Grumpy Mood

To the man who blew past me at about 70 km/hr when I was stopped at the crosswalk on Main St. tonight,

You came within 3 ft of killing the pedestrian who was IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!  Yes, I realize she was crossing the road at an unlit crosswalk on a dark and rainy night wearing all black, but she was IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!  You are driving a car and you should really be looking out for people who are IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!  Here’s a tip: when you see that the car in the next lane (i.e., me) is stopped at a crosswalk, you may want to consider that there may be a person IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET! Also, when I yelled at you at the next stoplight (because, despite your ridiculous speed and lack of consideration for the safety and life of a young pedestrian, you didn’t actually get any further ahead than the next stoplight!), your dismissive shrug, as if you cared not that you nearly killed a person, was not appreciated.

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To the man to drove by me very slowly and stared at me the entire time while I was loading my hockey gear into my co-op car,

Yes, I play hockey. Yes, I am a girl. Get over it.

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To the girl who shoved me, hard, down to the ice, from behind, at the blue line, after the whistle and then said, “Sorry!”,

I did not believe that you were sorry.

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To my brown shoes that appear to have disappeared from my apartment without a trace,

Was it something I said?

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To the too hot french fry that burned the roof of my mouth when I bit into it,

You were supposed to be delicious, not injurious.

Children Love My Footwear

Last week I was walking through Children’s Hospital and a little girl, maybe 2 or 3 years old was staring wide-eyed at my feet.  She then pointed and yelled at the top of her little lungs: “LOOK!!!  BOOTS!!!”  “Yes,” her dad said, “The lady has on very nice boots.”

Today, I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting room and a little boy, maybe 1 year old, crawled right up to me and started playing with the buckle on my shoes!

Apparently my love of fashionable footwear is contangious to youngins!

On a related note, my mother just mailed me $100.  Apparently she bought my sister two pairs of shoes recently and so, to keep things even, I have to now use this $100 to buy myself two pairs of shoes as well.  My mom rocks!

More new shoes

Shocking, I know.

My friend Therese is in town for her cousin’s kids baptism, so we met up for dinner (poutine at The Templeton) and shopping (for shoes, of course). First we went to the Aldo liquidation outlet on Granville and I found a super hot pair of red boots. Marked down to $70, plus 50% off. How often do you find boots for $35?? The only hitch – they didn’t have my size!! The horror, the horror!

Not to be deterred, we headed next door to the new Payless store, where Therese got two very cute pairs: one a shiny brown pair of flats, the other, an adorable open toe pump… in tweed! For serious!

As for my shoes, despite trying on virtually every heel they had in my size, I ended up with this pair:

Which I quite like. So cute! So comfy!

P.S. Don’t forget to scroll down to my previous post and let me know who you think is the hottest NHL hockey hottie!

My New Shoes

On sale. $20.  Nuff said.

What’s a Blog?

So I was shopping on Broadway today and happened to go into this shoe store. As I am wont to do. And I was perusing the Hush Puppies, one of the clerks said to me, “What makes you ‘bloggable’?” For I was wearing this shirt¹.  I laughed.  And then the one said, “What’s a blog?”  and his co-worker said, “You don’t know what a blog is????” and the first guy said, “It’s some kind of website thing, right?” and his co-worker was all, “Yeah. And like some people write lame personal journals and then other people blog about actual stuff that they are like interested in” and then then the first guy was like “‘Blog’ is verb?” and then the second guy was all, “oh yeah, it’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s everything… <pause, then asks me> What do you blog about?”  Which, you know, is really hard to answer when the words “lame personal journals” has just come out of his mouth.  And so I went with my standard reply of, “I blog about everything except my work.” And then the first guy was like “Are WE going to be on your blog?” and then I was all like, “You are now.”

Clerks in the shoe store on Broadway.  Guy on the left is the one who didn’t know what a blog was. Guy on the right was the one who laughed at guy on the left for not knowing what a blog is.

¹Actually, I was wearing that shirt in brown. Because I have two bloggable T-shirts – one from Northern Voice 2007 (purple) and one from NV08 (brown). I just don’t seem to have a photo of the brown one handy and I’m too lazy busy to take one now.

Blast From The Past

Remember my eBay shoes?

I’m wearing them today.  They make me happy.

I need a power suit

OK, maybe I don’t *really* need a power suit, but I feel in the mood for some new work clothes. I’ve worn all of my work clothes soooo many times and I’m kind of bored of them. Also, I’ve noticed that despite that fact that I own no fewer than 3 pairs of brown shoes¹, I own a grand total of zero, nada, nilch in the way of brown skirts or pants. Or dresses.

