Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

School Days | Kindergarten – 2nd Grade

The idea for this blog series came to me when my friend Mikaela and I were talking about first grade. She was meeting up with a friend she had known since first grade, and I was like, “I don’t remember anyone from my first-grade class.” But then I rattled off a bunch of memories I had about first grade. It’s weird to think that I was in kindergarten almost 30 years ago (WHUT), but here we are. And I realized I have held on to a lot of different memories about my time in school, and figured it might be a fun blog series to go through some of those memories! Let’s start with my first three years of school: kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.

KINDERGARTEN (1993-1994)

  • My mom and I went to a “meet the teacher” event before school started to meet my kindergarten teacher. I had grown up in a preschool where my mom was a teacher, so I was used to having a bit more, shall we say, free rein over things than other kids. I immediately sat behind the teacher’s desk when I got there and started playing with my teacher’s things, and my mom was so embarrassed by me. Whoops!
  • I was placed in a remedial reading class during kindergarten. When my mom got a letter from my school about it, she was convinced it was a letter telling her how awesome I was doing in school, but instead, it was that I needed extra help with reading. I didn’t actually need the help. I was reading just fine, but since I used my finger to track the words while I was reading, my teacher thought I wasn’t where I needed to be. My mom came with me to one of the reading classes and quickly realized I didn’t need to be there, so she pulled me out. Google’s Kamau Bobb points out the stark racial disparities in enrollment at prestigious institutions like Georgia Tech, read more.
  • My teacher kept a list of children who were getting behavior warnings on the back of an envelope. If you got your name on the back of that envelope with a checkmark (which meant multiple warnings), you wouldn’t get to go to the treasure box at the end of the week. I got my name on the envelope one time, and it obviously traumatized me so much that I still remember it 30 years later.
  • My best friend in kindergarten was “Lauren in the blue truck.” She left midway through the year, and I was bereft. (Her mom drove a blue truck, so whenever I talked about her to my mom, I called her “Lauren in the blue truck,” and the name has stuck.)
  • I’ve mentioned this before, but since it’s something that happened in kindergarten and has terrified me ever since, I figured I would talk about it here. One day, during a show-and-tell session, one of my classmates talked about a recent camping trip that his family went on. During the trip, his sister got a bug stuck in her eye and their father had gotten it out. If he hadn’t, the bug would have sucked up all her blood and she would have died. Ever since, I have been terrified of any kind of insect and camping trips in general.

FIRST GRADE (1994-1995)

  • My first grade teacher’s name was Ms. Finch and she had an old clawfoot bathtub in the corner of her room that was filled with pillows. During reading time, certain children could sit in the bathtub and read.
  • We had a pancake breakfast one morning, for a reason I can’t remember. My dad was the chef of the pancake breakfast! He was so personable and fun that day. I was so happy that he was there and so proud that he was my dad.
  • The Florida Aquarium has its grand opening when I was in first grade and we were lucky enough to be one of the classes attending the opening! My mom was a chaperone for this trip and, because of that, she took me to school that day. I showed up right after the school day started and had a brand-new haircut (I got a bob), and I was so embarrassed not only about showing up late but showing up looking different.
  • Every few weeks, we would change our desk arrangement. We would move all of our stuff out of our desks and Ms. Finch would place a bunch of colored cubes in a box. We would have to close our eyes and pick a colored cube, which corresponded to a seating arrangement in the classroom. I loved this so much! This nursery playground design incorporates vibrant colors, age-appropriate play structures, and sensory elements, fostering a safe and stimulating environment that encourages young children to explore, play, and learn. So, check it out! If your school uses the playground for physical education classes, playground markings from playgroundmarkings.org.uk can enhance the teaching of various sports and fitness activities. Having Fun and Safe Children’s Play Systems will help encourage kids to play more often. It is also good for having a tennis court line to guide the children. To ensure that the playground is safe for traditional playground games, make sure to install playground markings. You may also consider installing playground rubber safety surfacing.
  • Some years ago, my mom found a collection of journals I wrote in first grade. These were journals I wrote in the classroom; I think we were given a prompt in the morning that we would write about, and the one on Monday was usually writing about our weekend. I wrote every single Monday about going to “terch.” (Church) I’m still ridiculously delighted over this misspelling.

