Shoe Shopping Saga

This round of shoe-shopping started when a pair of my everyday ballerina flats developed big holes in the one-piece soles/heels during our vacation.  I realized there was a problem when I started noticing small stones in the carpets, and hearing clicking from my rubber heels on the kitchen floor.  I removed quite a handful of stones from each shoe before realizing that they had basically hollow heels which "wore open", and were full of stones.  My shoe repair shop confirmed that the one piece bottoms can't be replaced.

So my quest to find a new pair began at the outlets in Delaware, with the better half's initial concurrence.    As I mentioned in my previous post, there were no problems...at least until after she entered the Naturalizer store looking for me, and found me sporting a pair of really cute Mary Jane flats.   The sales woman was addressing me and treating me just like "one of the girls," bringing me other shoes to try on.  The better half stayed there with me, like a girlfriend would, but I suspect it was to hurry me up, not out of encouragement for her "girlfriend."   I left there with no new shoes, even though the Mary Janes were cute as a button.  They just didn't fit well enough to justify a price tag with three digits to the left of the decimal point.  And the better half reminded me that she didn't like the fact I wear womens' shoes, let alone Mary Janes.

Then she took off shopping on her own again, while I tried two other nearby shoe stores.  (For her, Christmas shops are irresistable.)  My luck at the shoe stores was nil - due once again to the size 12 issue, though I had also started trying size 11's as well, at the suggestion of the Naturalizer clerk.  The better half found things to buy...I didn't.

Then last Wednesday, an old friend who left my company about 5 years ago, and moved south, was in town. I joined him (and a third party, our former supervisor, now retired) for lunch in Baltimore.  We had a wonderful time talking about "the good old days!"  I was as masculine as possible (not very...) and nothing was said about my attire.  But I know my friend noticed (the supervisor has seen me before.)  Not sure where that will lead...since we don't visit much any more.  But on the way home, I stopped at a couple more womens' shoe stores that I drove by.  While they both had some really cute flats, that I'd wear in a heartbeat.,.such as:

...there were no size 12's (or 11's, either).   And my luck with mail order has been considerably less than 30 percent - requiring strict adherence to buying only from sites with free shipping and return shipping.  Thus my concentration on finding shoes locally...

The next day, I had some errands to run after visiting Mother at the nursing home.  My better half apparently had mellowed regarding my preference for womens' shoes...she reminded me of two shoe stores near Mom's.  I hadn't even known that they existed!   The first store was a waste of time, as usual.   But the second, may have been a good find...they had one pair of this cute style in stock, size 11:

I like it...should be perfect with skirts or dresses, but also look OK with jeans and capri pants.  They're a bit snug, but I bought them anyway - since the pair was over $30 less than on the website. Strangely, the better half is OK with them as well.   Subsequently I ordered a size 12 in this style and a size 12 flat in another style from the manufacturer's website...with a 20% discount from a coupon. 

If any one of the 3 pairs fit best, they will become my newest shoes.  The others will be returned...  I'll update once things are settled...