Lovin' my Ninja Turtle Shoes

I got an early Christmas present last night!  After another hectic and exhausting day we decided to go out (me, my husband Yuri, and my mom) for dinner and eat someone else's food for a change.  My mom and I got to talking, well it was more like whining, about how badly beaten up our bodies felt like.  Everything about catering, especially kitchen work, is physically taxing.  We've been on our feet for almost two weeks straight.  We're talking 12-14 hour work days here.  The pain in my legs and feet have just piled on from day to day.  Now it's become a real bother and my legs and feet hurt with each step.   I'm all over the place, doing kitchen work, styling, random errands, and marketing on occasion.  I'm pretty sure it's been twice as worse for my mom since she's works in the kitchen far longer than I do. 

The gist of the story is that she wanted to try on these five-fingered shoes she's been hearing about but had no idea where to actually get them.  Yuri and I have been looking for them too for a while now.  We knew they were somewhere in the Powerplant Mall so that settled our plans for the evening.  We had to pass by our catering venue first, and then we went to Rockwell to have dinner and to look for these intriguing shoes.

These Vibram shoes are something else.  They're oddly fascinating.  They look real funny at first. A-foot-shaped shoe takes some getting used to.  But once you get over the idea of how a shoe is supposed to look like they don't seem to be as absurd anymore.  I tentatively tried on a pair and once I strapped my feet in and started walking around, I swear I heard my feet sigh with relief and contentment.  It's incredibly comfortable!  I feel like my feet can finally breathe.  It fully supports my feet and it's light as air so you literally feel like you're walking around barefoot.  I can even wiggle my toes!  Can't get over it still.  My mom had the same experience when she tried on hers which was awesome.  It's so hard for her to find comfortable shoes since she had undergone surgery on her left foot plus she's flat-footed too.

It's complete freedom for my feet.  Also, the Vibram staff was extremely friendly and helpful.  They made the decision that much easier for us.  My mom decided to buy the lilac KSO (Keeps Stuff Out), which offered the most support, while I opted for the black Speed Vibram just because it's the easiest to match with my clothes.  The girl who had the awful task of helping me choose which kind of and color I wanted immediately bagged my doll shoes the moment my mom paid for our shoes. She was like, you're good to go.  So I wore them right out of the store to test it out and break it in.  I felt the pain slowly easing from my lower legs and feet.  Now I finally have comfortable and really funky shoes for work and for sports.  Beats wearing clogs in the kitchen.  I don't really like those things.  Walking in my Vibram Five Fingers is a liberating experience.

Thanks Mom!!! :D  The gift was totally unexpected and really special.  She understands my pain since we sort of have the same problems with our feet.  These shoes are quite expensive but I'll be using it A LOT so it's gonna be worth it.  Plus I always wanted to be a Ninja Turtle when I was a kid.  True story.

Anyway, the real test starts today.  My baking marathon starts in ten minutes. :(  I've got 28 boxes of cake truffles, 4 boxes of russian cookies, and 5 different cakes to bake.  Whew.