And speaking of dresses, one of my co-workers was wearing a really funky dress yesterday and it made me realize that I don’t have any good work dresses. I have a few fancy dresses and a few summer dresses that are appropriate for, say, a walk on the beach. But nothing that is really suitable for business. No business dresses. And dresses are so handy because you only have to make one decision – “hey, I want to wear this dress” – without all the nonsense of having to pick a top and then *also* having to pick a bottom to go with the top. Which is also why a suit is good – when you pick the top, you are also automatically picking the bottom.

Oh yeah, and the pic of me? That’s from back when I won an award for my doctoral research on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Back when I had longer hair and fewer wrinkles. And I’m using that photo here because it shows the only suit that I own. The skirt of which is a bit too short to be all that comfortable. But at least it’s a suit.

Anyhoodle, the point of this whole posting is really to say that I need to get me to a consignment store, stat!

¹I realize that this may sound a wee bit excessive, but they are three distinctly different types of shoes. One is a pair of flats, another a good solid pump, and the third a pair of strappy heels. So, really, they would all serve a different purpose, if only I had some brown skirts or pants to wear them with.

Beth fall down go boom

So I’m leaving the theatre after watching a sneak preview of Young People Fucking¹ with Kalev² yesterday and I feel the heel of my super sexy boots slide right out from under me. And I try to not fall, which only succeeds in extending the length, extravagance and (I’m sure to the onlooker) hilarity, of the fall. And I scraped my knee. =(

And here is the culprit:

The little rubber piece on the heel is totally worn away. As it turns out, beneath the little rubber piece on your heel is some sort of uber-slippery plastic. Which, when it comes in contact with a slick movie theatre lobby floor, makes it like you are walking on a sheet of black ice. =(

I suppose I need to take the boots in to have them re-heeled. It seems like I have to do that a lot. Case in point: I bought my shiny black heels just over a year ago and had to have them re-heeled about 6 months after buying them, as the little rubber piece had been completely worn away. (And it’s not like I wear them *every* day. I’d say I wear this pair about 2-3 days per week). And now, they need re-heeling again:

The rubber piece on the heel is so worn away that the little metal posts inside the heel is exposed!

Needing re-heeling on a pair of shoes twice in 15 months seems rather excessive to me. I was telling my friend Alicia about this today and she says that she has the same problem. “It’s because you actually walk places!” she said. People who drive places don’t really wear out their heels because they barely walk on them. Bus riders like us walk several blocks from bus stop to office and so wear out our shoes. Which make sense, I guess. And it’s nice to know that I’m not the only heel-wearing-out freak. But now I feel like I should take a poll.

What about you, my heel-wearing blog readers? How long do your shoes last before you wear out your heels?

¹An absolutely fabulous movie, btw, which you should all go and see. Hilarious! Srsly, watch the preview.
² That’s “Young People Fucking,” that I watched with Kalev³ . Not to be mistaken for “Young People Fucking with Kalev.” That, I hear, will be the sequel.
³Did I mention that Kalev acquired the pass to said sneak preview? No? Damn, I better revise this posting so he doesn’t bitch me out for not mentioning him! =P

Summer Shoes

Today was beautiful and sunny and warm.  Granted, I spent 9+ hours of it in my office, where I only got to see the sunshine through the window and not feel it on my face like I so desperately wanted to, but I did get to wear some summer shoes.

Sure, you’ve seen these shoes before, but today was their debut for this summer.  These shoes are definitely one of my best thrift store purchases.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the warmth and sunshine lasts through the weekend or, at the very least, through tomorrow morning when I’ll be running 10 km for the Pacific Spirit Run (reminder: there’s still time to sponsor me – and many thanks to those of you who have already sponsored me, helping me to break my fund raising goal!)

Here’s wishing you a warm and sunny weekend, wherever you may be!

So, I totally forgot to blog yesterday. I realized it at around 1:30 this morning, just as I was about to go to bed. And so my daily blogging streak for 2008 ends… an entire *month* earlier than it did last year¹! In my defense, yesterday was Feburary 29… that’s not really a real day².

