I can't for the life of me understand why women get so worked up about this

Well, it looks like the sun may actually reappear before the end of the day, so my spirits have improved drastically in the last few days. In addition, I got to spend my lunch hour doing something that usually cheers me up: I got to go shopping. But you know, the thing I bought today is the one thing that brings me absolutely no pleasure in the shopping. I had to go buy shoes.

Back in the fall, I went with hubby as he shopped for new shoes for himself, and I stumbled across a good price on a pair of generic brown oxfords like I wear all the time. (They’re dressy enough for work and casual enough for jeans. Along with a pair of white tennies and a pair of hiking boots, I have shoes for every occasion.) Hubby snickered when I picked them up because they looked exactly like the pair I was wearing at the time. I ignored him and bought the cheap shoes. And likewise, I tend to go about every 18 months to stock up on black cotton Gold Toe Fluffies. They just go with everything, and I don’t break my neck searching for sock mates in the laundry. So when my socks started developing holes in the toe sometime back, I figured it was time to replace them. I tossed the old ones and picked up another bunch of Fluffies. And in the last week, I’ve developed four more holes in the new socks.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my new cheap shoes are rubbing holes in my new socks.

I didn’t wanna go buy new shoes. I just did it, and that was supposed to last me for two more years. But my original oxfords had finally just deploded, and the new ones were eating my socks. So I went to Discover Mills for lunch, had a bowl of Popeye’s Jambalaya for 6 points, and picked up oxfords and sneakers at Rack Room shoes. I hope that’s it for a while.

Now, while shoes bring me no pleasure at all, the same can not be for books, electronics, movies, CDs, house supplies... even groceries¹. So it irks me to go shopping for something I don’t really want, especially when there are a couple of things that I do want and can’t afford to spend the money on right now. Well, I could afford it if they were critical. But because hubby is self-employed, he’s officially one of those Evil Corporations that robs from the poor and gives to the rich. And the way his corporation is structured, he may very well end up paying more in taxes for 2005 than he made in salary last year.²

Anyway, these two things are German classes (Rob & I are planning to sign up together at the Goethe Institut) and monitor speakers for my studio. I’m getting antsy enough about my other potential purchases that I’m starting to carry around my unofficial audio equipment test CD in the truck. It’s the Symphonie Concertante by Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, performed by the San Francisco Symphony, with Michael Murray playing the Ruffatti organ at Davies Symphony Hall. If you don’t already own a copy, you should. The first 60 seconds will tell you everything you need to know about any audio equipment in the world. If you’re test-driving a pair of speakers, be sure to watch the salesman’s face when you remove his R&B thump-matic crooner CD and show him what you really expect his equipment to do. Added bonus is the folks who wander over from other departments to see where “that music” is coming from.

It’s quite possibly the most exciting orchestral composition to be written since Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Seriously. And you don’t have a copy yet?

¹That’s obvious. Can’t you tell?
²No, I’m not kidding. Yes, it can work that way. And this year, it looks like it’s going to. Don’t freaking whine to me about your freaking social programs. Some of us just want to keep some of the money we make. Especially when we're providing jobs for other people.