It turns out that, in some areas, I never want to grow up.
Not in terms of living with my parents basement or anything like that. I’ve got a job and a place of my own and somehow manage to feed, dress, and clean myself.
But there’s certain ways that I just can’t “grow up”. Subtle ways. Like how I can’t bring myself to use any vaguely briefcase-like items.
I switched to clipless cycling shoes that are a little uncomfortable for walking around the office. I tried the Pearl Izumi X-Alp shoes, which try to be the best of both worlds, but I still wasn’t especially impressed. So, since I’ve got a collection of random dress shoes at home, I brought a pair to work, so I wouldn’t have to buy a pair of work-only shoes.
But this is a problem. I feel really weird wearing nice shoes, where “nice shoes” seems to also include men’s casual shoes. If you were to put me in a shoe store and told me that I had to buy shoes and I had to buy many shoes, I’d probably have a collection of differently shaped athletic shoes, black leather boots, no dress shoes, and no casual shoes.
And you would have to tell me that I had to buy shoes, because I tend to wait until my shoes are so torn up that I risk having them completely disintegrate mid-day. In fact, this is probably counterproductive, because I really should switch off between shoes such that they get a chance to dry out between wearings, but since the idea of spending somewhere between $50-75 on a pair of shoes stresses me out, the idea of buying several is going to really stress me out.
If you haven’t guessed already, it’s new-shoe-time, and I need to psyche myself up for buying them. It’s also new-boot time, which I’ve been hiding from for a long time now. I’m not buying new shoes for another month… Given I’m biking in to work and wearing dress shoes at work, I figure I can make ‘em last a little longer.
At least I’m fashionable enough to not wear socks with sandals.