Dear Shoelaces

Dear Shoelaces,

I don't know what's happening to me. Some might just call it "growing up." Some might call it other things. Whatever it is, though, I'm super-conscious about my shoes, these days. And I know I've already mentioned that in a previous letter, so I don't want to go into it too deeply right now, but the gist of it being that I've become conscious of shoes matching the rest of my clothes as part of an "outfit." Strange, right? Because I am hardly a fashionable guy. I pretty much alternate between two pairs of pants. I doubt anybody that knows me would think of me and an "outfit" in the same breath. And yet I am suddenly fascinated with the concept of matching my shoes to my shirts, pants, jackets, etc.

The problem with this, of course, is four-fold (can I really say that?). First, it is difficult to find cool shoes that are in a colour other than white, black, or brown. Second, being a two-pants kind of guy, those cool (colourful) shoes out there that I CAN find don't always match the clothes I have (and I'm not really going to buy new clothes just to match them to my shoes). Third, it's hard to tell if shoes are going to match other clothes when those other clothes aren't present. So if I'm at a shoestore wearing one particular selection of clothing, and I want to get shoes that match a different selection that is not present, I could very well screw it up and get shoes that don't match anything at all (like I already did with my white shoes). Fourth, I'm not rich, and cool shoes are expensive. To get the amounts of shoes I'd really need to adequately match everything I have and just be COOL, I'd have to spend a fortune. And that's a problem for a suddenly shoe-conscious guy.

But I have come up with a solution. One that I think is pretty clever, actually. And that is to simply buy many pairs of you, Shoelaces. To be more specific, many differently-coloured pairs of you. Because, ultimately, my black shoes can more or less go with whatever I am wearing - just not terribly well, and in a boring sort of way. However, were I to change the colour of the you on my black shoes, then suddenly I can match any colour shirt or jacket that I may want to wear without having to buy a million different pairs of shoes. Sure, it won't look as cool or nice as it would if I were to get specific cool shoes of every colour, but it's better than what I have going on now. And it's cheap.

So now I'm pretty excited about my plan. I even bought some you on my way home from lunch (with Glotto) because I was so excited about the idea. And I just want to put my plan into action RIGHT NOW - but it's not to be. Because I happen to be wearing a black shirt right now, and any brightly-coloured you that I would like to wear right now wouldn't match that. And I have too much pride (and am not fashionable enough) to change what I am wearing halfway through the day simply to have an excuse to use my coloured you. But don't worry - tomorrow I will. Nothing too crazy, I don't think - but the colour of my you will NOT be a simple black or white or gray tomorrow. Oh, no. The world shall tremble with the colour-matching that will occur.

If I do it right. And if my limited pants-choices can work. And if the colour you I purchased actually match the colour of shirts I own. Right.

So wish me luck in my current attempt to have well-matched you. Because, if this works, you and I are going to be VERY close indeed, Shoelaces. VERY close, indeed.

Thank you for a cheap alternative to cool shoes. I definitely needed it.

Putting Even More Thought Into a New Pair of Pants,
CVT