The Impossible Dream--A Shoe Story

Like my eternal quest for the perfect foundation makeup, I am also on a quest for a pair of neutral colored comfortable heels I can wear with bare legs. I would say the color I'm looking for is camel, though the names are all over the spectrum. The idea is a close-to-skin-color shade that will elongate the leg.

This is quite a feat, considering I have very wide feet and bunions, and that I also find most heels unbearably uncomfortable. I recently renewed my search efforts in light of my upcoming work commitments.

Here is what I have learned:

1. I should have kept a list of the shoes I've already tried and returned. If I had, I wouldn't have ordered the exact same pair of VANELi pumps two years apart (these are actually a lovely color, though not quite what I want, and I'm kind of sad to have to return them. And they are quite a bit cheaper than they were two years ago).

2. Just because I tried a pair of Stuart Weitzmans in the store doesn't mean the same size in another SW style will remotely compare in fit. Yes, I should have shelled out the $325 two years ago for the exact pair I wanted when they were available, because that size and color and style appears not to be had now at any price.*  Thankfully, I was able to quickly return the $600 order of SW shoes I tried last week (Zappos is the best thing ever invented). Of course, after I made that purchase my credit card company put a security hold on my card!

3. See lesson 1 above. I've ordered so many different combinations of styles and sizes that I'm no longer even being logical about what I try.

For those who care (that is, if you're still reading this), I'm currently holding on to two pairs of Naturalizers, one of which could work (but I'm disappointed in the quality and they maybe aren't comfortable enough), still have the VANELis mentioned above, though they ought to go back, and am waiting on yet another pair of SW to arrive Monday (I'm guessing they won't work either, but I can't stop trying).

Two questions:

• Will I ever succeed?
• Will Zappos cut me off soon for buying and returning SO MANY shoes?

*Yes, even I am a bit shocked at paying so much money for a pair of shoes, but this is an extraordinary case and if I can find exactly what I want, I'm willing to pay that much. My problem is that I usually end up settling, and we all know that often backfires in the end.


--------
photo: [Three young children sitting and one standing in a grassy area on Shoe Day, with the standing child holding a new, large shoe]. 1908.  DN-0006513, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. Available from American Memory at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n006513))