mom, Marilyn, called "Now you have to get shoes, clutch and jewelry." What!!! There is more to this? I am not a shopper by any stretch of the imagination. It is safe to say that I hate it. I own a small collection of jeans and a large collection of yoga pants and t-shirts. I am content to wear boots fall and winter, tennis shoes in the spring and bare feet all summer but off I went to find shoes. Summer, dress-up, big girl shoes. Because I have some of the worst toes ever made I am unable to wear anything strappy which narrows summer time options. I am short so i wanted heels but not wedges or platforms or "the dress looks great it's a shame she can't walk in the shoes" shoes. 
So after Penney's, Kohls and Bergners, we found the perfect pair at Macys...the shoe I would have made if I had time, talent and materials. This week they remained in the plastic wrap and box they came in until someone mentioned that I should probably start breaking them in. Ah! yes...the breaking in of the new shoes. I recall very vividly a day in the late sixties when my brother Bruce and I returned home after a day of neighborhood shenanigans to find our mother, Pat, breaking in a new pair of pumps. Her hair, damp and  full of bright pink, sponge curlers held securely in place by plastic clips and a sort of large babushka like scarf. Her attire consisted of pedal pushers, a cotton, sleeveless blouse, knee high stockings, a brand new pair of high heeled pumps and a fly swatter. She wandered aimlessly throughout the house swatting at flies as she went and breaking in the new shoes. We thought it was hysterical. We laughed until we cried.   
Fast forward to 2011 - I sit at a laptop in a pair of cutoff sweats, t-shirt, face slathered in wrinkle cream and, yes, high heeled, big girl shoes for the wedding.A cellphone has replaced the black rotary desk phone that sat in my parent's home. I use a laptop instead of a typewriter.  A microwave does a large majority of my cooking as opposed to the large dutch oven my mom used daily. A hot curling brush instead of those wonderful pink-sponge rollers. So many things are different but at least one thing remains the same, then and now, the only way to break in a new pair of shoes is to put them on your short stubby hammer toed feet and wear them.