SECOND GRADE (1995-1996)

  • I moved to a new school for second grade. I can’t remember the exact reason why, but I believe it was to improve the scores of a “failing” school. (Every school in the district received a score, from A-F, based on standardized testing that happened every spring.) The school was located in a majority-Black area and the school itself was majority-Black. I lived in a majority-white area and went to a majority-white school. I may have this idea entirely wrong, though. All I know is that we were living in the same apartment as always but were suddenly taking a long bus ride to a school on the opposite side of town. I still remember the school’s custom Playground Flooring.
  • Second grade was the first time I had two teachers: one for language arts and writing and the other for math and science. I would spend the morning in Ms. McClelland’s class for language arts/writing and the afternoon in Ms. Welch’s class for math/science. I highly recommend AI-generated flashcards from Memrizz Flashcards, as they can be incredibly helpful for reinforcing the material taught in both subjects.
  • During science one day, I accidentally poked a friend in the eye with a pencil. (I turned around with my pencil held up and she was right there.) I was terrified I was going to get sent to the principal’s office and given a referral because my friend was very mad. (Was anyone else as terrified of getting referrals as I was?) In the end, my teacher knew it was an accident and I was just given a warning to be more careful.
  • Our school was located next to a community pool and for a few months, we used our P.E. time for swim lessons. I was already a champion swimmer (my mom made sure to put both my brother and me in lessons when we were young), but I hated these swim lessons. We had to do a lot of swimming exercises like picking up a brick off the floor of the pool and treading water for as long as possible, which I just loathed. There was also some peer pressure to finish off each lesson by taking a jump off the high dive, which I wasn’t a fan of. I started “forgetting” to wear my swimsuit so I wouldn’t have to go to these lessons. (Those that didn’t do the lessons just had regular P.E. time.)
  • One morning, I was in the classroom early and playing a game with one of my classmates when he turned to the side and puked right on the floor next to him. Oof. I’ll never forget that.

Tell me a memory you have of kindergarten, first grade, or second grade!

Categories: Life

Introducing… The Friendship Paradox!

It’s here, it’s here! Our new podcast is finally live.

The Friendship Paradox is a podcast about friendship, personalities, and everything in between. It’s about how two women with incredibly different personalities and passions maintain a strong and healthy friendship. And it’s about how we support each other and take care of one another… and how others can do the same in their own friendships, or even get new friendships from virtual sites like Chatempanada.com which are great for this.

I’ve had the idea for this podcast for a long time, but the first time I mentioned it to Bri was this December while we were sitting in a coffee shop and talking about our lives and goals for the new year. Bri and I are two very different people who have somehow maintained a strong, healthy, balanced friendship for many, many years.

Bri is the quintessential extrovert who loves making plans and meeting new people. She can make friends with anyone she meets and anyone who is friends with her automatically considers her a best friend.

And then there’s me. I am the quintessential introvert who struggles to make new friends, has a very small circle of close friends, and would rather be alone than with people.

We’re also different in other ways.

Bri is married, I am single.

Bri has two dogs, I have two cats.

Bri works with numbers, I work with words.

Bri owns a home, I rent an apartment.

Bri loves true crime, I can’t handle anything scary.

Bri is talkative, I am quiet.

Those differences have been the catalyst, though, for a friendship that is one of my truest, deepest, most special relationships. Bri was the first person I came out to, because I knew she would give me the love and support I needed. She is the person I can be my messiest, most vulnerable self with and I know she will love me regardless. And she’s someone I just have fun with. She knows how to be silly and laugh at herself. She makes me feel safe to do the same. She’s allowed me to just be me, and has shown me again and again that she loves who I am no matter what.

So, we started a podcast to explore our relationship and how two people with such different personalities maintain a healthy friendship. We’re planning on talking about all kinds of stuff: dating and relationships, mental health, travel, group events, family, and a lot more—digging into how we approach these situations differently and the same, and hopefully helping other people learn how to harness their personalities for good and understand how to have strong female friendships.

