A list of the types of shoes I’ve worn over my life:

Kid’s Keds. A favorite of mine when I was little, white and navy blue.

Patent leather little girl shoes for special occasions like Easter or Christmas (in white or black).

Flip-flops, which, when I was growing up, were referred to as “thongs.”

Pink High Top Converse Basketball Shoes. A discovery my mother made, much to my chagrin, after we determined my feet were just too wide for anything else offered in our little town. If we didn’t get those “boy’s” shoes, we would have had to drive to either Sherman or Dallas (25 or 65 miles respectively). This was long before these were in style for girls, but I wore them dutifully with the dresses I was required to wear to school at that point. (Still, not a very happy memory.)

Moccasins in white or beige. (I loved these.)

Heels: low, middle, and high, with the usual range of wide, narrow, or stiletto heels.

Tennis shoes in many varieties over the years, with my favorites being Asics.

3-inch “wedgie” boots I bought when I was teaching in Italy. God, I loved those boots.

A whole range of high-heeled and low-heeled boots in black and brown over the years.

White Majorette boots my senior year in high school with purple tassels on the front. (I was especially fond of these and proud to be a majorette in our Sweepstakes Band.)

Earth Shoes — a bad choice for me on a trip to Europe, traveling alone. Miserably uncomfortable, and I only brought that one pair. Lesson learned.

Brown leather shoes — yes, these were great. Wish I still had them. (Bought them in Italy as well when I was teaching.)

Easy Spirit and Aerosole heels — always good for church, weddings, etc. Not having much luck now for some odd reason. My foot may be shrinking but getting wider at the same time!

Leather sandals in black and brown. I like the ones with support. I usually buy them at Risk’s Shoe Store in Sherman, Texas, a long-standing family-owned business with great shoes and fabulous sales.

A whole slew of too-tight shoes that I have purchased in a hurry. Always a very bad idea since they make me unhappy very quickly.

Sketchers — black. My preferred shoe at the moment.

What you may or may not tell about me from that list is that I am not much of a shopper. With wide feet in a small size (5–5½), I have owned way too many shoes that squeezed the hell out of my feet and therefore had a short shelf life in my closet.

As I am getting older, I favor comfort over style but still can appreciate a cute pair of shoes if I can ever find one that actually fits. That’s few and far between these days.

For example, I have been searching for a good pair of basic heels for months and have ordered at least four pairs. All four were returned because they were either too narrow or too long. Ugh. But I know I’ll find the right pair one of these days, and when I do, maybe I’ll just buy three pairs so I’m set for a few years. Not a bad idea.

On that note, I’ll close. I have a new pair of shoes arriving tomorrow in the mail for my upcoming trip to Spain. We’ll see how they fit — fingers crossed. If they’re comfortable, they may just earn a spot as my official travel shoes.