divine angst

OK, kiddos, I rarely ask for advice here, but I’m really stumped right now.

I am in need of a good pair of winter boots. I have these, which I bought to take with me on ski trips, but they are pretty much worthless. The sole is too stiff, so it doesn’t flex when I walk, which means I pretty much don’t walk in them, I stomp. Also, every time I take a step, my heel comes up out of the shoe and my ankle presses against the front of the hi-top (which I have to lace super-tight so my foot doesn’t come OUT of the shoe), leaving me at the end of it all with a sore ankle and sore legs and knees from walking with an unfamiliar motion.

So, OK. Those boots are crap. But I need boots! I’ve been wearing my good knee-high leather boots, with the low heel and the neoprene-like lining instead, but they’re getting ruined from the weather. I’d like to keep them for nice, since they’re “nice” boots, and not “inclement weather” boots.

What I’m seeking, then, are recommendations. I want something that’s not leather, at least not entirely leather, or that, if it is leather, is designed to take a beating from the elements. I want something relatively light so I don’t feel like I’m wearing cinder blocks on my feet, and I want something that isn’t too bulky to go under my jeans or pants.

I want a lot, I think.

I’ve considered traditional Bean boots, with the GoreTex for warmth and waterproofness, but they are spendy and, since I can’t try them on, I worry about their fit on my feet. This, after all, is how I got stuck with the other boots. So, if you have Bean boots, can you endorse the fit? The lightness on your feet? The flex of the sole, enabling you to walk like a human being and not stomp around like a Yeti?

Alternatively, recommend other winter boots you love, that are warm, dry-feet-promoting, and not so bulky as to, again, cause the Yeti Walk.

Any and all comments are welcomed and appreciated!

I’m feeling old today.

I joke about my age, laugh about being older than many of my classmates (if not most of them). But I don’t generally really feel old. In fact, my brain, most of the time, seems to think I’m about 25. Which is fine with me, because 25 is a good age.

But today, I feel my age. I have some worries on my mind that seem to be the kind of worries 25 year olds don’t have. That might be a completely erroneous impression, too–I am sure plenty of 25 year olds have had these same worries I’m having. But I didn’t have them when I was 25, and none of my 25-year-old friends did, either. When we were 25.

I guess the point of this post is that every now and then something happens that makes you realize you might be older than you’d like to pretend you are. That even though you’re in school again, living that student life, the real world is still out there. And sometimes that real world knocks on your door and says, “Hey! Remember me? I’m still here, and I’m giving you something to worry about today.”