In Her Shoes

Today was the first Spring-like day we have seen in Kanuk Land for some time. Though we had a relatively mild Winter by Montreal standards, this afternoon's +7 degrees celsius was like a breath of tropical air for the soul! So P and I decided we would hit the bricks and pound the pavement Saturday style: walking the downtown streets, peppered with stopping in to various boutiques, shoe shops and even a toy store.

Everything was going swimmingly until the shoe shopping... You see, I have a love/hate relationship with shoes:
I am a girl, therefore I love them: shiny shoes, shoes with bows and flowers on them; pink shoes, brown pumps, Mary Janes, strappy sandals, these amazing little black numbers with a rhinestone dragonfly lovingly shaped out on the straps......
*sigh*
Alas, I am doomed to walk the earth with Sasquatch-like clown feet, therefore I must apparently also walk the earth in sensible UGLY shoes. Therein lies the hate part.

We went to Winners and Payless, which are always a gamble. Sure, in the rows of shoes marked sizes 6 to 9, they had some pretty cute stuff. Once we got to the 10+ section, the pretty ones were gone. Flowered flats my aunt Pauline would love were abounding, but no cute shoes were to be found. Picture if you will a lush, beautiful forest turning into a deep, dark, dank pit of dead branches with creepy-crawlies where nothing beautiful could ever gorw and you will have some notion of what it was like.

We went to Tony's Shoes on Greene to check out the merchandise. P was there 5 minutes and found a great pair of brown leather shoes for $20. I kept picking up shoes and asking, "Do you have this in a size 10?" only to get my hopes dashed three times in a row when the poor salesman came back from the store room empty handed, shaking his head pitifully at me.
Only once was his quest fruitful and even then, the size 10 strappies he brought back for me were tight and pinched so much I could barely get around the store and back without whimpering.

Needless to say, we came home without any shoes for this Ginner.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.... Tomorrow, I hit the Quartier Latin to ask the drag queens where they get their size 12 heels!