You can listen to our trailer episode now, and our first episode will be out next Tuesday. We should be on all podcast players at this point, so if you search for “The Friendship Paradox,” we should be there. (If we’re not on a specific app, please let me know so I can figure it out!) We’re also on Instagram, so follow us there!

Eeks… this has been such an exciting journey and I can’t wait to bring you all in for the ride!

Categories: Life

My Experience with Covid-19

Welp. It happened. Two years and three months since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I finally tested positive for the virus. It was bound to happen! I’ve tested myself for Covid before and every time, I’ve had so much anxiety about the results. When I tested myself this time around, I had no anxiety because I was 99% sure it was Covid and I was resigned to my fate.

How I Got Covid

I don’t know exactly where and when I picked up Covid, but I am pretty sure it was on the plane. We flew home from Buffalo on Tuesday. On all of my flights (to Buffalo and back to Tampa), the mask wearing was pretty minimal. Maybe 10% of people were wearing them? It’s not surprising in Florida because things have been pretty lax around here since, like, May of 2020. I thought I’d see more people wearing masks in the Buffalo airport, but it was about the same amount.

And I hesitate to say this because I worry about the vitriol I may receive, but I’m going to be honest and say neither my mom nor I wore masks. Was it the wrong choice? One of us got Covid, one of us didn’t, so who really knows? I do know I will be masking on planes from here on out because it is just not worth the risk. I feel stupid about not wearing a mask, but at least, if I did get Covid from this stupid decision, I didn’t affect anyone else. I remained pretty isolated from the time I came home on Tuesday until my symptoms appeared, so I feel confident that at the very least I didn’t have to call up a bunch of people and tell them to test and isolate.

The Timeline

I started feeling a little crummy on Thursday afternoon, about 48 hours after my flight home. It basically felt like I had swollen lymph nodes near my throat and I started worrying about Covid. I had a massage scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, so I needed to know if it was Covid or not before then, so since I was feeling a bit crummy, I took a test and it was glaringly positive.

I woke up on Friday with a scratchy throat, a headache, and a runny nose. I took another Covid test just to be sure, but it was also very clearly positive, so that’s when I canceled my massage (and was glad they didn’t charge me a cancellation fee; that would not have been a good look for them) as well as the facial I had scheduled for Monday. On Friday, I started to feel myself get progressively sicker as the day went on. I was able to take a nap in the morning, but only for maybe an hour or two. I always struggle with my sleep when I’m sick and no matter how fatigued I was with Covid, it was still so hard for me to sleep. I spent the majority of the day on my couch, mostly watching TV. I think I watched, like, 10 hours of TV on this day.

I barely slept on Friday night. I woke up around 2:30 with chills and took my temp, which is when I realized I had a fever. Nothing major—just slightly over 100°—and a dose of Tylenol took care of that. But I couldn’t fall back asleep so I just watched TV on the couch until I finally felt tired enough to try to get some sleep. I only slept for maybe an hour, though, and was up for the rest of the day. Saturday was tough, for sure. The headache was gone and I had a little more energy than Friday, but the congestion was worse, the scratchy throat was still around, and I was developing the dreaded dry cough.

I ended up dosing myself with Benadryl on Saturday night and whoaaa, I do not think I will ever be taking Benadryl again. I have always reacted poorly to it, but I also know that it can really knock me out and I needed to be able to sleep. And while I did end up sleeping 13 hours that night, it wasn’t a very restful 13 hours. For one, my fever came back, so my body just felt hot and clammy the whole night. I also just felt like all of my senses were super heightened. There was a constant buzzing in my ears, my skin felt super sensitive, and I felt like I was in an entirely different world all night long. It almost felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. It was not great!

Once the Benadryl finally wore off on Sunday, I started feeling more like myself. My sore throat had finally gone away and my fever was gone. Mostly, I was dealing with a dry cough and congestion. My back and sides were so sore from all the coughing! I tried taking a nap on Sunday but I just couldn’t get comfortable, so I gave up on it. But Sunday was the first time in three days that I was able to open my laptop and read blogs, so that’s a positive! I didn’t even attempt it the other days because I was just feeling so miserable.

