5 posts tagged “shoes”
... but I also love Autumn, the bad example. :P
It's been a glorious weekend here in DC, and I fully took advantage of it. Well, almost fully - Friday doesn't count because I threw my back out and ended up leaving work early to go home and rest on the couch. Autumn came over and we watched some movies, gave ourselves home manis and pedis and gorged ourselves on the amazing food at the Amphora Diner in Vienna (which is right next to the incredible Amphora Bakery - their Amaretto Cake is to. die. for). Autumn and I had originally planned on going to this exhibition going on at the Kennedy Center called For the Capitol: A Projection by Artist Jenny Holzer, but since I really couldn't walk, we postponed it until Sunday.
It was a pretty full weekend. I took care of a lot of errands on Saturday, enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was crisp - sunny and mild with a beautiful breeze. Autumn (Fall) is definitely upon us - you can feel the shift of seasons in everything. (I don't want to pay attention to the fact that its supposed to climb back into the 80s by the end of the week). Saturday night Autumn and I both had plans with the boys, but we had another chick day on Sunday. I think we were both in need of some together-time - it seems our schedules have been so busy lately that we haven't been able to have enough of it - and some serious retail therapy. We had intentions of going to see the School House to White House exhibit at the National Archives, but we back-burnered it - again. We were putting it off all summer until the deluge of tourists subsided, and that's definitely happened, but the exhibition runs until January, so we're not in any terrible hurry. So anyway, we finally made our way to Georgetown, where we walked through the shops, had some mediocre crab-cake lunch at Third Edition and then shopped some more. We also did a lot of talking/venting about men/life in general, and paired with the retail therapy, was just what the Doctor ordered. Although we didn't really buy anything, the shopping atmosphere was enough. I did try on these amazing shoes at Bebe, and I was tempted to actually shill out the money for them, but they didn't have my size. Apparently Bebe doesn't make shoes in half sizes, and I fell right in the middle of two whole sizes... <sob!>
So after that, Autumn and I wandered around Georgetown. There are so many incredible homes there. And some crazy-ass doorknockers too. We saw a creepy looking fox/wolf knocker, and then the next house had a Moby Dick/Flipper looking thing. Bananas-crazy, people, bananas-crazy. We walked around for a long time, worked up some mileage, walked through the Georgetown campus and saw the exorcist stairs. We also managed to disturb the peace on Prospect Street - Autumn started making sounds that were eerily comparable to a turkey's gobble. I couldn't walk - or breathe - I was laughing so hard, and inevitably, the snort surfaced, which only made us laugh harder. It was funny, but man, we could NOT get a hold of ourselves. Once we finally did calm down, I asked Autumn to repeat the noise, and she did, and a dog up the street barked in response, and I lost it all over again. This was in addition to the wonderful cacophony of sounds I had created earlier, including the famous goat and - if I may say so myself - a very good interpretation of the cars driving over the cobblestone streets of Georgetown. All in all, it was a beautiful day, a perfect day to walk around and enjoy the city. Autumn and I agreed that it was one of those days that makes you feel so lucky to live here. It was almost too perfect.
After traversing a giant section of Georgetown, we wandered over to Foggy Bottom, walked around GW's campus until dusk fell, and then made our way over to the Kennedy Center.
Then it was time to head home, because we were underdressed and freezing, and because it was getting late and we were pretty tired. But more than anything we were hungry, so we stopped at Potbelly to get some food. I got a "Pizza on Wheat" and had some peppers thrown in to spice it up.
Yeah, I definitely fell off of the wagon this weekend with food and whatnot. I couldn't work out because of my back, and I definitely gorged myself on a ton of rich food. Oh well, you only live once and I'd rather be chubby and happy than skinny and hungry ;)
I finally got the Nine West website to cooperate with me.. finally! But just in case of future website incidences, instead of posting a link I'll just post a photo :)
They're so super-cute and retro... Very sexy-librarian, lol. I think I'm going to wear them on my first day of work... and every day after, hee hee!
Life is good. That's all I have to say. No, I really have more than that to say, but Life sure is good. Today I received two job offers. Yes, that's right, TWO job offers. So I won't be unemployed for very much longer... YAY! I just need to weigh my options out, make lists of the pros and cons of both positions, and figure out which one is best for me all around. I have to think about location (well not really, but one job is located in Georgetown, which is definite Bonus point-age), salary, benefits, and the overall benefits the job will have for my career. I'm so excited to have to be thinking about these things. I'm so excited period, because I have options. Options. What a wonderful word!
