(A public service announcement.)

There are times, days, and longer stretches when a woman doesn’t feel her best. When this happens to you, whatever you do, don’t lay around depressed. Get out there, do errands, meet friends or just take a walk. And no matter how you feel, exhausted, hot, sweaty, whatever—push through the “pain” and walk like you’re on the catwalk. Yes, find your supermodel strut every woman has. May I suggest, unless you prefer not, wedges or heels as well. Put one foot in front of the other, quite literally, hold your head up high, and this is a time when it’s okay (and will help you concentrate on keeping up the pace) to pout, also like on the runway. There might be a reason even models pout, they have woman problems, too, and it’s a chore to walk so perfectly - yet while it’s a chore it makes you feel as good as accomplishing such work. Despite that pout it will cheer you up, you’ll feel your womanly power and you might even get to your destination more quickly. I also bet it’s better than a leisurely stroll for burning calories and building muscle.

Find your inner supermodel strut and confidence will shine from you, and it will even seep into your mood!

I’m amusing myself with ridiculousness this afternoon. Labeling it and putting it away, not to worry over but placing it in a file for chuckles when needed. Why obsess over media icons - why force one’s body to the pain over footwear with spikes to the rear of the soles - why does a fashionista have to love shoes at all—or even follow a single rule of our couture culture - why not let go of any girlish trappings you never wanted? And yes! Hold on to one’s website when the site-mistress’s feelings toward the subject changes - why can’t a blog be living and growing as well the human behind it?

You know this is where I’ve been for a while (and it has nothing to do with most recent silence - that I think is busy-ness, health and different types of changes - irrelevant in the long-run, don’t worry) - BUT have I mentioned that I now, well, can’t stand shoes? Mm Hmm. This site started as purely (and fluffily) a shoe blog. With “candy” and star ratings (wow I purchased too many pairs if I was able to serially review them—but it was Zappos with their return policy..). I still could never have too many bags if I were true to my heart and had the magic powers to defy capitolism…. but shoes, well they’re necessary, and I wear them of course …. OK not all the time, I will hop in a car to my best friend’s house without ever changing from terry slippers! But yes, I even still INSIST I MUST wear CUTE shoes … and now living in Florida, it’s easier. I pretty much only wear/buy Easy Spirit sandals and wedges (yes, wedges my friends, their WEDGES are more comfortable than most flats!) and I don’t have to worry about widths. But god - the last time I bought shoes was after moving (and thus needing more of those sandals) last Fall. (And I only plan on one new pair in the recent future - I want sandals in pink!)

So yes, I’ve sworn off heels, and all designer shoes forever, and will only maintain a mild affection—purely aesthetic and on the Internet — it’s still fashion, it’s visual art.

And yet (here we are after an insanely long intro) I have a new blog among my favorites, and it’s a shoe blog. How writer, Katie, from Shoe La La, can call herself a shoeaholic when each of her posts are so wittily spot-on with their critiques of the silliness of this crazed-after accessory and are so “shamelessly” reasonable (”Oh no she di’in’t just type a synonym for “practical”? Oh girlfriend!), yes, reasonable. A woman - a shoeaholic woman. Dissing the glass slipper (even I love the glass slipper at heart - my name is a Cinderella pun, doi) was the post I first discovered thanks to Google images, with her words mimicking my feelings so deeply—and then recent posts—confessions on walking in high heels and sexy-exercising—graphic-edits and craft-name dropping while she unmasks the label “hobby” from the shopaholic disease (shushies!)—and more! *Thump-thump. Thump-thump.* She has my heart and sole.

Her bio confesses how her guilty pleasure developed, and assures, even furthers my blog crush (coining a term here, folks, pay attention) for her. I bet, for her, when the shoe fits she does buy it in every color and wears it happily, for she can appreciate the rarity. *Swoon.*

Yes, blog crush! I want to give her presents … like hosting where she can earn money from Google Adsense and a divine header logo and custom blog template…. (and not to mention the Google link juice I’m now gving.) I want to claim her with the roses of the Internet! And not just to gain benefit, but because I like her!

Oh but I know she’s too good for me - SEO be damned her blog titles are short and merely perfectly creative with not one keyword a necessity. Sighhh.. She smells so sweetly of integrity and perhaps even “not for profit”…

But as I continue to follow her posts, there will always be something. I don’t even know where she lives in the real world, but in my heart it works. We have that olive (insert any food here) love/hate thing. I will consume handbags and she will consume shoes. And I know we’d both wear pants. Mine will mostly be sweatpants and even pajama pants, whether it’s that same slippers-day or even walking up the street to my friend’s house. “Cause rules be damned when you don’t even pass anyone on the way - this is a new world of freedom in gender roles! (A world where a woman was a huge candidate for President, and although that goal’s ruled out again for a while longer, at least the pantsuits are gone. Roles/schmoles, a woman can’t deny her hips!)

Oh and speaking of pants - get your butt over there to read every last post of Shoe La La now. Whether you love shoes or hate them, too, whether your blog-sexuality is straight or what — I know you will love this blog as much as I do!

Just don’t like the blogger as much as I do - ok?

You know the problem well, you can’t block it from your mind. The low-long-hemmed unbuttoned jacket swinging away from the widest point of ample thighs/hips… Hilary Clinton and her “pantsuits” (more on that ridiculousness later)…

But it never happened, she never got a lifelong-style makeover from the gurus at What Not to Wear. What a picture, the secret footage, exactly like what I described above, the Clinton puns (there must be puns, I say) and… the bra fitting.

And now it’s over. Not only might Hilary’s political career be over, but she now has no hope of dressing her womanly body as it should. First legitimate female candidate for president of the United States?? Come on, she’s not that female. (Her lack of humanity she increasingly displayed not withstanding, itself.)

What NOT to Wear: Old-Lady Pants Suits

What TO Wear: A nice pin-striped menswear suit. Hem cut at the actual hips (think where a baby rests against a woman’s side, on occasion).

Clinton - forget flag pins, try on the stripes!