One of My Favorite Things

Two summers ago I was wondering the shoe aisle at Target and came across a pair of plain black flats for $12.99. I tried them on and they had this lovely surprise cushiony feel to them. I had been looking for plain black flats, as most flats I found were either shiny, bejeweled somehow, slightly not flat, or stiff, so I purchased them.

I wore them every day.

I’m not kidding. I wore them every day. Rain or shine.

The cushiony feel went away quite quickly, but they went with everything and were just so easy. By the end of the summer, my wide feet had poked a hole in the side of one of the shoes and I knew they would be no more. I said goodbye and tossed them.

The next spring I found myself, once again, wandering through Target’s shoe aisle (okay, I do this about once a week) and there they were: my shoes! They had come back! Of course, I bought them and wore them every day again. Except this time they wore out much faster. I ended up buying 3 different pairs over the course of the flat wearing season of Minnesota. And for $12.99 a pair, it was totally justifiable for something I wear all the time.

At the end of the season, once again, holes were in at least one of each of the pairs. I was mixing and matching them all season long, just trying to keep up. But, once again, I came out of the season flatless. I thought for sure those would be my last pair. Target (and most shoe retailers) usually don’t keep reproducing the same shoes over and over.

Flash forward to March 2011. There I was, as usual, wandering the Target shoe aisle. I turn the corner and what do I see? My flats! They were back again! Third year in a row. I was so happy. So I bought the first, of what I assume will be many, pair of flats of the season. Now, if the snow and cold would just all go away, I could wear them.