July Style Journal: Easy Sandals

It is a well-known fact that I love flip flop sandals and, given the chance, I would wear them all year long.  However, as I’ve grown older, I’ve found that the standard flip flop sandal doesn’t offer nearly enough arch support for my aging feet.  Can I wear sub-standard flip flops?  Yes, yes I can.  Will I pay the price for this decision?  That is also a yes.  I have a few pairs of high-quality (read: pricey) flip flops but when my most favorite pair suffered a worn out toe post, panic ensued. 

Then, I discovered these sandals.  

They aren’t flip flops, though they share the ease of flip flops and I love wearing them.  I've began to wonder if my love of flip flops is the fact of the toe post or is simply the ease of putting them on…….mind blown, Internet.  Here’s to the ease of summer sandals without an ankle strap.  It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like flip flops, but I can’t have everything.

Style Journal: The Close of the Flip Flop Season

As warm weather gradually comes to an end, I am reluctantly packing up my flip flops for the season.  This is a transition I never really enjoy, not only because the ease of flip flops are gone but because now my feel must be encased in shoes.  The first few weeks of this transition are not easy for me and as soon as I get home from school, I immediately remove my shoes.  This year’s transition is more complicated than usual because of my wonky hip, which really demands that I wear sneakers or some other very practical shoe.  I am not averse to comfortable shoes - far from it - but I do love a slip-on mule or sandal.  Suffice it to say last’s weeks tumble demonstrated that slip-on shoes and I must take a break from one another.  And so I have mostly been wearing sneakers and - naturally - resenting that reality.  Nearly everything about my wonky hip is a challenge to my sense of self.  From its limits on my ability to walk around and do as I please to its requirement that I ask for help, the constraints placed upon me have been a challenge that I am still finding my way around.  I’ll note that my progress is slow and not always tinted with kindness toward myself.  Everything about this hopefully temporary disability feels that way and I long for a return to some kind of pain-free normal.

Style Journal: My Summer Shoe of Choice

 I love flip flops.  

I know that love is a big word and I mean every bit of it.  Between-the-toe flip flop sandals (known to me as “thongs” when I was a child...and that word is a story for another day) are literally a source of never-ending joy to me.  Everything about them is splendid - the way they are casual; the way that they ensure my feet get maximum sunlight and outdoor space; the fact that they are so easy to slip on, the way they stay on as because of the toe post…I could go on and on.  

I wear them all year, though in Winter I only wear them inside.  Come warmer weather - and for me that is any day forecast to bring temperatures over 60 - I wear them indoors and outdoors for as much time as possible.  In the Summer, they are my style of choice and my diverse collection ensures that I am have a pair that match every outfit I choose to wear.  And in my estimation, that is the very definition of happiness.   

Real Life Texts with T: Migratory edition

The backstory: Flip flops are my favorite thing in the world and I own an unnecessary assortment of them.  This morning, T noticed flip flop chaos by the side of the bed and texted me a picture.

The caption below the photo read:  “The great flip flop migration has begun……”

Indeed.

Front Porch in August

All the variegated leaf plants have joined the flowering plants for the August front porch table.  There’s a red and white tablecloth to anchor the festivities.

The flip flop flag remains because flip flops always make me happy.  This picture faces East and in the humid haze the coming tropical storm can be seen.

The other plants are spread around the porch to soak up their share of the warmth and sunshine.

I drink my morning coffee in this spot and I never tire of the verdant refuge that is this front porch.

July Front Porch

If the theme in my flowerbeds is lush and over grown (and it is), there there is no reason such a theme cannot be carried over to the front porch.  And so it does.

T gave me a flip flop flag and wreath and July is the perfect month for a woman loathe to wear shoes.

The ease of Summer is something I long for in the cold weather and never take for granted when the warm days settle around us.  I start my day on this front porch every day of the Summer and I never tire of the plant-fortified view that greets me in the morning.

Given the time, I’m out here in the afternoon with my iced tea and my books.  It’s my favorite room of the house this time of year and I spend so much time here that I can spy a new leaf on my plants the moment it first begins to bud.  Pandemic worries aside, the Summer is determined to fly right past.  I am making the most of it while it’s here.

In My Native Dress

Warm weather means flip flops, sandals, and fresh pedicures.

That’s happy!

Open Rebellion

It starts slowly, so slowly that I never quite see it coming.  Instead of ironing all my clothes for the week on Sunday evening, I toss a few items in the dryer with a wet washrag and consider that acceptable.

The next week, I identify all the knit clothes I own, toss them into the dryer with a wet rag, and skip the ironing all together.

The following week, I guiltily get clothes to the dry cleaner and vow that I will iron the rest.  I do iron those clothes.  But I resent it.

The next week I find multiple excuses to avoid drying my hair and turn up at work with braids or a messy bun in hopes that either will disguise my failure to be a mature adult.  My clothes are mostly ironed, but it’s a job done poorly.  I still resent it.

The next week, I start packing flip flops in my school bag, so I can switch shoes as soon as the school day has ended.

And then a day comes when I get to the car in the morning and only then do I realize I am still wearing my morning flip flops.  I know I should go inside and get school-suitable shoes.

I do get them.  

But I grow weary of grown-up clothes and grown-up efforts.  I want to wear flip flops every day.   It’s May 10 and Spring rebellion is in full bloom.  

Mucho Flip Flops

At some point on Saturday morning, I realized that flip flop weather is here to stay.  For the next 6 months, my toes and I will be enjoying the outdoors.  This color is called "Fiesta" and it's my way of celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Just add tequila!

Giving Summer Thanks

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard that the Polar Vortex is back in the middle of the nation this week, bringing cooler temperatures with its breezes.  In my corner of New Jersey, mid to late July is typically the hottest part of summer, usually with a generous side of humidity to go with the heat.  Instead, this week, we’ve instead gotten dry warm air, high temperatures in the mid to low 80s and cool nights and mornings.  It’s been lovely and it puts me in mind of the January cold snap that the Polar Vortex delivered earlier this year.

There were many icy mornings in January that I sat in my car, waiting for it to warm up, bundled up in coat, gloves, scarf, hat, and still cold for all my efforts to block the cold.  On those mornings, the temperature outside was barely in the double digits.  As I grew weary of the cold this past winter it was hard to envision summer and the ease of stepping outside in flip flops.  But the winter did eventually pass.  So today I pause and give thanks for warm breezes and sunlight.  I may even be prepared to take back the unkind comments I once made about the Polar Vortex.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Professional Attire edition

Real Life Conversations with JT: Professional Attire edition

The backstory: One day last week JT came to school with me to help with summer open house tours.  I made him wear khaki shorts and a school shirt for the day and I wore a school shirt and made an effort to look more professional myself.  Afterward, he had some complaints about my unreasonable khaki shorts requirement.

JT:  Why did I have to wear khakis instead of regular shorts? Note: For JT, “regular” shorts are any number of ratty nylon athletic shorts.

Me:  Because they look nicer and more appropriate for school.  I wore a nice school polo shirt with my skirt.

JT:  You also wore flip flops.

Me:  In the summer, I only wear flip flops.

JT:  And that’s supposed to be “professional”? 

Me:  It’s summer and I’m a native Californian who was born wearing flip flops so, yeah, that’s professional.

I don’t think that he was persuaded.  Perhaps he’s sad that he wasn’t born in California and therefore is not entitled to lay claim to flip flops as professional attire.

Summer in One Photo

In My Native Condition

Summer is coming.  I can feel it right down to my toes.

In My Native Condition

We're in Florida for some Spring Break fun. The weather is warm and suitable for my favorite footwear.

That's happy!