2-17-08 A Disturbing New Trend in Women's Shoes

Shopping for shoes for work with Katie today, we end up at the Brooklyn Mall on Atlantic Ave. Several of the women's shoes have a distinct profile I've never seen before. I've seen the usual slightly up-pointing tips of shoes that have been in fashion, but on these new shoes, the curve is so extreme as to point the toe toward the shin of the wearer, in an arc that the human foot was never meant to make.

Looking at the shoe I hold it up to Katie, saying "So, um, how long have you been participating in the Ren Faire?"

1-13-08 Flea Market

In Katie's neighborhood on the weekends, the local elementary school playground is taken over by various vendors selling their wares: minerals and jewelry, old soviet memorabilia, vintage clothes, records, old books (comic and non), the odd fedora. We walk beneath a strangely slate sky in the early afternoon (having slept in half the day from a party the night before that went well into the morning hours), say hello to the puppies we meet, and wander through the market.

I'm standing examining a sliding door armoire that I have no intention of buying, but that smells deliciously of good, aged wood, and the vendor rushes up, asking us if we think the price is too high. I explain that it isn't a price problem, but just that I didn't come to buy, and he retreats, crestfallen, while we walk away, feeling slightly guilty on what must for some reason be a "slow day".