For a while now, I had been thinking about treating myself to a nice pair of boots. Not being entirely comfortable spending money on myself, I decided to use my birthday as an excuse to rationalize spending the money. These boots will be a gift from Nan to Nan. When I worked, I treated myself every once in a while. Mom taught me that I that it's okay to treat yourself; it's Hyacinths for the Soul. She's always right in my book. ;)
I've wanted a nice pair of leather riding boots since I was a Bellaire Belle. I have loved boots since I was in sixth grade. Mom bought me two pairs of Granny Lace-up boots: shiny black and shiny white. We were so poor then, I wonder what Mom gave up to pay for those boots. I understand now how easy it is to want to do that for your child but looking back, I feel awful because I know that Mom did that often for us.
Those boots were magic to me. They gave me ENORMOUS SELF-CONFIDENCE! I felt like I was capable of anything when I wore those boots. I fancied myself a Go-Go dancer like the teenage girls on the Larry Kane show. Of course it was too perfect that Nancy Sinatra sang These Boots Are Made For Walking because I thought it was absolutely wonderful that we shared the same name. I spent a good deal of time dancing in my Go-Go boots to that song.
I picked up some cute, functional pleather boots a few years ago but this time I wanted to upgrade. As luck or timing would have it, my mailbox has been inundated with Happy Birthday coupons from a half dozen stores in the Galleria, so I had some incentive to get out and find a pair. Exercise and shopping? I'm there!
Heading out around 10, I hit Galleria proper, or more specifically, Macy's. First distracted by the new Fall handbags, I made my way over to the the shoe department. Geez! I'm relieved that I had narrowed down my choice to riding boots because as far as my eyes could see, were BOOTS! I had my price range: the remaining money from selling on Craigslist, leftover from my SF trip. I skip the inexpensive pleather and leather, and move on to lower midrange to upper midrange. These boots (they will be black) will last for a while. There are some clothing purchases I pay a little more to get quality and style. More important: I have a Happy Birthday card from Macy's which will either bump me up to another price range or give me a deal in a decent price range, which is like Crack to me.
Nothing worked. I rejected at last a half-dozen until I was walking out of the shoe department to leave. My eyes spied a black low-heel riding boot complete with a bit of silver decoration. I knew immediately that this was the boot for me. Sure enough, I tried them on and they felt wonderful! (That can be a hit or miss, btw. My feet are different sizes.) Okay. Good price, got a birthday discount, ring it up.
This is not the end of the story. I have had my eye on a pair of black Ralph Lauren Polo boots from DSW and, as luck would have it, I received a Happy Birthday card from DSW. My good sense told me that I should try the Polos on again to make sure I was happy with the boots I found at Macy's, otherwise I would obsess whether I made the right decision. I left Macy's, went straight to DSW, found the RL boots, used my card, and brought them home. I did some thorough research: I wore each pair of boots around the house, on the carpet, for an hour each, and decided unequivocably to keep the boots from Macy's. Best fit, feel and look. Sleek. Sexy.
These boots are made for more than walking. I may have to summon my inner Nancy Sinatra and climb in a cage and dance. The scuffling of shoes-sound you will hear is Don running far, far away because I am such an awful dancer and he doesn't want to see me humiliate myself. It's all good. 'Cause I'm happy with my birthday present, I don't need anything else.
Except for perhaps a pair of brown riding boots...
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