This whole shoes-for-Italy business is getting to me.

I don’t want to take too many shoes with me because I only want to take the one bag (and my giant pocketbook), yet my instinct is always to take many shoes with me. There are two pairs of shoes in my office right now that are not on my feet. There are probably four pairs of shoes in my car.

I like to have choices, see.

But shoes are heavy and they take up a lot of room in a suitcase.

But what if I get there and my feet hurt? I hate it when my feet hurt. If my feet hurt, I just hurt all over, and I have a high tolerance for pain, so that’s some serious hurt.

I have been researching shoes for a month now. I have tried on dozens of pairs of shoes. I bought a pair of Dansko backless Mary Janes a week or so ago and they’re pretty decent, but they look…odd with socks. Without socks, they’re okay for piddling around, but I’m not so sure about hauling it around the Vatican in them. Might have to just wear the damn socks.

Here are the ugly shoes that came today:

You might note that these are also Mary Janes. They are red. The other ones are mulberry, which is to say red. I consider red a neutral, unlike the tan not-Mary Janes I bought last week and hastily returned. I have nothing that goes with tan.

I have a lot of Mary Janes. I have a lot of red shoes. I have a lot of red Mary Janes.

My fear is that these also look odd with socks, but I’m just going to have to look odd and remind myself that those people don’t know me and I’m never going to see them again anyway.  Plus I’m going to be rewearing my clothes, so I’ll be offensive in other ways.

I think I’ll go check the mail. My passport might be here.