A few weeks ago, before I uprooted my life, I had such hope, but also such trepidation. There was that nagging little fear that I wasn't going to find a job. And I tried to keep a PMA (as my friend Nibras says, positive mental attitude), but it's so hard when so many things are out of your hands - and in other peoples'. I'm a control freak, so I really had a hard time leaving my fate in other people's hands. But I guess I just had enough faith to get me by, and now I have a choice.
Its so nice to know that I'll be working again. I certainly enjoyed the unemployed life, just bumming around, but there's the consequence of bills. How can I continue to pay them without a job? Now I don't have to worry. I'm going to be financially stabilized, and the first thing I'm going to be doing (well, second, because I already went out and bought myself celebratory shoes and a celebratory book) is getting a financial planner. Anybody have any recommendations on a good financial planner-type person?
The shoes I've been eyeing since May. They're Nine West (of course, feeding my addiction) and they're super cute - t-strap peep toe platform heels in a tortoise-shell patent color. They're a stacked platform in the front with these glorious 4 inch heels in the back. I can't wait to wear them to work - I do believe I'm going to wear them on my first day of whichever job I choose. :) I would post a link to them, but the Nine West site is being finicky right now. So the first time I saw them, they were $80. And I thought they were cute, but they weren't $80 cute. And then they were marked down to $50. Tolerable, but I was shortly going to be unemployed with a very tight budget to live on. And then Autumn alerted me the other day to the fact that they had been marked down to $30. Wunderbar!!! So once I found out that I had A job offer, I was like, "I'm going to buy the shoes". But then I found out that I had TWO job offers, and I was like, "I'm going to get the shoes AND the book." So I got the shoes, and thanks to CupCate's blogs about how wonderful Candy Girl was, I got interested. I picked it up when I was in Border's with Autumn the other day and read a few pages, and was instantly drawn in. But I didn't buy it because I was unemployed without any offers at that point. And I checked the local library near my mom's house, and the library doesn't have it. And I can't get a library card here yet because I don't have any mail verifying that I live at my address. Yet. I do have my lease though, so hopefully next week I can use that to get a library card. So anyway, I decided to splurge at the Barnes & Noble in the mall (yay Tyson's Corner!) and bought the book. I'm heading back to PA tomorrow to spend the holiday and the weekend with my family, and I'm taking the book with me. I'm pretty sure I'll have it done by Friday... hee hee. I have a tendency to not just read books, but devour them.
I'm pretty excited to be heading back to spend time with my family. I'm totally loving the fact that I can just pick up and do that these days. Its not like when I lived in Michigan (like it was that long ago) and I had to plan an entire day's drive or plunk down the plastic for a $250 plane ticket. Now I can just hop in my car and go 3 hours north. Woo hoo!!! And up until this morning I was feeling kinda disoriented about leaving. I've been feeling since I got here that I'm dreaming. My mom asked me last week after one of my interviews, how i felt, and my answer to her was, "I feel like I'm dreaming. I feel like I'm going to wake up and this all will have been a dream." And I felt weird about leaving because then the dream would end, and I really wouldn't be living in metro DC anymore. If I left, it really would have been a dream, and I would have just been visiting - even though I knew full well I would be coming back to my home - my home - down here, which I've already been paying rent on. Now that I have concrete offers for jobs, it feels less scary to leave, because I have something to come back to. And by something, I mean a definite job, because I have a place to stay, I have tons of friends down here, etc. But until that job was there, it didn't seem real. Now it seems real.
I wanted to post about my adventures yesterday, but this news sort of took precedence (sorry Sylvie and Jeffminder). But I did have a great day visiting my friends outside of Baltimore yesterday. And, of course, in true Madelyn-style, it was dramatic. (What? Me? Dramatic? never... lol). I had called in a prescription to my local CVS on Saturday morning, but didn't get back from hanging out downtown to pick it up before the pharmacy closed. I needed it on Sunday, so I went over right after they opened, around 10:15. I went it, got what I needed, took my pill and when I got back to my apt. I parked my car and headed right for the metro. I left the CVS stuff in the car and figured I would get it when I got home later that night. So I busted a move to the metro, got on the platform and had to wait 9 minutes for a train. So I'm waiting, hanging out, people-watching all the touristy-types that were there. The train is coming and it pulls in and parks for a few minutes and as I'm about to get on, I realize I'm wheezing a bit. And then I realize that I haven't taken my allergy pill, so I'm as good as dead. I'm pretty much allergic to everything, all the time, and I'm about to head to my friend's house, where they have a dog. I'm a dead man. So I have to go back to my apt. to take my pill. And as I'm slapping down my SmarTrip card to exit the metro station, I realize that I've just been charged $1.35 to stand on the platform for 10 minutes. Oh well...
