get up off your feet!

thanks to tivo, i just watched last week's episode of 20/20. i watched in horror, a story about women who were getting surgery on their feet, to get this...shorten their toes so that they could fit more comfortably into high heel shoes. my favorite quote from the show: "Nobody could get along wearing sneakers the rest of your life." what do i think about this? girls, get fucking real! yes, it's nice and appropriate to wear heels when deemed socially necessary (weddings? museum openings? strip clubs?) but if your feet are telling you, give me a break, listen up! your callouses are talking!

shoes are beautiful little objects of desire, hell, manolo blahnik is famous only for his sexy shoe sculptures but did you know that when you wear heels over 2" tall, you are putting three times your weight on the ball of your feet? i think having eight years of formal dance training, i know what it's like to destroy your toes. i have seen it all: nails hanging by a sliver of skin, missing toenails, and if you're lucky, all your toenails but some blackened for life (that's right, they grow back black).

i am in the fortunate position of having a job that does not require me to wear a costume to work. at one time in my life, i indeed wore a suit, pantyhose and the dreaded heels. and when i gave up that part of my young career i vowed never to have to wear a costume to work again. i'm even luckier as in recent times, i've been able to collect free shoes from various companies. all the positions i selected from 1996 forward paid me little in salary but loads in perks. free shoes was one of them.

what kind of shoes do i wear? trainers. why? cause they're comfortable and they accurately depict who i am. jee and i, when we were 21 or 22 decided that we could tell a person's personality by the shoes on their feet. how fitting that a decade later, this still holds true. if i'm going to be a slave to fashion, it will be on the condition that it does not cost me money and/or comfort.

dressing up is fun. taking bones out of the toes your mom and dad gave you is seriously messed up!