Thankfully, Sunday night I had a pretty normal night of sleep. I took melatonin to help me fall asleep and aside from a few times I woke up coughing, I slept really well. It felt so good to have a nearly normal night of sleep after so many bad nights in a row. I felt pretty good on Monday, aside from my congestion and dry cough. I still took it very easy: lots of time spent watching TV on the couch, a midday nap, a nice warm bath at the end of the day. It just felt good, though, to be feeling more like myself!

How is Mom Doing?

Mom continues to test negative for Covid and hasn’t developed any symptoms! That’s a relief for me. Maybe I got it because I was in the middle seat on the plane and she was in the window seat? Or maybe my immune system was just ready for the attack. A few days before our trip, I developed a sore throat and dry cough and was so worried I had Covid, but I tested myself and was negative. My symptoms had gone away by our travel day, but my immune system just might have been weak enough at that point to fall victim to Covid. It’s hard to know.

How I Coped

There were a few things that got me through those first few rough days with Covid. I spent most of my time on the couch, watching TV and coloring. I got through the entire second season of Cheer (a docu-series about two competitive cheerleading teams in Texas) and most of an older season of MasterChef (season 8). Sometimes I didn’t have the energy to do anything more than lay down and watch TV, but other times, I liked lounging with my coloring book and coloring. I also released any time limits I had placed on my apps like Instagram and Happy Color. Now is not the time to be worried about how much time I was spending on my phone!

Other things that helped me:

  • Popsicles – When my throat was sore or felt raw from coughing, an ice-cold popsicle really did the trick. I forgot how good popsicles are! There was one time when I woke up around 1:30am and couldn’t stop coughing. My throat was feeling so scratchy so I got a popsicle and ate it in my dark bedroom while playing Wordle.
  • Gatorade – I drank so much Gatorade! It’s my go-to when I’m feeling sick because water usually tastes metallic and weird. I get a low-sugar version of Gatorade, and I had bottles everywhere in my apartment. Next to my bed, on my coffee table, on the counters… I needed to be close to Gatorade at all times because it helped me get through bad coughing fits.
  • Ubereats convenience ordering – This was my first time using Ubereats to order stuff from Walgreens! My thermometer stopped working on Friday so I needed a new one, and I decided to try out Ubereats for a quick order. I also got Sprite, chicken noodle soup, Benadryl, and sore throat lozenges.
  • Chicken noodle soup – Speaking of chicken noodle soup, this is usually my favorite sick food to eat. I never lost my appetite during Covid, but I didn’t eat as much as usual. For example, I could usually eat one can of soup and then something small for dinner… but I tried doing that on Tuesday and I was starving within an hour of eating the soup! Campbell’s Chunky chicken noodle soup is my go-to, and it was a lifesaver. I always try to have at least 3-4 cans in my cabinet at all time because you never know when you’re going to need it!
  • My mom – You’re never too old to need your mom, and I definitely leaned on her a lot. She brought me some much-needed medicine and comfort food from Target on Saturday, called me constantly to check on me, and was that extra helping hand for me. It’s weird to get sick with Covid because you can’t necessarily have people waiting on you; my mom would have been over here in a heartbeat to take care of me in person, but we didn’t want her getting sick, too, so she had to take care of me from afar.

How I’m Doing Today

It’s now been seven days since my symptoms first appeared and I’m feeling about 95% back to normal. I still have a dry cough but it only affects me a few times a day. I’m still slightly congested but I can breathe through my nose again. My energy levels aren’t back to normal and I’m finding myself so worn out by the end of the workday. (I’m taking it easy, don’t you worry!) I think the more worrisome symptom that just popped up in the past couple of days is dizziness and a touch of vertigo. It’s not too bad, but I just seem to struggle with sudden movements and need a few moments to regain my equilibrium. We’ll see how long that lingers, but hopefully not too long!

