9 Til 30 - Ridiculously Impractical Shoes

You know there are those days when you go into a store with the focus to look for something specific, but then you walk out with something completely different?

Today was one of those days.  I'm not going through buyer's remorse at all.  These shoes are so incredibly impractical.  But they're also ridiculously fun.

<3

I did a lot of walking around the store in these shoes.  For practice, of course.

Then I ran into a more practical version of the shoe.  But after a lot of consideration, advice from my best friend and her roommate, and praise from some of the shop girls, I knew the right choice.

ridiculously cute...and fun to try!

Honestly, I'm so against impractical shoes. The platform and sharply high heeled shoes that are super in style right now are so not my style.  Only in the past year did I even decide that it was time for me to learn how to walk in heels. 

When I was in my early mid-20's, I basically gave up heels altogether.  I thought it was like lying about my height, and I am so not into that.  But, the older I got, the more interested in heels I became.  Last year, I decided it was time.  I needed to learn how to walk in heels before I turned 30.

I've learned several strategies to help get used to heels.

Well, let me backtrack.  I flippin' hate the phrase "breaking in new shoes."  Because, lemme tell you, it's not the shoes that are breaking most of the time - it's your feet!  Your feet are the things in pain.  Shoes could basically care less.

Depending on the shoes' materials, one would need to practice walking around the house a bit.  For leather, I would recommend damping the inside toe area with a wet paper towel, because this helps to mold it a bit to your feet.  But the short bursts around the house just help your feet get used to it.  You get to prevent those incredibly painful blisters and test drive the shoes.

Once they feel more comfortable, take it on a short trip.  If you know you're going somewhere where you're going to be sitting longer than you'll be walking or standing around, this is a good time to take it around the block for the first time.

When you're ready, for longer trips, ease into it.  If possible, pack a set of flats or flip flops.  Stash them in your bag or even in the car.  Your feet will thank you for them at the end of the night when you're hobbling into your apartment.

I am definitely a fan of packing extra shoes.  It just makes sense to do so, especially on your way home from a night out when you're no longer trying to impress the public.

I'm sure I have more to learn.  So, excuse me while I prance around my apartment in my new birthday shoes.

10 Til 30 - Institute for Contemporary Art

The Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston has been hosting a series about colors called "Roy G. Biv: A Series of Colorful Evenings."  They spend a whole evening on one color in the rainbow, featuring mini-lectures, installations, and performances.

I obviously had to go on the night when they focused on the color green!

I wish I could have taken more pictures.  But being that it was a museum, I couldn't exactly snap a bunch of photos.

I had never actually been to the ICA before this day.  The area used to be all industrial, but it's been somewhat revived by restaurants, a music venue, and the museum.  When I first arrived, as I waited for a friend to join me, I stood outside of the museum, which is right on the waterfront.  I took a deep breath, and I realized how long it had been since I was by the ocean.

I was instantly calmed after a somewhat stressful couple of weeks, and I could just feel my body relax.  I knew I had been away from my element for too long.

It was actually exactly what needed.  Being by the ocean, and then being surrounded by green art and others dressed in green.  It was awesome.  I wish I could explain more about how soothing it felt.

It was definitely a reminder that I shouldn't be away for too long from things that make me feel rooted.  I definitely need to be by the ocean more often this year. I will probably try to make more visits to the ICA as well.

11 Til 30 - Power Outage

I had never been to my basement before late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning.  Now I've been in my basement more times than I'd like to be in basements.

Here are random things I learned about my apartment:

• The basement has several ways of getting in and getting out.  The guys who live downstairs have a separate door from us to get to the basement, and there's another door that leads to the side of the house.
• Basements are creepy because they're usually unorganized storage for a bunch of random crap. It's like where memories go to slowly rot away.  My basement is no different.
• There are 3 different boxes for the circuit breakers.  1 is for the apartment downstairs. 2 are for my apartment.  The 2 are in completely different spots in the basement, and not necessarily easy to find.  I had no idea that there is a main circuit breaker, and I wouldn't have even guessed that it was located in a different section of the basement from the other circuit breaker with the multiple switches.  Why is it like that??

