The kids will start school on Tuesday after the long weekend. It has been a long summer when I think of how many times the girls have had disagreements, but a very very short one when I think of how little of it I seem to recall enjoying and relaxing in. Where were the beach days? Where were the planned excursions. I can hardly believe the season is drawing to its close.
As luck would have it the “Most Wonderful Time of theYear” falls within a significant wait for the very first paycheck from the new short-term job. But some money I had earned and forgotten about suddenly arrived and I knew I had to seize the opportunity to make the annual excursion to the office store for all those exciting supplies, then to the clothes stores to find the first day outfits. Given any time to think about it, the “found money” would find another purpose.
It’s funny how yells out of “It’s Shopping Time!” elicit my faster responses than “It’s Time to Get Up!” or “It’s Time For School!” or “It’s Time To Start Your Homework!”. Within moments the three of us were in the van with lists in hand.
There were backpacks, and pencils and enough paper to hand write a trilogy. Every aisle of the office store was poured over and negotiated. Finally, cart fuller than I would have imagined, we cashed out and headed elsewhere. School Supplies – check.
The next “elsewhere” was for clothing. Jeans after jeans were tried on… boot cut, skinny, super-poured-into, black, blue, oodles and oodles of varieties. Jeans and t-shirts — check. And with final decisions in hand, we headed to the registers… and passed a rack of flip flops… in every colour imaginable… 3 for $10….
Now, my feet are truly NOT my best feature. They creak and snap and are often bumpy and achy. It is hard to find shoes that are comfortable…. which is why I love flip flops. Those old lumpy bumpy feet can just be free and all pokey outey and the bottoms still protected from the pavement. While this summer may not have given me the beach time I would have wanted, my feet certainly still indulged in flip flop time.
… so…. 3 for $10. And a quick head count suggested we were a group of 3. What was another $10 on top of the huge amount of money I was quickly flying through? So we stopped to try on, and decided we should each have a flippy floppy treat.
Dolittle chose a green pair.
I chose a black pair.
And Rainbow… she was having a bit of a time deciding between a yellow pair and a purple pair. In fact, what she really wanted was one of each, and she was fairly adamant that this should be allowed.
“It is NOT allowed,” I explained. “And it would probably not be the best idea even if it were.”
“Why?” she questioned.
“Well,” her sister and I confirmed, “it will look strange to other people, and sadly they may judge you on that.”
She remained resolute. Finally, she said, “Well why can you do it then?”
I did not even have to look down. It was then, my friends, and ONLY then… after hours and hours of shopping, that I realized that the soles of what was on the bottom of my feet were slightly different heights. That the straps across my bumpy, achy feet were of slightly different widths. That I had been shopping for freaking hours with two DIFFERENT flip flops on my own feet and had no idea. Further, my own child had apparently noticed this and been so completely cool with the thought that her mother was wearing two different shoes that she failed to bring it to my attention. Embarrassing personal moment — check.
While I wouldn’t have thought it possible, do you think maybe I have too many flip flops?
Old Blue Socks 
laughing. laughing hard. i did that once, at about 17, out for a fancy dinner with a friend’s family. realized about halfway through the meal i was wearing two different brown shoes. they must’ve wondered why i spent the rest of the dinner sitting crosslegged under my skirt at such a nice restaurant!
those are both nice flipflops.
Brigit used to always wear two different color Crocs. The priest during Mass pointed it out to everyone one time Brigit was serving at Mass. He say it was wonderful to see a person who is creative and comfortable in her own body to wear two different colored shoes.
So don’t look it as a mistake look at it as being creative and comfortable with yourself. 🙂
I laughed picturing the dawning realisation. I love that your daughter was cool with it!
Love this story! Did Rainbow get her two colors? 😉