Every Shoe Store in the Mall!

I think I've now done all the errands needed in preparation for my trip, other than the ATM run, and that I can do on my way out of town, since the bank is a block from my house. This morning was going to be a quick trip that ended up expanding. My black sneakers -- the ones I use for casual wear -- have just about died (a hole is forming and growing visible). I hadn't been able to find black sneakers that didn't also have neon pink or green on them. The current pair was a replacement for what I wanted to find again, some Keds I bought to celebrate the completion of the first draft of Enchanted, Inc.. They were a sort of retro 70s looking sneaker in black suede with subdued gray/silver stripes on the side. Alas, they quit making them and had nothing like them when I needed to replace them after wearing them to death. When I realized I needed new sneakers last week, I checked the Keds web site, and they had a new kind of black shoe that wasn't their standard Keds style. Then I discovered that there's a Ked's outlet in the mall near me.

Since today was the first day of school, I figured it was safe to go in the mall again. Unfortunately, the Keds outlet turned out to be a mix of several brands, and they had about three pairs of adult Keds. So, I decided I might as well see what was in the other shoe stores in the mall. I needed some exercise (I tried on clothes last night to decide what to take to WorldCon, and I discovered that I've put on a little weight lately), so I might as well walk the mall. I found absolutely nothing until I got to the last shoe store, one that must be relatively new because I didn't recall seeing it before. There they not only had the Keds I saw on the web site, but they had them in my size and they were on sale. They're not quite as "cool" as the original pair, but oh my, were they comfortable. Meanwhile, I discovered that there's a Levi's outlet in that mall (the mall closest to me is an outlet mall), and I got a new pair of good Levi's for less than Target store brand jeans. I may have to cut them off to capris within a couple of years because if I buy jeans short enough to wear with flats, they'll inevitably shrink into high-water length, but I have too many pairs of "wear with heels" jeans right now (that will likely shrink to wear-with-flats length eventually).

My dad may develop a PTSD twitch after hearing this story, thanks to a long-ago back-to-school shoe shopping expedition in which I visited every shoe store in a large mall, tried on shoes in every store, then went back to the first store I visited and bought the first pair I tried on. In this case, though, I wasn't reviewing every option in the mall before making a choice, I only tried on one pair, and I bought that pair. I only went to every shoe store in the mall because none of them had what I wanted and I had to keep looking. Seriously, what is the deal with neon all over the shoes right now? The guy at one store did tell me he's been telling his company that there really is a market for "fashion sneakers" -- sneakers worn as casual wear, not for sports. They carried them for men, but didn't really have anything like that for women, and they get asked for them all the time.

Then on the way home I made two trips to Target. The second trip was because I needed to get printer ink, so I went to the Office Depot next to Target after the Target run, only to discover that the same item was $5 less at Target, so I went back to Target. It wasn't like I had to go out of my way, since I had to pass Target to get back to my car from Office Depot.

Now I'm down to the at-home preparation stuff, like doing laundry, baking cookies for the FenCon party, making a few promo items. I spent the weekend cleaning the house so I won't come home after a week in a hotel with maid service and want to leave again. After today, I should just have to pack and then do the final spiffing up. One of the many nice things about driving is that I can leave when I want to. It's a 5-6-hour drive and hotel check-in is at 4, so I don't have to leave at the crack of dawn. I would like to be within the San Antonio metro area by about 3 because I'd rather not hit a lot of school zones in the small towns along the way, and that road turns into a regular elevated highway once it's in the city, so school zones are no longer a factor. So, the plan is to leave sometime between 9 and 10.