We had a power outage from Wednesday night into Thursday morning at around 11am.  Apparently, the whole block had an outage, but my apartment was the last one to get power back.

When I got the utility company to finally arrive in the morning, the person got the electricity on for a little bit of time.  But when I asked him to show me where the main circuit breaker was, he also showed me how to turn it on and off...and I'm pretty sure he broke it.  The power wouldn't come back on, and he explained that he couldn't do anything to the actual wiring or the switch.  This resulted in me calling our landladies, who called an electrician.

There's definitely a moment of panic when the electricity goes off, and a slow realization of how much we rely on electricity.  The first things I thought of were charging my phone, the internet, and just general lighting in the house.

Luckily, fixing the circuit breaker took a lot less time than I anticipated.  I feel like I have a new appreciation for all our electronic appliances, including the switch that sparks the fire on our stove, the microwave, and the light in the bathroom.

12 Til 30 - "Oldies"

For those of us who grew up in the '80's and '90's, when we turned to the Oldies station on the radio, we would hear songs from the 50's and 60's.  Soon, the music from the 70's were played on the station. Today, I'm hearing songs from the early '90's! 

I wonder how the kids I work with at the after school hear some of the songs I grew up to.

The after school staff get to run clubs during the week, which are basically extra curricular activities.  I decided to run a Rock Band club.

Let me go back into my history Rock Band.  I was totally one of those nay-sayers.  I was irritated with the game because I didn't think it actually taught them any musical skills.

Then I played it.  I was instantly hooked.  I took back all the negative things I had ever said about the game.

It's been pretty awesome running this club.  It's one of the best experiences to be in a room full of kids who didn't grow up with a lot of the songs I'm trying to expose them to.

There were definitely times when they would be a bit hesitant to try some of the "older" songs.  But when I would insist to play along, I would choose songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody."  Now, they know and love the song.

I've been trying to expose them to more and more of the older tunes on the Rock Band games, mainly because I know that they wouldn't get a chance to hear that kind of music on the radio.  It's perhaps one of the most awesome experiences to have a kid singing "Crocodile Rock" or "Eye of the Tiger" or "I Love Rock and Roll" as we're dismissing them.

13 Til 30 - Intense Personal Stories

There are days that are tough.  Some days are tough because I'm so busy, running from one thing to the next, hopefully (but not usually) on time.  Some days are tough because I can't seem to cut a break, everything is falling out of my hands or no one is being particularly kind.

Then there are days that are emotionally and mentally exhausting, which then leads the body to feel physically drained.  Tuesday was one of those days.

I have been working with Partners in Sex Education to teach some sessions at a fancy suburban high school.  One this particular day, I was assigned to introduce guest speakers to some classrooms.  There were about 7 different classes in all, and 3 speakers assigned to a couple of them.

These guest speakers were all HIV+, and spoke to each of the classes about their experiences.  These speakers are powerhouses, in my opinion.  To be able to share to openly and honestly about their lives, and the hardships that they've had to face in order to get to where they are now.

But I realized after I left the final session that I was exhausted.  I though back, maybe I didn't get enough sleep?  After thinking about it a bit, and heading off to the after school, I realized that I was exhausted because of hearing all the personal stories.  Most of the stories, I had heard several times that day.

I just felt that all my energy was drained from me.  I felt sad, my head felt a weird pressure.  I was definitely nervous that my cold would get aggravated.  But once I identified what was wrong, it felt so much better.

I couldn't even imagine if I had chosen to be a clinical social worker instead of a macro social worker.  I would be emotionally drained every day, I think.

I give props to all my friends and colleagues who have chosen that path.  It is not an easy job, but I know a lot of great people who do it.