So anyway, I finally get things taken care of and get to where my friend is going to pick me up. We had a great day hanging out, and it was SO nice to see her again. We ate homemade Indian food (yummy!), watched the 5 hour DVD of her wedding in India (which I was at) and watched Bollywood dance productions on YouTube. Then she took me to see the progress on the condo that she and her husband bought and is in the process of being built. That was fun, and then we went and picked her husband up from work and headed to Annapolis for dinner. We ate at Pusser's Landing and had awesome, awesome food and drinks. After dinner we walked around the Harbor, looked at all the people and their boats, and their little dogs (shmeagle! schmeagle!) and had Ice Cream at Storm Brothers (I tried something new - German Chocolate, and it was uber-fabulous).
I was rather disappointed though, because I only saw 5 midshipmen/women, and only one was male. And he was kinda dorky. Coming from a Navy family, I have a thing for Navy-men ;). That's ok though, gives me more reason to go back. Especially in the fall, hee hee.
I was going to blog about all of this last night, but I was so tired when I got home that I basically washed my face and collapsed into a deep sleep. ;)
So anyway, back to today - I've made it. I've really done it. What I've looked forward to for so long has finally come to fruition. Or as I said to my friend the other day who's been waiting two years for me to get my arse down here... "I have arrived."
Well, Autumn came to visit last weekend, and we did what we do best - shopping! I was very discriminating about purchases. I didn't want to spend money on anything I didn't absolutely need, and I had set a cap on spending. I searched DSW, Marshall's, and the mall in A2, but I didn't find any bags that were just what I was looking for. I did spend a whole $5 on two pairs of flip-flops at Old Navy. I thought that was an ok purchase because I needed new flip flops, and you can't really beat two pair for $5. Anyway, Autumn and I had planned on going to Birch Run on Sunday, but we were out too late on Saturday night and slept in on Sunday. Instead of driving all the way to Birch Run we decided to just go to Novi instead. So we did, and we walked around carefully avoiding the Nine West store, had lunch, and then decided to go to Nine West. I wanted to see if they had any decent bags (on sale). So we get to the store, and I'm captivated by the shoes on the table right inside the door (surprise, surprise, lol) when Autumn grabs my arm and says, "Madelyn... look..." I look to where she's pointing on the back wall of the store, where there are TWO of the fabulous bags that we were looking for - one in blue and one in green. I screamed "Oh my God" and ran to the back of the store, literally (and I'm NOT kidding) hurdling a very big bench to reach the bags. I grabbed the blue one off of the display and clutched it to my chest, and the people in the store were like "Wha...?" Then one woman turns and says, "Boy, you really like the bag." I was like, "Honey, you have NO idea. We've been searching for this bag for two months!" And it gets better... not only did they have the bag, but it was on SALE! It was an even prettier number than I had hoped, so the bag came home with me. I ended up getting the blue, because the green was not what I had expected when I saw it up close. The leather trim was a grass green, while the actual bag was a different shade of emerald. I didn't like it as much, so I ended up with the blue. And I am SO happy. My bag and I are going to live happily ever after. Fin. ;)
On another note, at least I'm good entertainment for the Nine West people. I had a moment very similar to the bag episode last year when I found my tan and white polka dot mary-jane stillettoes. There was an audible gasp on my part, a beeline across the mall hallway, and another "Oh my God," and some very amused salespeople and customers. Salespeople who were even happier when I walked out clutching a bag with my fabulous new shoes in them. Nine West and I have a wonderful relationship :) And I have to say, I have pretty much worn those shoes out. For being 3 inch heels, they're extremely comfortable, and have broken in very well. Which is why I am in love with Nine West shoes :)
I couldn't help myself. I haven't bought new shoes since August, or was it July? I don't even know, but the amount of months that have passed since my last shoe purchase is positively tragic. And I've worked really hard this semester - I'm under a lot of stress. A little retail therapy was just what I needed. I'm looking forward to wearing them. I know of a few occasions right now, and since they basically go with everything, I can't imagine there won't be a lot of lovin' for these shoes in the future. I just need to find me a good cobbler wherever I move to who can keep my kicks in tip-top shape :) Hey, if you're lucky, you'll get to see me strut past you in these babies... Cheers!
Here's a link to the Aldo page, with more photos there
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