shoe budget

this morning, as i was putting on my shoes to leave for the library, i had a stunning, and rather disturbing, realization. since the start of the summer, i've probably spent about $250-$300 on shoes. now, that doesn't sound like much, but as a percentage of a graduate student's non-income, that's quite a bit. i'd convinced myself that i needed not only new birks, as my old ones were slaughtered and dunked one too many times at the boathouse last year, but also black heeled sandals with an open toe, brown heels (in a lighter shade than i might wear in the fall), brown mesh-y slip ons (picked up in chinatown in philly for one dollar american), two pairs of boat shoes, a new pair of running shoes as the mileage on my old ones was reaching that critical point, and preppy butter-yellow slip ons from land's end. which do i wear the most often? none of the above. i spend most of my quality shoe time in a pair of goldish brown flip flops i picked up on sale at old navy for four dollars (similar to these someone is selling on ebay).

now a friend of mine who teaches in my department, and who is much farther along in her academic career than i am, was lamenting the other day that she had far exceeded her jewelry budget for the year, yet she needed to buy one more necklace to go with a new summer sundress that she had recently purchased. as i sat on the steps of the deck and watched her rout through the arugala and lettuce in the garden of the house i was recently housesitting, i let out a long sigh and said "oh for a jewelry budget!" we then went on to discuss finding a suitable retailer in downtown kingston that might carry what she was looking for. underneath the surface of the conversation i was more than slightly seething with envy; i'm surprised that my skin didn't take on an emerald hue.

i wonder if my friend has a similar problem? does she find luscious pieces of jewelry and purchase them with a flourish only to find that she spends most of her time wearing no jewelry at all? come to think of it, she doesn't sit in my memory as a necklace sort of gal, though she does have an inspiring collection of earrings.

i keep mulling over the best possible way to assuage my shoe guilt and have found that the salve that works best is to start thinking about shoes for the fall ...

such as these from franco sarto: