Flat-Out Amazing

Not long after we moved to Texas, I was shopping at Target with Peyton and saw these flats. I thought they were terribly cute, I needed some ballet flats to go with some flared-leg jeans I'd bought in Ohio, AND they were on sale. Score!

Here's a tip: Always . . . no, NEVER buy ballet flats with jewels adorning the top, especially if the jewels are attached not with glue, but with little metal tabs kind of like you see on cheap picture frames--you know, where you have to use your fingernail to coax the tabs open, you lay your photo on the glass, put the cardboard easel-thingie back on top of the photo and then smoosh the metal tabs back down to hold the whole thing in place. Know what I'm talkin' about?

These shoes have been a pain in the neck from the get-go, and I should have given them the old heave-ho a long time ago. But, hello?? Sassy! I can't bring myself to do it. But those little jewels are about to get the best of me. They keep falling out, and always at the most inopportune times. Though I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, there's never really a good time for your shoes to fall apart, yes?

Thursday was my brother Clark's birthday and I love, love, LOVE the fact that he works in Fort Worth, just a scant 20 minutes from me, so Randy, Sawyer and I headed over on Friday and picked him up to take him to a belated birthday lunch. (La Familia, for those of you who are interested. Can't say enough good things about it.) The weather was slightly cool but not cold, so I elected to wear my sassy ballet flats with my flared-leg jeans and a long-sleeved blouse. We got about thirty seconds down the road when I remembered that I had left Clark's present at the house so we wheeled around and ran back to the house where I parked the van in the middle of the road ('cause I like to live dangerously), ran up the front walk, dashed in the front door, grabbed the gift bag and rushed back out. And we're off!

After we'd dropped Clark back at his office, we ran to a furniture outlet store that Randy had visited the day before to purchase a sofa and a couple of chairs for our living room. Randy had taken photographs of the pieces that we hoped to acquire, so I believed it would be an in-and-out proposition. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a situation where the chairs were more appealing on the (computer) screen than they were in reality--though I must say they were awfully comfortable--and the anticipated sofa sagged irrevocably in the middle. O-kay. Moving on.

We traversed the store from one end to the other, from front to back, from side to side, from hither to yon, but ended up leaving with nothing. I will admit I was disappointed (mainly because I found the perfect, yes, I said perfect sofa-loveseat-chair-with-ottoman-coffee-table-and-end-table-combination for our living room but Randy could not be convinced), so perhaps that is why my head was hanging when I got in the van. And because my head was hanging, I happened to notice that my sassy bejeweled ballet flat was jewel-less. You heard me--right in the big middle where the crown jewel should be, there was this big yawning void. Dag-nabbit!

Randy asked if I wanted to go back to the store to look for my lost jewel but #1 we were already pushing it to get back to Arlington in time to pick up the kids from school; and #2 I reasoned that the jewel could have been lost anywhere in the store and I didn't relish going back to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. But all the way home I looked at that big empty space on the front of my shoe, mourning the loss of that little jewel and knowing that this perfectly good pair of shoes was now worthless.

We got home with just enough time for me to run in and change my shoes and then Randy questioned whether or not ALL of us needed to go along for the ride to pick up the kids. I let him off the hook and Sawyer and I headed to PCA while Randy went . . . somewhere. I can't remember at the moment. Oh, Circuit City and Best Buy. Anyway, after pick-up we headed to the library and killed an hour or so, and then headed home. Randy was still out so we just kind of puttered around the house and chilled.

Finally I heard his car pull up and then the doorbell rang. (We still haven't gotten the garage cleared out to enable us to park our cars inside, so he has taken to parking and walking around to the front door rather than raising the garage door just to get to the door off the kitchen.) Oddly, though, when Peyton went to open the door for him, instead of coming inside and joining the rest of the family, Randy told Peyton to fetch me. When I came around the corner Randy said he needed to see me outside, so I immediately wondered, "What has he bought and why doesn't he want the kids to see it?" I stepped out on to the porch expectantly, and was puzzled when I saw no conspicuous or perceptible packages or parcels. Instead, Randy simply pointed down at his feet. My jewel! My lost jewel! THE Crown Jewel! It must have come off when I ran back in to get Clark's birthday present! Oh. My. Word. I had been walking around for the last four hours with a big honking jewel missing out of my shoe! Have I ever mentioned how painfully unobservant I am? If you ever needed convincing, this should do the trick.

So what's Randy's excuse?