Shoes

Shoes cure all ills.

Well - most ills. Okay, some ills. Well, they make you feel a bit better if your bike's been stolen. If you get two pairs. That is, if they're really sexy and cute and adorable and show off your legs to nice advantage, especially if they don't make your feet hurt, because a painful new blister puts a bit of a damper on things, frankly; and if your teenage daughter says "Oooh!" and snatches them out from under you and tries them on the second you get home, that's not so good either, especially if she's the kind of teenaged daughter who hides eggshells in her underwear drawer, which as a matter of fact she is; don't even ask.

God damn it. Qualifiers ruin everything.

A couple of margaritas with a friend you haven't seen in a long time are also nice. My former cube neighbor Audrey stopped by work late this afternoon, and I ended up tagging along with her and my coworker Jason for appetizers and drinks. If you don't know who I'm talking about, Audrey is the one who "pulled an Audrey" a few months ago, blowing up at the panicmonger and walking off the job. "I hope you don't mind too much that we coined a phrase about you," I told her.

She understood.

She was a little less philosophical when Jason told her that the the raunchy naked-guy pictures the IT guys found on her computer were the talk of the department. This seemed to strike her as a little unfair, inasmuch as they were not actually her pictures, but a friend's, uploaded from a company laptop for her to send along later; which had been more or less forgotten, and which she had not really thought to delete.

To tell the truth I was a little surprised at how strongly she reacted to this. "Oh my God," she said, "those pictures? Oh my God. Those weren't even my pictures. Those bastards. Those bastards!"

They were some pretty good pictures.

I had a great time, really a great time; funny. Funny how she and I weren't really that close, yet there was a certain comfort between us that was really fun to revisit. Funny how there are people, dearer to me, to whom I feel much closer, but with whom I'm not nearly so much at ease. Funny how we could have a blast talking and laughing and catching up, yet it didn't really create any more of an emotional bond between us than there was before. Is that how sex is for men, I wonder?

I don't know if she's really any better off for having pulled an Audrey. Same shit, different employer. I really wish her the best, though.

She does have a fine appreciation for a really cute pair of shoes.