The trouble with shoes

I have an interview tomorrow so I bought these wedge heel shoes that are grey and purple with polka dot bows, because I realized I already destroyed the other pair of girl shoes that I bought. I am not a girly shoe person. I like boots with an atheletic heel, so if need be I can run from an attacker or perhaps on to a soon to depart subway train or kick open the back doors of buses. New York City is a tough place, you cannot make it on wobbly Manolos. Heels hurt my feet and prevent me from speed walking, why wear them? I bought my first pair of high heels last month and took them off my feet within an hour because they hurt so much. How do you ladies do it? I'm not very good at being a girl. Plus my feet are 10/11, not girly girl Cinderella sized, rather monster sized, but they let me run fast and kick hard so I don't complain.

New Kids on the Block and Embarassing Celebrity Crushes

So my friend Paul asked me to go see the New Kids On the Block reunion show at Madison Square Garden. I actually was saddened to admit that I never liked them the first time around, I mean even at the age of seven I knew what sucky manufactured music was and knew somehow that liking it was bad.

Secretly though, I envy my friends who liked them, who still have NKOTB merchandise shoved in the back of some closet somewhere, who went to concerts with all their best girl friends and had crushes on the "band"'s members. I don't have any embarassing celebrity crushes, or any embarassing CDs in my collection. I feel gypped in a way, like there isn't any nostalgia for me. Once an Irish friend of mine was having drinks with me in a seedy bar and she said "Okay, most embarassing celebrity crushes." So I told her everyone going back to age seven. And she said "None of those are at all embarassing, there must be something worse." But there's not. I used to like Garbage and Shirley Manson, is that embarrassing?

I will confess: I got teary eyed at the Sex and The City Movie.

So I saw the Sex and the City movie on Saturday, something I have already been unduly criticized for, especially from my friends of the male gender. I bought four tickets for my friends and I a full week in advance and then my (dear) pal Sarah and I stood in line for an hour to make sure we got good seats front and center, and then fought off anyone who attempted to take the seats we saved for my other pals.

So yes, the movie's plot is meandering and messy, and full of little small half hour television show sized problems that vanish in twenty minutes. And Jennifer Hudson is a bit annoying, but her role wasn't that great to begin with.

But I will admit I got teary eyed at the end of the flick. As did Sarah. As did many girls in the audience, including some who were full on crying. Despite its materialism, and it's cheesiness, it struck a chord in me. I am a girl who shipped off to New York City in my twenties, who has never had a boyfriend, and who has a large group of girlfriends who all kvetch about men. I can identify, I lack Carrie's shoes and income, but it still relates to my life in the end. There was just so much love between best friends in that movie's audience, it was a powerful feeling, all these girls joined together and bonding.



And I still contend that the show (and film) are feminist, not a terribly intellectual feminism but feminist nonetheless. I was particularly pleased with Samantha's statement that she's tired of her life being centered around a man. Miranda, Samantha, and Carrie all encounter pitfalls with the men in their lives but everything is okay in the end because they have each other.
Remember the episode where Charlotte says "How about the men will be just for fun, and we'll be each other's soul mates?"
How can you not love a show with that kind of message?