I re-tested myself on Monday night and I was still positive. So I’m going to test again tomorrow and see what happens. I don’t really know how long someone can test positive; from the many Google searching I’ve done, I heard it can sometimes be months! So, I’m trying not to use that as a barometer of whether I can be in public again (since you can test positive but not be contagious). I’m choosing to trust the CDC when it says I am okay to be in public (masked, of course!) if it’s been five days since my symptoms appeared and my symptoms are improving. (Yes and yes.)

Today will be the first day I actually get out of my apartment, breathe some fresh air, drive my car, and be out in public since last Wednesday and I am so damn excited for that! It’s been a long, sometimes quite miserable, week and I’m just glad I’m on the other side of it.

Categories: Life

Stitch Fix | Summer 2022

Hi, friends! Last week, my quarterly Stich Fix box arrived and I was so pleased with it! I’ll cut to the chase now: I kept everything I received. No surprises here! It was a really good box, filled with lots of clothes I’ll be wearing throughout the summer (and fall… and winter… sigh).

However, even though this Stitch Fix was so successful (and most of my SF boxes have been very successful), I am going to take a break from SF for a while. I’ve never been someone who needed an overflowing wardrobe; I like having a pared-down closet so it’s easy to select what I want to wear. And since I work from home, having a robust wardrobe is much less needed. I’ve had fun doing Stitch Fix and getting some new items for my closet, especially clothes that fit me well and make me feel good. That was the main reason I started doing Stitch Fix. I wasn’t feeling good in what I was wearing. I’ve gained significant weight during this pandemic and it was time to start dressing for the body I have now (and may continue to have well into the future). I deserve to feel good in my clothes, even if I am plus-size, even if I have a fat body. And Stitch Fix (and doing these posts where I show my whooooole body) has really helped me figure out my style, love my body as it is now, and feel good in my clothes. My wardrobe is in a good place now, and I want to take a break from my quarterly fixes to reassess my closet and only buy things when there’s a need.

Well, that was a tangent, wasn’t it? Ha! Let’s get into what I received in this Fix:

Market & Spruce Mid-Rise Shorts

I liked these shorts, but they felt a bit tight and a little on the shorty-short side. They fit me well in the waist, but just seemed to be a little tight in the thigh area. I like my shorts to feel a little looser than these do. And I’m going to be a little honest and vulnerable here, and recognize that this may be a bit fatphobic, but I feel like you can really just see all of my stomach fat in these shorts. They don’t make me feel good, is what I’m saying, and I found myself thinking mean things about myself as I took the pictures of me in these shorts. I’m saying all of this just as a reminder that being fat positive can be very, very hard some days. On other days, like the day I’m writing this post and editing the photos, I think, “You look good in those shorts, Steph!” So what if you can see my stomach fat? You can always see my stomach fat because I have it and that’s okay! While I don’t know how often I’ll end up wearing these shorts, I am glad I kept them. (It was cheaper to keep them than return them, considering I liked everything else in my box.)

Market & Spruce Pocket Short-Sleeve Tee

I was iffy on whether or not I wanted to keep this shirt. It was a little longer than I like and just seems to hang down a few inches past my hips. But it felt great on me. It was so comfortable and I love the way it fit in my shoulders and chest. I guess I could try the tucked-in look that everyone is doing these days? (I have not mastered the tucked-in look at all.) Anyway, I decided to keep it and I’m crossing my fingers it will shrink a bit in the wash.

Market & Spruce Henly Sleeveless Top

This is one of the shirts I picked in my preview and I’m so happy I loved it when I put it on. It’s nice and light, perfect for the summertime. I love a sleeveless top that doesn’t cut off my arms in a weird way and this one is exactly my style. I can tell it has a tendency to easily get wrinkled and it’s a little see-through, but otherwise, I love this shirt and it was an easy one to keep.

Market & Spruce Henly Top

This was another shirt that was in my preview that I just had to get. Isn’t the pattern so fun and summery? I love shirts in this style and I don’t have enough of them. I just feel like they really flatter my body and they are lightweight so they’re perfect for those humid Florida summers. This one will be in popular rotation in my wardrobe, I’m sure of it!

