the arrival of the shoes

well, i got my order from zappos yesterday. not everything thrilled me, so i drove out to the wide shoe warehouse this afternoon to see if i could find anything better. (i feel compelled to mention they the folks at the wide shoe warehouse were feeding their customers hot dogs and sodas for free today. though they don't have as great a selection as zappos, they certainly do know how to make a gal feel welcome.)

anyway, i now have 5 pairs of shoes to choose from. i think i may keep 3. maybe 4.

	these are the "sofft" brand shoes from zappos. the actual color is a little more red than i was expecting (not a bad thing necessarily), and the leather is a little more shiny than i was expecting (sort of a bad thing, maybe). on the plus-side, they are INCREDIBLY comfortable, fit well, and are super light. i'm definitely leaning towards keeping these. (close-up)
	these are made by "g-wiz" and came from the wide shoe warehouse. i thought they might be a good substitute for the soffts above, which are twice as expensive as these. i have a (perhaps) irrational fear of having too many similar shoes, so part of me believes i'll have to either keep these or the soffts. however, the more i look at these two pairs of shoes the more i focus on their differences. the soffts are more polished-looking, and these are more... what?... plain, maybe?. actually, i think these may end up being good bad-weather shoes, as the soles look like they could really grab onto ice. so... i like them, and they're pretty comfortable, but do i need them? (close-up)
	what can i say? i've got a thing for heeled mules. these are made by "easy street" and came from the wide shoe warehouse. i can't find any reason to argue against keeping these. (though i admit i'm shocked to realize that i just bought 3 pairs of rounded-toe shoes.) the coolest thing about these, and something i didn't realize until the cashier pointed it out, is that the decorative band across the top actually doubles as a back strap. (check it out.)
	i am totally and utterly shocked that these fit as well as they do. they don't have a zipper; they just pull-on and are stretchy in the calf area. i think the foot-part may be a little big... i might send them back to zappos in exchange for a pair a half-size smaller. i have no idea what to wear them with, but that's ok... the dilemma provides me with another excuse to go shopping. (close-up)
	these boots were a big disappointment. i opted to not get the ros hommerson's that i blogged about, but instead got these naturalizers because they were taller. i'm definitely sending these back to zappos... the ankle is far too baggy, and though i didn't have too much trouble zipping them up i can see from this photo that my leg looks a little pinched at the top. bleah. so yes, they're going back. i just have to decide whether or not to ask for the ros hommerson's instead. (part of my hesitation in asking for the ros' is that they're mid-calf boots. i'm hoping for a sensible pair of tall black boots to wear with skirts, and i think mid-calf boots would look ridiculous with a skirt... which means i'd end up just wearing mid-calf boots with pants. and i might as well just shop for a cheaper pair of ankle boots at that point.)