Do You Really Need THAT Many Shoes?

So I needed some new shoes, and since Amanda has recently developed an addiction to Zappos.com, that was the first place we went for my replacement footwear. Sure enough, we found a specimen that would be a good choice for me (unfortunately, Skechers has stopped making the shoe I've worn for the past 5 years).

Confidently, I pulled the trigger on what should have been a painless transaction, but instead has turned into the crux of my present angst.

Time passes...shoes arrive...all is good...

...until a day later that is, when Amanda is in Shoe Carnival and finds the exact same shoe for half the price of what we paid on the Interwebs.

Logically, since it costs nothing to return shoes to Zappos, and I hadn't even worn them out of the house yet, she's buys Pair Number Two.

At this point in the story, every thing's coming up Marcus: I've got a great pair of shoes at half the price, and it occurs to me that I also have the opportunity to pick the best pair of these shoes, and simply return the other pair.

Easy Enough.

So I get home, do some evaluating and testing on the clodhoppers, and pick what I believe to be the best left and right entity of the bunch. I even wear them around the house while we're packing for New York (insert foreshadowing here). I pack up the rejected pair, and get them ready to send back.

Fast forward another day.

We're standing in the airport in Newburgh, NY waiting for our luggage, when I look down to admire my feet (mmmm...pretty, pretty feet). Caught unawares, I'm slapped in the face by what I see staring back at me.









Apparently, the lighting in our house needs to be better, I am clearly wearing two different versions of the same shoe! I'm convinced they are the same color and everything, but the one on the right (wait, let me hold up my hands and make the 'L' shape to ensure that's right...ok, it is) has some sort of black eyeliner around the leather strips.

Standing there, I begin picturing an identical pair of these cursed scarpe sitting in a box 1,800 miles away at my house; and the kicker is, I'm now stuck with both pair! There is no way I can wear these shoes for a week (as they are the only ones I have with me) and keep one of them in good enough condition to return.

So, it looks like I have now completed the purchase of two pair of the same shoe. I hope I still like them 6 years from now.

In an attempt to recover a little bit, I've thought about trying to find another pair up here somewhere that I can add to the recipe...but I'm afraid it'll end up like that time I tried to make tuna and ended up with a huge vat of the sandwich filler because I kept adding Tuna/Mayo/Tuna/Mayo trying to get the mixture just right.

I think I'll just cut my loses.

Marcus, SGB