: : home     : : reviews     : : days gone by     : : who?         : : contact     : : nobel reading project    

16 april 2003

currently reading

Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir, by Mark Salter and John McCain. Like many Americans, I admire John McCain. This book recounts his Navy days, and ends with his release from a Vietnamese POW camp. Considering current events, reading this book makes me wonder if there will be another John McCain in twenty years.

Bush at War by Bob Woodward. Hm. President ruling on "gut instinct". Yikes?

flip flop flop

Yeah, so WOOOOOOOOOO! the new website is up, running, and already has visitors. I'm very excited about this. Also tired, but I'll get over that soon enough.

This has been a week of mundane stuffety stuff. Had to stock up on household items that no one likes to buy...sunscreen, cat food, etc. Yawn, right? Yeah, until I decided I may as well pick up some flip flops while I was out. Mine are pretty rough looking, and it would take me all of five minutes to find a plain old pair of two-dollar flip flops.

Or not.

Not sure about you, but when I was a kid, flip flop shopping was a pretty basic endeavor. You go to the store with Mom. You choose between the blue ones or the red ones, cloth or plastic toe thingy. The cloth-toe-thingy ones were deluxe, but way more comfortable. Mom loved you a bunch, and figured you were worth the extra 50 cents. Yay, Mom! and you're out of the store.

Not anymore.

So I go to the store, where I figured they'd have a few choices hanging on the wall. WRONG! Welcome to the Taj MaFlipFlop! They had their own dang department. I'm in the neighborhood discount drug store--there are like 13 aisles in here, people! Half of them are filled with flip flops. I can't find my keys half the time, and you expect me to find the basic blue ones amid this mess? Arrgh!

I walk to the ladies' section. They had blue ones, alright--blue ones with cartoon characters, bows, jewel things, high heels(?), knobs, flowers, and some with soles made of the thing I scrub my dishes with. Mm, comfy. Brillo feet. Oh, and don't get any of these things wet. Don't wear them to the beach or the lake. The sand and elements might muck them up. And we all know flip flops are all about looking our best, right?

I went to the men's section. This was just stupid.

They weren't much better! When did men start demanding designer flip flops? News flash--nothing makes dudes' feets look good, dig? Let's not draw anymore attention to those hairy beasts. Just put on a pair of basic black (and NOT LEATHER bunch of no-good yuppie flip flop wearing pfft...) things, and leave it be.

I didn't need sports sandals. Had my pick of those, too.

I returned to the women's section with lowered standards. Fine. If I can't get a pair of plain-colored basic things, I'll take minimally fancy sole--but no neon! A girl has her standards.

I start digging toward the back, where I finally locate several somewhat basic things. Purple, orange, green or blue. No high heels. No beads. No crap. Just some little blue wavy lines on the sole. They are minimally ridiculous looking. The toe thingy is clearish, but that will do. They are two dollars. I can get them wet. It has taken me twenty minutes to select a pair of two dollar flip flops.

I take them home. As luck would have it, new flip flops are mondo deluxe cat toy.