#shoeselfie

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love shoes.  Just ask Mr. Grant.

The view from my home office

#shoeselfie

Rose gold and army green.  

I got some new shoes today...

Much like other fashion-focused types, I've been seeing these Valentino "Rockstud" shoes all over the internet lately for the past year or so:  




Aren't they frigging gorgeous?  They come in virtually every color under the sun.  They also come in flats, stilettos, three-strap, two-strap, slingbacks, T-straps, skimmers, you name it.

They're on Pinterest.  They're on blogs.  They're on the feet of tons of celebrities.  They're beautiful, they sell out almost as soon as they come in (to Bergdorfs, Nordstrom, etc.) and they are unbelievably expensive.  $995 US.  Who the HELL has the money to drop a grand on shoes??  Certainement not moi.

So moi went googling Valentino rockstud knockoffs and found these at Amazon for $53 CDN:

That's more like it, cheap old me said to herself, and clicked "add to cart".  I have to be honest - I wasn't expecting much from these shoes.  For $53, I wasn't really optimistic even though they had good reviews.  You pays your money and you takes your chances, right?  So I paid my money and waited.

Thirteen days later my Purolator delivery lady, Dee (get lots of parcels, Tammy??), showed up with a nicely wrapped package and a bill for $17.00 duty.  Once I told her what was in the box, she found a few minutes to hang out while I opened the shoes.  

My first inkling that what I had purchased was a semi-serious "knockoff" rather than a cheap brand just producing a similar style was the box.

I suppose if you squinted a bit (or a lot, or were drunk, or were in second grade) this might look like it said "Valentino" instead of "Vaiftilno".  Clever, my counterfeiting friends, very clever.  It's made of heavy cardboard, almost with a cloth finish.  Frankly, its the nicest shoe box I've ever had a pair of shoes come in.

What was in the box was even better!

They were gorgeous!  A pair of beautiful nude-colored, nicely-made, pig-skin lined 3 1/2" heeled shoes, individually bagged, with extra lifts and replacement studs. They fit perfectly, are super comfortable, and I can virtually guarantee that no one in my community is going to have a pair.  :)

Now.  Ask me if I feel badly about Valentino being stolen from this way.  This actually requires a bit of thought.  I had no problem when I thought this was just a no-name shoe company making a shoe very similar to the Valentinos. After all, that's what most shoe companies do.  Betcha Payless is trying to figure out their version as we speak.  Now that I have them, and I'm not certain how seriously they are trying to pass themselves off as Valentinos,  I feel a leetle bit dirty.

On further reflection, I'm feel less and less dirty, and more indignant.  Why SHOULDN'T I have a pair of shoes that look almost the same as Valentinos? Why should celebrities, bloggers and rich people be the only ones to enjoy this style?  I knew I wasn't getting real Valentinos when I ordered these, and it's not like I paid $995 for a pair of fakes.  Then I'd be super pissed.

So I'm going to wear my Valentino knock-offs and enjoy them.  I'm even thinking about ordering another pair, this time in black.  :)

I Made a Promise to Myself...

that I would write a little bit every day.  Nothing big, but write nonetheless.

At times I feel as though I have so much to say that I'm going to explode; other times I am wrung out and empty.    Today, I'm somewhere in between.

Hauling myself out of a major depressive episode (work burnout, resulting in a stress leave) has been a tough go.  I've been off work since the third week of March and, quite honestly, would be ecstatic to never have to step foot into my workplace ever again.  Admitting that to myself was a major step in my "recovery".

Now I'm trying to implement steps to change my life, and I'm finding that no matter how prepared you think you are, nothing gets you ready to resign from your job of almost twenty years.

I come from the Regina, the capital city of our province; where to obtain employment with the government is the ultimate career goal.  Good wages, excellent benefits, a pension, a union, opportunities to move up/down/around...and for the past I-don't-know-how-many-years that aspect has been the only thing keeping me there.  Well, that and the cachet I have attributed to the job I'm doing.  Not everyone gets to work in Courts, and most staff at law firms (where my career began), would give their eye teeth for the opportunity. I have a badge, I have handcuffs and a kevlar vest, and sometimes my job is SUPER cool.

But you know what?  No amount of "coolness", or prestige (real or imagined), or the ability to hobnob with high-end lawyers and Judges is worth what working in this office has done to me.  Frustration, anxiety, depression, nightmares, migraines...no job is worth that price.

In a perfect world, with a really good manager, my position would be one of the best in government.

In this world, with this management team, it's one of the worst.

