Shoes, Glorious Shoes! 27

And now we've made it back to the SERIOUS shoe posts. Meaning the shoes are serious. Not the posts.

The last blog will be a tough act to follow. I mean, going from love and paradise back to just plain ol' Katie and her shoes... it's a lot of pressure. But who am I to try and silence my love for heels? It can't be done. And so, we soldier on, people.

Given that my budget is a LOT tighter these days than it used to be, the only time I really get to make new purchases is when I can find a really great deal, or have several month's worth of ShoeDazzle VIP credit to spend. This month happened to be both. Caught ShoeDazzle on a Buy One, Get One sale. I honestly can't remember if it was free or 1/2 off, but that plus my credit balance, I got two pair for practically nothing.

The day I decided to wear these, I had my outfit picked out the night before. I had kind of noticed earlier that day at work, my toe was hurting. But didn't think anything of it. Figured I just stubbed it, or something and it would be fine the next day. So I get up that morning, start getting ready for work, look down, and:

This picture actually doesn't do it justice. Hard to tell, but the whole toe was black and blue, and much darker than it appears here. So I apparently either REALLY jammed it, or somehow managed to break my toe... without having a clue it happened. Not sure if this should concern me, or I should be grateful. Either way, you can't keep a good girl down... I wasn't letting one measly broken toe stop me from workin' these new shoes out!

And so, off to work I went. Got a couple of comments during the day, either from people who had seen my post on Facebook about my broken toe, or ones that were looking at my shoes, and could see the multi-colored toe peeking between the straps, "Doesn't that heel put too much strain on your toe?" To which I gave the only acceptable answer, "Hey, when you're devoted, YOU'RE DEVOTED." 

Shoe love is real, and it's DEEP, y'all.

Name: Zofia Brand: ShoeDazzle

Store: ShoeDazzle.com

Review: 5" heel. Fits true to size, length-wise. I know I am always telling y'all about my crazy long toes, and how ShoeDazzle's pumps usually squish them like crazy if I don't put them on JUST right. Well, these shoes prove my point. The only toes that stayed on the shoe during the day were my big toe, and "pointer" toe. The rest, as I walked, I could feel them touching the floor/ground. The tip of the shoe is SUPER slender. But the shoes themselves are comfy, and the straps are loose enough that you don't get that digging in, like you do with some strappy shoes.

I had to improvise on the outfit picture, as I was going out for drinks after work, and knew I'd forget to take it by the time I got home. Since I knew I had some time to kill between work and meeting people out, I went to "shop", i.e. pretend I'm trying something on, so I can use the dressing room mirror for my outfit pic. 

Whatever works, right?

I Slappa Da Bass, Mon!

There was no way I could go with any other title for this "fun" post for the last two pairs of shoes I posted. NO. WAY. I Love You, Man is fast solidifying itself into my all-time favorite movies, and as soon I found out we were going to Jamaica I made the decision that instead of going with everyone's go-to "Yeah, mon." phrase, I had to Katify it.

Now, for the last year(ish) I have been in a wonderful long-distance relationship. When I say wonderful, I mean the relationship is wonderful. Not the distance.The distance is LONNNNNNNNG distance. We are precisely 1,937 miles apart. So we take any opportunity we have to be together in person and not have to live out our relationship on social media, Skype, and phone. Especially with as much as I hate talking on the phone. After years of being a receptionist, the last thing I wanted to look at when I came home was a telephone. And I guess that has kind of stuck. But I'm working on it. You have to when you're 1,937 miles apart.

I'm making sacrifices, people.

But, I digress. So, the trip presents itself. As I said, as long as we're together, we don't care where we are. But when you have a chance to take an all-expense-paid - thanks to LOTS of hard work on Steve's part - trip to paradise, you don't exactly turn it down, amirite?! I have an app on my phone that you can create countdowns. All the way down to the time of day, so you know the exact amount of seconds you have until your event. Yes, I know I bugged the crap out of everyone giving them the count every other day. Do I care? NO. 

As you can imagine, being 1,937 miles apart (have I mentioned how far apart we are, yet?), our relationship has been all about adventure so far. Our first "us" time was in Atlanta, a city I call home even though I only ACTUALLY lived there for 3 1/2 years. I get back as often as I can, usually a few times a year. This was Steve's first time there though, and being a lifelong Braves fan, was a pretty big deal, in itself. Next up was me to Halifax (where he lives). I had only been across the US/Canada border a couple times, and both of those times were not even a full day. So essentially, my first REAL trip to Canada. After that was him to Memphis (where *I* live). Also a first for him, and at Christmas time, so that was a lot of fun. But up until that point, everywhere had been a familiar place for one of us. This was our first trip to somewhere new, together. Though I had been to Montego Bay, I had not been to this resort, or there for longer than a day, so I call that new. A real adventure.

And so, the trip began. Him flying from Halifax, me from Memphis. I flew through Charlotte, an airport I am familiar-enough with to not make travel stressful (no "Do I have enough time to get to my next gate AND go pee, or...?" worries), so my thought was "Yay, a quick trip and then Katie/Steve/paradise!" Boy, was I wrong about that. As I said earlier, I have been to Montego Bay, but it was just one of the ports on a cruise I was on, so there was no dealing with customs. Actually, back then there was no dealing with customs, period, for the Caribbean. All you had to have was your birth certificate with you, and they just checked that with your ID as you got on the ship. Times have changed. As we got off the plane, and got inside a hallway, we hit a line about 5-6 people wide. I thought ok, we must be at customs. Turn the corner, another lonnnnnnnnnnnnng hallway and then...