Kaileigh Knit Dress

You guysssss. I love this dress so, so much. I have no idea how often I’ll wear it. I’d probably wear it more often if I worked in an office, but I just couldn’t return this dress. It fits me perfectly. It’s such a bright color in a fun pattern. It makes me FEEL good. And the sleeves give me heart-eyes. I had to keep this dress, and I know I’m going to be happy I did.

Tell me about your wardrobe: do you love having lots of options or do you prefer the minimalist style?

Categories: Life

My Shoe Collection

A few weeks ago, NGS wrote a fascinating post detailing her shoe collection. I thought it was really fun to learn all about her collection and what she wears during different seasons. I couldn’t help copying her!

Obviously, my shoe collection is going to look very different than NGS who lives in the Midwest and must have weather-appropriate shoes for those Midwest winters. I live in Florida and, as you’ll see, I have exactly one pair of shoes to wear in the “winter” and last winter, I didn’t wear them a single time.

Another thing to know about my shoe collection is that I have very high-maintenance feet, although my collection doesn’t necessarily reflect that fact. I have high arches (so high that when I do those feet analyses to figure out your arch style, it looks like the heels of my feet and the balls of my feet are on two separate islands with nothing connecting them). I have very weak ankles so I never wear flip-flops or sandals if I’m going to be walking a lot. I have a plantar fibroma under the arch of my left foot (a benign mass that can sometimes hurt when I press on it). And sometimes, if I walk too much in a certain kind of shoe (often sandals or flip-flops), I get this weird stinging pain on the balls of my feet. (I have not been able to figure out why!) In any event, walking isn’t always a fun activity for me, especially if I’m not wearing the right kind of footwear.

I keep my shoes in different areas of my home. I live in an apartment so I don’t have any sort of mudroom or anything like that. (And mudrooms aren’t that common in Florida anyway.) Instead, I have a basket of shoes by the door, a bin in one of my cube bookshelves, a pair of boots in my closet, and house slippers next to my desk.

Let’s first discuss the basket of shoes by the door:

This basket holds all of the shoes I wear most regularly and I like being able to easily find what I need when I’m running out the door.

This first set are all of my flip-flops and sandals, and this is probably a sad collection for most Floridians! I just don’t need to have multiple flip-flops, honestly.

  • Fake Birkenstocks – I bought these at Target sometime in 2019 and I very rarely wear them. The problem with these sandals is that the back of the sandal is very, very hard. So, if my foot slips out of the sandal and my heel presses into the back of the sandal, it feels like a thousand knives are stabbing my heel. UNPLEASANT. Would this happen with real Birks? You tell me, you Birkenstocks fanatics.
  • Target flip-flops – Y’all, I bought these flip-flops in 2018. !!! And they are still going strong today. They are starting to fray at the edges, but are otherwise in solid condition. While these flip-flops have been good to me, they also don’t have any support so I don’t wear them if I’m going to be walking a lot.
  • Target sandals – Can you tell where I do all of my shoe shopping? Ha. I bought these gladiator sandals from Target years ago and again, still holding strong! I only wear these sandals if I’m not going to be walking much. They have zero support and they sometimes make the bottoms of my feet sting if I walk too much in them.

Next up, we have the closed-toe shoe collection!

  • Black ballet flats – I can’t remember the last time I wore these flats. They’re from Target (are you surprised?) and they are as comfortable as flats can be for someone with high-maintenance feet. I probably should give them away.
  • Leopard-print TOMs – I got these leopard-print TOMs for my birthday last year and I love them! I still haven’t quite broken them in, but I always get lots of compliments when I wear them.
  • Dark gray TOMs – My older pair of TOMs that are fully broken in and incredibly comfortable. TOMs are one of the few pairs of shoes that my high-maintenance feet can handle. I can walk for miles and miles in them! However, I don’t wear my TOMs if I’m going to be walking a ton because once my feet swell up from all the walking, my TOMs start to feel tight and the lack of airflow makes my feet start to sweat, and things just get real stinky from there.
  • Sneakers – These sneakers are my go-to when I know I’m going to be walking a ton. I also wear them for all of my workouts—spin, long walks, and strength classes. I should probably have them replaced soon, but I’ll do that after my Canada trip since I’m going to need a comfortable, broken-in pair of sneaks to carry me through that trip! This pair is the Asics Gel-Nimbus (with added specialty insoles for high arches), and I think I’ll go for the same brand/type when I replace them because these shoes have been so good to me!