Steve Writes a Sequel -- Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Stephen King's work.  I grew up with Stephen King,  been reading him since I was 12 or 13.  His writing has impacted my reading choices, my movie choices, my writing voice and my love of pop culture.  I've learned TONS from him - he just jams so damn much stuff into his narrative you can't help but learn something - and certainly not the least of which was the expression "Jesus jumped up Christ in a sidecar".  I have virtually every single one of his books.  They fill a bookcase in my family room; the shelves  groan under the weight of all of those hardcovers.

For each of his books that have scared the ever-loving crap out of me (The Shining, 'Salem's Lot,  Pet Sematary, Bag of Bones) there have been almost the same number  that have moved me to tears (Lisey's Story, Insomnia, The Green Mile), left me feeling "meh" (The Tommyknockers) or been in a genre that, dammit, as much as I try to like it, I just don't (The Dark Tower series).

So I am what Steve refers to as his "Constant Reader", and this is my take on Doctor Sleep.

Initially I was leery about this one when it was billed as a "sequel to The Shining"  (What?!?  King has finally succumbed to the siren call of the series?  And he's sacrificing Danny Torrance to do it?!?!)  After having read it, I would say it isn't so much a sequel as it is a revisit; answering the question of how Danny turned out after that terrible winter at the Overlook.

I was hooked by the third page - when King dropped me right into the mood and tone from The Shining.  My skin crawled and my shoulders tensed, and I was back in the bathroom of Room 217 at the Overlook.  (And we all remember what was lying in that bathtub.)

Danny has turned out much as we would expect from a kid who spent the winter dodging dead folks, hedge animals and a crazed father with a sledgehammer; that is to say, fucked up.  He drinks, like his dad did, and loses jobs, like his dad did.  His shine is almost gone and the drinking keeps it that way.  Doctor Sleep is the story of Dan's redemption.

One thing that you notice when you've been reading King for this long is how much he has changed as a writer since he started.  The other thing you notice is how much you have changed as a reader.  I read a magazine review of this book earlier this week where the reviewer referred to King's treatment of his characters as "tender", and really, there is no better way to phrase it.

King is a freaking master of characterization - to read one of his books is to lose yourself completely in the characters he has created.  Doctor Sleep is no different.  King's handle on his characters is so complete that to finish one of his books leaves the reader bereft; and gives his novels a sense of poignancy that becomes stronger with each book.  This is where (imo) King has changed.  In his earlier novels, although you still had a strong, almost visceral sense of his characters' identities, there was usually an undertone of unease, or fear, or horror, that permeated the book.  Sometimes that tone was enough to make me feel like I couldn't finish the book fast enough.  For me, that sense is what has changed over the years.   His characters might not be any more sympathetic than they were in the 1980s, but he writes them more sympathetically.  (If that makes any sense!)

Oops, I digress.

If King perhaps didn't give Dan the specific type of story I thought I was looking for (a "true" sequel to The Shining, with a return to the Overlook, perhaps, with characters we met in the first book), he gave him the only story he could:  and if I tell you what that is, I'll spoil it.

This was really, really good.  4 stars.


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Review: My morbid side takes over - Aftermath, Inc.

Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have always been a somewhat morbid sort, so you can see why this book appealed to me immensely.

It's an easy read, with tons of gnarly detail and incisive wit.  I laughed out loud a number of times while reading, mostly from passages like this, where the author is referring to the death of a kid on his little league team when he was seven:

"You always remember your first dead body.  The following afternoon at the funeral home, Chucky was a waxen figure arrayed in a coffin of polished mahogany, somehow more elegant in death than he had been in life, at least on the baseball diamond, where his fielding skills left something to be desired.  W.C. Fields used to call death "the Fellow in the Bright Nightgown."  For me, he was always a Little League Shortstop."

Call me cracked, but that paragraph made me burst out laughing.  My husband was appalled.  :)

While this particular book became an essay by the author about the meaning of life and death, it was entertaining in its way and I learned a ton of interesting tidbits that I can use socially (like that Dylan's song, Mr. Tambourine Man, was written after a trip to New Orleans where he watched a number of jazz funerals - the hearse was led by a man tapping a tambourine.  Who knew that song was so morbid?).

Ultimately, though, I finished this quickly and was vaguely disappointed at the end.  I was looking for a deeper look at the business itself and the people who do this for a living.  Other reviews have recommended Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners, so perhaps I'll check that book out as well.

If you're looking for a bit of an eyeball at the business, a few disgusting, a few disturbing and a couple of downright disquieting crime scene stories you'll find them here.

3 stars.


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HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Doesn't matter if you're mom to a child, step-child, foster child, dog, cat, lizard, hamster, husband, an honorary mom to half the kids who live on your street...hope you all had a great day.

I got taken out for brunch, had a nap, then got to visit with a girlfriend I hadn't seen in 10 years.  I can't think of a better way to spend a warm, sunny Sunday in May.

Enjoy, everyone!