Now, that it’s March, it seems that spring has sprung here in the ‘couve³. It was gorgeous and sunny today and so I went on a nice long walk to do some shopping on W. 4th and Broadway. The two main things I went out to buy were: (a) new headphones for Marla, because the ones I had spontaneously stopped producing sound in the left earphone and (b) new running shoes. And the reason that I was on a mission to make these purchases? Because it’s time to start my training for my next half marathon! You may recall that my last half marathon was less than ideal, but I’ve learned my lesson and I’m bound and determined to train properly this time. Also, from talking to the salesdude at the Running Room⁵, part of the problem leading up to my foot injury may have been that my shoes were worn out. So, $200 later, I’m the proud owner of a pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus running shoes:

 

They are like running on a cloud.  Seriously.

Other, more spontaneous purchases on my shopping spree included: 2 skirts & a top at a thift store (total cost $15!); various card making supplies and some much needed oven mitts from a dollar store; a bluetooth headset for my cell, which I’m returning because it totally sucks; a pack of stamps at the post office; and a veggie dog from a hot dog vender. Mmmm, veggie dog.

¹When I imported my blog into WordPress from Blogger, I didn’t set the time zone to Pacific before I did the import, meaning that it imported everything at GMT instead of PST. So here in WordPress land, it looks like I did post on March 30, 2007, but if you look on my old Blogger site, you’ll see that that posting was actually on March 29, 2007 at 8:21 p.m. PST when I originally posted it. Similarly, I did actually post every day in 2008 until yesterday, but here in WordPress land, it looks like I didn’t because the ones I imported went under GMT. Anyhoo, I’m sure I’m the only person who cared about that and now that I’ve bored you to tears with the world’s longest footnote, you may return to your regularly scheduled blog post, already in progress.
² Speaking of which, happy belated birthday to my cousin Samantha… she turned 16 yesterday, on her 4th birthday.
³ One of many annoying nicknames for Vancouver including, but not limited to, Vancity, the V-dot⁴, and, my least fav, Vangroovy.
⁴Which, I will point out, makes no sense and is only used by people from the T dot.
⁵And this wasn’t like a salesdude who was trying to upsell me into buying some news shoes. I brought my old shoes in to the store to compare them with new shoes and he was able to show me just how worn out they were.

Bloggy bloggy blogginess

It’s here, it’s here, it’s here. The thing you’ve all been waiting for. Northern Voice has arrived!

OK, so I still have a full day of non-bloggy work ahead of me before tonight’s Tiki Dinner, which kicks off the conference. Which reminds me – it’s open mic where attendees can read one of their blog postings and I, being the attention whore that I am, totally want to read something. Does anyone have any suggestions on which of my blog postings would be good for reading in front of a bunch of rowdy bloggers?

Also, to get you excited about NV, here’s a reminder of the highlights from last year’s conference:

• I got a really sweet purple Bloggable T-shirt (see above)
• I met a guy wearing a dragon costume
• I got to show off my neat printing skillz
• I was in the social pages
• My boots got a lot of attention¹

Oh ya, and I learned a bunch about blogging and suchlike.

But speaking of my boots, although the ones I wore last year have now retired from active duty, I, fortunately, have this pair and this pair to choose from. Because, really, what’s a blogging conference without some CFM boots?

¹Did I mention that I’m an attention whore?

I knew there had to be a scientific reason for my love of high heels

“Why wearing stilettos could boost your sex life” in the Daily Mail news

Hot for Teacher

First off, welcome to my new digs here on WordPress. Update your feeds, blogrolls, bookmarks, rolodexes, stone tablets or however the heck you remember where I am. Because I know that you don’t want to miss a single update on my nylons.

Secondly, I’ve recently become obsessed with what I wear when I’m teaching. I gave my students a little questionnaire in the first class to get a sense of the background & experience in the area of nutritional assessment and also I included the question “Tell me something about yourself that doesn’t have anything to do with school.” I think that it’s nice to get to know your students a bit, which is hard to do when you have a class of 100, and this is a my little attempt to do that. A lot of people told me about hobbies they have, sports they play, places they’ve traveled and the like. And one person wrote that I dressed “too nice for lecturing.” I wasn’t really sure if this was meant as a compliment (i.e., “you dress nice”) or an insult (i.e., “you are trying *way* too hard, Loser”), but I’ve decided that I’ll believe it’s the former. And, now, of course, I need to keep up with this reputation as the best dressed instructor of 2008¹.

So here’s a picture of my outfit from class #2. Apparently posting what I wear to class is becoming kind of a thing here on NTBTWK. Which may just be an excuse for me to need to buy more clothes once I get through all my current outfits.

¹Which may or may not be completely in my head.

Either Ottawa hates¹ or loves me so much that it really, really wants me have a reason to return, because everything we tried to do today was a no go.

