Stepping Up

For just a little while today, the world started to unravel. Yes, my carefully constructed time schedule with every task compartmentalized neatly in it's own alloted time period began fraying dangerously. Fear not, however, for in a superhuman feat of willpower I managed to triumph and keep all the balls spinning in their orbit, catching them at exactly the right moment and stuffing them smartly into my pants pocket. And in the end I did what every good woman does to reward herself for a job well done - I went shoe shopping.

Shoes. And for me, purses, maybe even more than shoes. Shoes in themselves can be dangerous for me, because I have very wide feet and am easily depressed by these little sandals with straps the width of vermicelli and heels the size of a number two pencil (unsharpened). I have once or twice found such a pair I could manhandle my foot into, and was pleasantly surprised by how really elegant they made my lower extremities look. Of course, high heels are certain to bring raves from the man in your life. My husband's eyes seem electrically drawn to my feet when I'm wearing them. "Nice shoes!" he'll say approvingly. "They have a heel!" he adds excitedly, as if he envisions me holding him down on the floor by placing my foot squarely on his chest in order to ravish him. Dream on, honey. I can barely totter to the car in these things.

Purses, however, are easy. I really love little purses, and right now I have so many, in so many different colors, that when I try to get one of them off the closet shelf I'm usually bombarded by a cascade of little bags and straps all entanlged in one another. I've taken to leaving my wallet, cell phone, datebook, keys, mints, and reading glasses in a pile on the kitchen table every night, waiting to be inserted into whichever purse will match my outfit for the day. I know that's a huge waste of time, but I have alloted three minutes for purse preparation every morning. Of course there's nothing really sexy about purses, and men mostly don't like them, unless they're looking for a place to stash their own car keys or wallet so they don't have to sit on them during the movie. But for me, they're a fashion necessity I can have some fun with and don't have to wonder if they make me look fat.

So purse and shoe shopping revived me today, after a shift of heavy duty paper shuffling at my office job when I would much rather have been outdoors basking in the perfection of a May spring day. I'm tickled with the white sandals I picked up -love the slightly punk silver side buckle, and they even have a little wedged heel! The white hobo purse is slightly bigger than I usually get, but big is in for bags this spring.

The simple pleasures triumph once again - a pair of shoes, a dandy bag, and thou...