I've learned my lesson . . . perhaps

So, I bought a pair of blue satin, open-toed party shoes with a 100mm heel because I really needed them and have so many cocktail dresses with which to pair them and because I go to so many cocktail parties I thought it was best to add them to my otherwise drab and uniform shoe collection (collection being the name because I don't actually wear any of the shoes I buy, they just look elegant on my shelf). They were also on sale - reduced from $745 down to $109 - now that's a steal, even if I don't need them and never wear them. And I'm sure they're reduced so extremely because everyone was so excited to buy them and not return them that they decided to put them on sale for the common man who, perchance, had a sudden black tie event to attend . . .

Well, as I was trying them on, trying to convince myself that they really went with a few of my outfits that I'm going to wear to this imaginary cocktail party, even though they really went with none, I scraped my knee, which was already dry, with that beautiful 100mm heel, and blood came gushing down my leg (it was not elegant at all). I managed to press a towel to my knee so as not to get blood on the shoes, which by then I had contemplated returning.

Sasha came running in (now very ecstatic about blood wounds and such) wanting to see just how bad Mommy's wound was.

-You may borrow a band aid of mine if you would like. (He was quite concerned about the blood) Pavel, on the other hand, took no notice, picked up my shoe and walked away squealing with delight.

So I am limping, a towel pressed to my leg, after Pavel, blood dripping on the floor, and Sasha is running after me continuing to ask if I need a band aid.

-My blue satin open toe party shoe made in Italy with its own dust bag! Nooooooo!

At one point I had to ask myself if I was absolutely out of my mind, and, unfortunately, had to admit, at that moment, I was.

I rescued the shoe, put them both back in their lovely dust bag and into the box so that I could return them. What I really did was spend over $100 on a pair of uncomfortable shoes that I will never wear.

But then the lovely Anna called to invite me to my first ever cocktail party since I have been living in the farmland desert! And Olivia and Maria were going to be there as well, and I should dress up, because when do we ever have an opportunity to dress up, so I took the shoes out of the box and thought about which dress they might go with, because what an event - a cocktail party, Italian shoes, my dearest friends all in one place, and, most importantly, free canapes!