First, we couldn’t go to the Diefenbunker as the tour was all booked up when we called to make a reservation. Then, The Green Door was inexplicably closed when we tried to go there for dinner. Bah!

It worked out in the end though. We hung out at Sarah’s parents place, where we had lunch, chatted for a bit, and then Sarah’s mom gave me three (3!) pairs of shoes²! Then we watched more Veronica Mars and we ended up going to another restaurant, a veggie Thai place, that made most delicious food, for dinner. And, honestly, Sarah & Dave are just fun to hang out with, no matter what you are doing. And now I have an excuse to come back to O-town – ‘cuz I totally need to check out the Diefenbunker!

¹Since they put a giant spider in front of the National Gallery, I’m leaning towards the former.
²And you all know how desperately I need more shoes!

These Boots Were Made for Walking

Once upon a time¹ I bought a pair of boots. And so beloved were those boots that I wore them everywhere – to work, to clubs, to job interviews, to a blogging conference. They were an integral part of my last two Halloween costumes. Hell, I even wore them to my Ph.D. defence.

Of late, I have noticed that the beautiful pleather² that gives my boots their shiny goodness was starting to flake off. ‘No matter,’ I thought, ‘It’s just flaking a little bit and you have to look quite carefully at them to notice. They’re still good, they’re still good.’³ But that was before I fell down the stairs. Twice in as many days.

OK, “fell” is probably a little overly dramatic. More like “slid” or “slipped.” The first time I was rushing down the stairs at Granville Station to catch a Skytrain⁴. I figured that the stairs were just slippery or something. But then the next day I slid down the stairs at my massage therapist’s office, right after getting a nice hour-long massage – and pretty much undoing all the good that the massage had done. ‘What the hell?’ I thought, ‘Why am I suddenly incapable of going down a flight of stairs??’

Then I got a brainstorm: ‘Perhaps I should look at the sole of these boots!’ Um, ya, so the heels of my boots are *completely* devoid of tread. Like, totally, completely 100% tread-less. So I had to admit to myself that it might, just might, be time to find a new pair of boots, as continuing to wear this pair appears to be hazardous to my health and well-being⁵. So this newfound concern for safety, combined with my jealousy of Stacia’s beautiful new boots, led me on The Search for A New Pair of Boots.

Only one small problem. My boots are too cool. I can’t find anything even remotely as cool. And I went to every shoe store in downtown Vancouver. I found a pair that, while not as perfect in style as my current boots, I could have been happy with in this shoe clearance place in the basement of where The Bay is downtown, but they only had them in size 8.5 or 10, whereas I wear a size 6 shoe⁶. I found another one in the Shoe Warehouse, but same deal – too big. There were a couple pairs that I tried on at Winners, but they didn’t fit properly – either they’d be way too big for my calves, or they’d put your foot in a weird contorted angle that you know would be very, very uncomfortable after about 5 minutes of walking around. The thing with my current boots is that they are super stylish, but also really comfortable.

All in all, I think I only tried about 5 pairs of boots that looked acceptable but turned out to be too big/small/uncomfortable/weird, but this number was completely dwarfed by the number of boots I had trouble even being in the same room as, let alone be willing to try on or, god forbid, consider buying. Apparently the style this season is stiletto heels⁷ and ridiculous pointy toes. And I’m not talking just a little pointed. I’m talking the shoe is so exaggeratedly pointed that the toe of your shoe is in a different time zone than you are.

Heading home, dejected, from the boot store which appears also to stock only stupid pointy toed, stiletto boots this season, the answer to all my problems hit like a stroke of divine inspiration⁸. Where did Beth find her most perfect pair of footwear? eBay, of course! A quick search led me to this pair, the auction for which I just won this morning:

Anyone want to take bets on which will get here first: the eBay boots or the vegetarian marshmallows?

¹A.k.a. November 2005.
²Being a vegetarian, I don’t wear leather. Pleather is also way cheaper that leather, but it doesn’t last as long.
³I may have been in denial about the impeding demise of my boots.
⁴Which, of course, begs the question that Sarah & Dave asked me on one of their visits to Vancouver: “Why are we going DOWN stairs to get to the SKYtrain?”
⁵Not that I’ve actually stopped wearing them. I just try not to run down stairs in them.
⁶Which,I was doubly choked that they didn’t fit because they were $100 boots that had been marked down to $25!
⁷Read: ridiculous uncomfortable. Who the hell thought that putting an entire person’s weight on two millimeter wide sticks was a good idea?
⁸As previously mentioned, my deity⁹ may vary from yours.
⁹and Her sexy shoe obsession.