Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Girl With Green Eyes--Discussion Thread


Lucy wears a pair of sandals on a 'date' with Dr. Thurloe that are brand new--and they pinch. He tells her to take them off which endears himself to me forever but, come on ladies, aren't some shoes worth it? I have a pair of adorable flats (see right). The first day of those shoes was murder. I love them. Do you have such a worthwhile pair of shoes?

Dr. Thurloe has met her parents (they run in the same circle)...he says "the Gregory Lockitt?" What are you supposed to say to that? 'No, not the Gregory Lockitt. One of the Lesser Lockitts in the grand pantheon of Lockitts...' But all this prompts me to do a search on Facebook for my name. FYI, I am the Betty Keira...

Lucy's parents describe her work at the orphanage as her 'little job' and I want to pop them in the kisser every time they do. Little sister works in a gallery and big sis is some sort of high powered secretary and that's all well and good but whenever I'm tempted to romanticize a job I remember that it's just as easy to make a career sound awful as wonderful. To wit: I get to play all day with my favorite people in the world, have gobs of unstructured time and get to self-motivate. OR I swab fecal matter on a daily basis, weather unending tantrums and converse with a fellow whose entire vocabulary is made up of a dozen single-syllable words.
Same job, different perspectives. (And seriously, how I look at it can change hour by hour, minute by minute.)
Shame on Lucy's parents for being such downers.


11 comments:

  1. I have a couple of pairs I call "Sunday go to meeting" shoes, that I can wear for short periods of time when I'm not going to be on my feet much. I've had knee surgery and I work on my feet, so I'm careful about my everyday shoes.

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  2. Betty Barbara here--
    I divide my shoes into groups determined by how many hours I can wear them before my feet complain. Most of my really dressy shoes are "2 hour" shoes. Then there are several pair that are comfortable, but don't have much arch support ("4-6 hour" shoes) and finally the clunky sport shoes with lots of support that are "12 hour" shoes.
    Like Opramum, I have had knee surgery. Support and comfort top style any day!

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  3. Hah! I NEED knee surgery. And my legs swell when I'm lying down, let alone walking so shoes are almost an obsession to me. Even still, I have a pair of lime green (YES!) and gold silk flats that I adore and darned if they don't pinch. I only have a couple of outfits I can wear them with - one is very dressy, bought for our son's wedding. I managed them all day that day but was using an electric scooter, so I suppose that doesn't truly count. ;-)

    When I was working at a job that paid good money, I'd spring for good, dressy shoes. I have, therefore, a couple of pairs of wonderfully comfortable and still dressy Naturalizer shoes. Yum! Wear forever, too. I haven't worked in 6 years and they are classics.

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  4. I'm Betty Mary aka Croc Lady...
    The medical crocs are all i wear. A collapsed tendon and bunions the size of Texas prevent me from having a shoe fetish. However, both my daughters forbade me from wearing crocs to their weddings, so for the one in Ireland I shopped for an inexpensive flat shoe. I found a shoe called (I'm not joking here and I've got pics to prove it.) The Braid Pitt. I removed several of the braids and it still looked like a sofa in a brothel. But I was able to tolerate them until we sat down at the reception, and they matched my dress.

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  5. What is it with pinchy flats? I got very-nearly-flat shoes for my wedding, had them dyed to match my silk dress (all-over embroidered off-white silk; yummy!) and they were the right size, to boot. (Size 12. Don't even bother; I cannot be consoled.)

    Well, they lasted just about an hour, then we all trooped out to have our photos taken at Fountain's Abbey, which is a stunning National Trust property in North Yorkshire. Knowing we were going to be doing that, I changed into my green & blue striped Wellies, and damned if I didn't wear those for the rest of the day. Yes, under the silk dress.

    Luckily there is one photo that shows me wearing the hateful dyed-to-match shoes. Otherwise, one might reasonably assumed I'd worn the Wellies as I said my vows.

    I see no reason why flats should pinch. There ought to be a law.

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  6. I love shoes. But I have a lot of shoes I don't wear because they hurt. Last April school vacation I bought a gorgeous pair of brown espadrilles (peep toe, wedges, suede, to die for) that I very very foolishly chose to wear on our family trip to Boston. After a couple hours in the Aquarium my feet were killing me, I was in tears, had to drag my sorry feet around on the T, cars full so I was standing, not sitting, and suffer for my vanity. Zero sympathy from husband and 2 sons. Ahhh, the relief of getting into a pair of flat, comfy, gray canvas Chuck Taylor All Stars. My favorite and most comfortable shoe, ever. I have several colors. I just bought a cute pair of Lands End "Everyday Mary Janes" that I wore all day yesterday, successfully. At $30, I'd say they might be worth trying if you're in the market for a comfortable flat. LE has a good return policy if they don't work out for you.

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  7. Betty Barbara here--
    Hey Betty Mary--I just may have to give Crocs a try (I even think they are cute in the ugly but cute way).
    Betty Magdalen--I have exactly one pair of flat shoes that is comfortable for more than 2 hours and they are from Easy Spirit (the only brand I buy these days). But normally I go with a slight heel.
    I think the problem of flats, for those of us who are older, is that we begin to have bunions, etc and those cute, ballet cut flats just hit our toes wrong. Hey, it's a theory.

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  8. It took me years of reading Betty (I started in my early teens, in the late 70s) to figure out what "court shoes" are. I always love it when the heroine has finally saved up enough money to get some new, leather court shoes!

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  9. I managed to rub the skin off the side of my foot last Friday which made the cute pair of sandals that I had taken to Hawaii unwearable. I went to the ABC store across the street from our hotel and purchased an inexpensive pair of flip flops (similar to, but a little nicer than the rubber thongs I wore as a child). They lasted about 2 hours. I returned them and got a pair of gosh-awful black sandals - identical to the ones that Betty Keira's hubby had also purchased. On him they looked fine, on me...not so much. I ended up wearing those ugly things everywhere - because they were comfortable, cushioned AND I could (and did) wear them in the water.

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  10. So, you Betty Sisters in Hawaii - did you happen to run into my son and daughter-in-law who are also sojourning there this week? :)

    Re: court shoes - I don't know why but I've always known what they are - perhaps having 5 much older sisters and a mother who all wore the same size shoes - they'd spring for two or three good pairs of shoes a year and trade all around. Always, always there were court shoes.

    me<><

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  11. Let's see...we ran into a charming businessman from Montenegro...four ladies from 'the country, not the outback' of Australia and countless hordes of adorable Japanese tourists...and a few of the crew of a navy destroyer (USS Paul Hamilton).

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