The picture does not even come close to doing it justice. It was about 10 rows of this, and way more than the camera could capture in one frame (you weren't supposed to have phones on, so there was no time to do a panorama). You can see how low the ceilings were, and there was NO air conditioning, with Jamaica heat coming in from frequently opened doors. Took about 45 minutes to get through customs. It was easily the most miserable traveling experience I have ever had. But at the end of the line:

HAPPINESS AWAITED.

A short shuttle bus ride took us to our resort, the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa. Being that this was a sponsored trip with Steve's job, we had to get checked in, orientation packets, wristbands, etc. first. Whereas I just wanted to run straight through the lobby to the view that awaited on the other side:

Being that we both had SO much stress going on in "real" life, we agreed that this trip was just going to be about us and relaxing. While everyone else chose an excursion, we chose a couples massage. We spent a lot of time by the pools and ocean... 

We drank a lot of these... 

This was the view from our balcony. Not too shabby.

Breakfast every morning was beautiful, albeit a bit stressful for me. 

Birds in Jamaica are CRAY, y'all.

Looking at this picture is making me crave the honey butter and almond butter. And the french toast. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh man, the french toast... *drools*

We learned the Jamaicans are apparently NOT Wizard of Oz fans (note the name of the dessert)...

And pretty much just enjoyed being together. 

It was a glorious week, and we made a lot of fun memories. Like this picture that was one of the only ones we got of me in this dress before I got a little over-zealous demonstrating the proper way to do the Braves victory dance... whilst holding a glass of red wine. 

Our last day there. This picture was right before we went to get on the shuttle bus to the airport, and I can't say I didn't think about "missing" the bus.

Though you can't SEE the shoes from this post in most of these pictures, they ARE there, and served their purpose well! 

As far as my review of the resort: FABULOUS. I really hope we get a chance to go back one day. Everyone was so friendly (shoutout to the best waitress EVER, KimAnn); it's an all-inclusive resort, including alcoholic drinks - as long as it's not top-shelf; there were some real shining moments food-wise, but I wouldn't grade the food overall super high - nothing we ate was bad, most everything was good-enough/good, and then everything else was... ohhhhhhhh, did I mention the french toast?! This IS a family resort, but there was never a time I felt overwhelmed by the kids there. And if you ever do, there is an adults-only section of beach for you to escape. Not sure if there are multiple levels of rooms, I'm sure there are, but ours was spacious. A king-sized bed, large dresser, desk, sitting area with a chaise lounge, and of course bathroom and balcony. I could go on and on, but the epicness of the resort can be summed up with one picture.

Any place that leaves me a heffalump towel animal, is alright by me!

Shoes, Glorious Shoes! 25 & 26

I was hesitant to even give this post the same title as the others, simply because these shoes are so UnKatie-like. But given I am posting them so I can get to the fun post for them, might as well stick with the tried-and-true method.

I needed some flats for an upcoming trip. So I skipped my usual stops (and sites) and decided since I probably wouldn't wear the shoes that often, I needed to go cheap. Started at Payless, which is where I found the first pair. Then set off for the black pair. I was after a pair of black flats. As anyone who is close to me knows - and hell, maybe even my readers now, as I'm sure I've mentioned it once or twice in these blogs - I am NOT a fan of wedges. Just not my style. I needed flats, I wanted flats, flats were my mission. After 3-4 stores, it became ridiculously clear that flats were not going to happen. The only black flats I could find were either ugly as sin, or just plain black flip-flops with a little cheap flower glued to the top. If I was going to go that route, the dollar store would work just fine. So JUST as I was about to give up and think of another route to go, or head to stores where I would've been paying more than I wanted to, I stumbled across the second pair. Instantly thought, No. I hate wedges. But then thought about the money aspect and that they were the cutest I had found since I'd been searching. So I gave in.

Since that day, I'd be willing to bet I have worn them more than any of my other shoes to work. The soles are SO comfortable, and since they just slide on and off, they accommodate my barefoot-while-at-my-desk working style. I'm able to pop them back on really quick if I need to run downstairs for something.

Now, I will say (not that any of you would know which shoes I am talking about), if my black ladybug (katybug) flips-flops weren't out of commission, these wedges probably wouldn't be seeing as much use. I basically just have to have a simple, comfortable, goes-with-everything shoe. Because I am one of the most anti-morning people you'll ever meet. So if I don't have something in mind I want to wear that day, or a new pair of shoes, I'm going to go to the closest to PJs that a business-casual dress code will allow. If I could go to work in Cookie Monster PJs every day, I totally would.

That may be a sad goal to have in life, but I'm rolling with it.

Because these shoes are so unlike me, I do not know the names. Didn't even think to look before tossing the boxes, since I didn't think I'd be blogging them. 

Brand: American Eagle

Store: Payless

Review: 1/2" heel (if even). Fits a little wide. Comfy, but their flats. Not much to write home about.

While this new picture location is allowing for whole outfit viewing, the lighting is not ideal. Still thinking this one through.

Brand: Italia

Store: I honestly forget. I had been to so many at that point... it was a TJ Maxx type store. Closeouts and such.

Review: 2" wedge. Fits true to size. As I said above, SO comfy. The straps DO dig in a smidge sometimes depending on how much walking you do. But other than that, fab.

Black & white. Katie's wardrobe, defined.

Alright, one fun post, then back to the SERIOUS shoes!