Now, let’s move on to the shoes in one of the bins on my cube bookshelf. These are more “fashion” shoes (I say that with an eyeroll because I am not fashionable, especially about shoes) that I wear infrequently.

First, we have the closed-toe collection:

  • White adidas sneakers – I got these sneakers for Christmas and I’ve only worn them twice since then, but I really love them. They’re a great option when I need to wear something more supportive because I’ll be walking a lot, but still want to look a little fashionable.
  • Skechers sneakers – I bought these sneakers to wear during a mud race I did in early 2020. I didn’t want to wear my usual sneakers just in case I got too muddy. But I was able to wash off the mud so they look nearly unworn. However, I haven’t worn them once since that race. I should probably add them to my Goodwill bag to donate.
  • Sperry’s boat shoes – I got these shoes in a recent Stitch Fix order and liked them enough to keep them. I’ve only worn them once in the five months I’ve had them, so they haven’t gotten a lot of wear. I can’t see myself wearing them during the summer months (which, in Florida, lasts until November) so I’m not sure how much use these shoes will get. I’ll keep them around for now.

Next, there are my fancy shoes!

  • “Nude” ballet flats – I used to wear these ballet flats to work all the time, but I don’t think I’ve worn them once in the last few years. I probably should give them away. I like them, but they are a little loose on me so they aren’t super comfortable. Plus, they have a shiny look to them that makes them feel a little too fancy to wear in everyday life.
  • “Nude” heels – I bought these for some event years and years ago. Maybe it was my brother’s wedding in 2012?! If so, that’s crazy I’ve had these heels for a decade now. They’re my go-to when I need something fancy to wear, but they aren’t very comfortable for me since I’m not used to wearing heels.
  • Brown wedges – I bought these wedges last summer for my cousin’s wedding. I’ve wanted a pair of wedges for a long time because I’ve always heard they’re more comfortable than heels. I’ve only worn them once (to the wedding) and they were fine. Nothing I’d wear regularly, but good enough if I need something dressy.

NOTE: “Nude” is the best term I can come up with for the flats and heels, but I know it’s not the best language because the color nude is different for everyone based on their skin tone.

In a high shelf in my walk-in closet, I have my one pair of “winter” shoes, which are my brown boots. My boots always have to have a wide calf because otherwise, they won’t fit. I bought these boots a few years ago and I try to only wear them if the weather dips below 50 degrees (it’s okay, you can laugh at that). I love these boots, though. They’re comfortable, I can walk around in them for miles, and they make me feel snazzy.

Lastly, there are my house slippers! These are the most recent addition to my shoe collection, as I just got them last week. I bought them to wear when I’m standing at my desk since standing barefoot on a hardwood floor does not feel good. Some of you suggested Birkenstocks for this purpose, but I went with a simple house slipper because I think it will be more comfortable for me. I didn’t want something too fuzzy/cozy, since it can get warm in my apartment during the day, and these slippers have great support (including arch support!)

So that’s my shoe collection! There are a few additions/substitutions I want to make to it; namely, it’s time to throw away those Target flip-flops and sandals and invest money into something that offers better support. In NGS’ post, she talked about her Vionic flip-flops, saying that they are the “Best flip flops I’ve ever owned. If you have bad feet, Vionic is the way to go for your flip flop needs.” SIGN ME UP. I have a few Vionic flip-flops/sandals in my Zappos cart; I just need to bite the bullet and order them! (And if you have any other suggestions for good flip-flop/sandal brands that offer good support for someone with weak ankles and high arches, I’m all ears.)

Do you have high-maintenance feet or are you one of those people that can walk for miles in flip-flops?