These Shoes Rule! Let's Get 'em!

Ladies, have you ever had one of those days where you're out shopping for shoes and after searching numerous department stores you're just about ready to conclude that classy gray pumps are apparently just not "in" enough to offer anything that isn't satiny or covered in rhinestones and you're just, JUST about to walk out of Macy's in defeat and then THERE THEY ARE SHOES FIT FOR A QUEEN but they cost a bazillion dollars? No? Guys, have you? No takers?


Well, twist ending - this happened to me today. Let me just break it down a little bit more for you. As stated earlier, I guess gray is not the color of the season because let me tell you, gray heels are really no where to be found. At least not cute ones. Silver shoes, sure. But I'm not going to prom. I want to pretend to be slightly more mature. Anyhow, I really was about to give up for the day until I decided to take one last swing through the Macy's shoe department and I found them. I think they literally spoke my name as I stopped in front of them. They had an angelic sort of glow emanating from them, like the genie's lamp in Aladdin or something. After I checked the price and privately cursed the fact that I'm not independently wealthy, I just stood there looking at them. Then came the salesperson...


Me: (to self) I'm not going to buy these shoes. I can't spend this much money. It's not practical. Ugh but they're so pretty. I waaaant them. No! No. Must. Resist. Shoe. Temptation.


Salesman: And what size do you need in that pretty shoe?


Me: (hands over shoe) 8 and a half.


Ok, ok. But I was just going to try them on. Until I did and it was love at first step. At this point the shoes were practically begging me to adopt them. What could I do? Just leave them there? To be taken home by someone who could never love them as much as I already did? Of course not. That would be rude. So I bought them. And tried not to think about my poor checking account, which was unquestionably also screaming at me, but for other reasons.


I'm not sure there are too many good life lessons to be learned from this tale, besides maybe that I need to stop anthropomorphizing inanimate objects. But you know what? I don't even care. I love these shoes and I'll cry (with joy) if I want to.

Going Mobile... A Lesson in Never Losing Hope

So it has come to my attention that I have not updated Sparlke, Sparkle in quite some time, which is surely throwing all of your lives into a tailspin, wondering where your joy is going to come from now. Well, for that I must say I am deeply apologetic and I hope that any and all future haituses will not be as long or emotionally painful.

I was feeling particularly content with life about 45 minutes ago, which prompted me to think, "Hey! I should spread this contentedness via the intraweb!" So I ventured to my grandparent's basement to try my luck at their antique desktop. Alas, it was not my day. After loading a second tab on Internet Explorer, the computer got frazzled and decided to go catatonic. So I'm attempting to write this from le iPhone.

"I'll just get on Safari and type away!" I thought foolishly. Nope. Apparently you cannot actually type in the New Post box on le phone. This is still a mystery to me. So I try to download a blog app, which should solve all my problems right? Wrong. "Cannot connect to HTTP. Try again later," this app told me. No! I have to spread joy NOW!! So I got a different app and finally, success! The moral of this story being, if you don't give up hope, you will eventually be able to bore people to tears with the tales of your unimportant phone malfunctions.

But maybe I'll stop being totally shallow for just a moment and say what I really wanted to say originally. Which was in fact, don't lose hope. I have been blessed recently to find myself feeling rather good about life. Job is a little tedious, but at least I have one. I'm going to be coaching volleyball again in the fall as well as taking some art/art history classes , so I'm looking forward to that. And I'll be getting an apartment soon! All good things. And just a year ago, heck, just 6 months ago, I was thinking if I survived this year, it would be a miracle. It reminds me of something someone said on Twitter once: "Last year was shitty and this year I live in Paris. So if you aren't happy, cross your fingers for luck, put your head down and work." I know it's just Twitter, but I thought that was actually rather inspiring. So much can change in a year, or even in a few months, or sometimes even just a few days. As cheesy as it is, there really is no way to know what is going to step in front of your life's path.

So please, dear sparkle, sparkle fan, if you're having a tough time of it, don't lose hope. Much like connecting to your blog on your phone, sometimes it takes a few tries to make a proper connection. But seriously. Eventually you will find joy, and if you're not looking around, joy will inevitably find you.