the votes for Pick a Shoe 2002 have been collected, carefully considered and weighed, and i have reached my decision. despite those worried for my safety and for the general well-being of my feet, i have decided to heed the advice of both my mother, who is seldom wrong about these things, and my new friend hugh from the comments, whose knowledge of the word "mule" perhaps even over qualifies him as a voter.

so strapless it is.

i do truly like them best, even enough to risk potential shoe disaster. after all, in the words of hugh, "glamazons laugh - HA HA - at safety over bitchin' looks." and there is nothing i should like more than to be one of these mysterious glamazon girls.

work today was interesting, as usual, but with one extra fun twist. as i rushed into the store eager to escape the blistering cold wind, i realized that the building was missing one crucial thing. warmth. like, any additional warmth from the world outside. it seems that our heater had decided to compound my fun with the freezing weather by picking this very morning to completely stop working.

doing my best to look on the brighter side of things and never missing an opportunity to shop, i simply added to my winter protection by purchasing a hat, gloves, and a scarf from our store.

challenge averted, i called my boss to inform him of our new development. i also sought a bit of advice on turning off the ceiling fan which was giving me an all too realistic simulation of the weather outside. after several minutes of convincing him that the fan was, in fact, *not* helping to warm the store by circulating the (non-existent) rising hot air to his little freezing shop girl down below, he informed me that my shivering would only end if i could somehow reach the half inch chain dangling fifteen feet above me.

or was it twenty feet? many, many feet. way tall. very scary.

i would love to be able to share a picture of me attempting this daring feat, and i actually did try to take one. however, i almost plummeted to the ground in this effort, so just imagine me teetering perilously on the top of every somewhat stackable thing found in the store for five to ten minutes.

as you may perhaps have guessed by my pictures to the right, business was a bit slow today in the shoe store. the entire population of norman, oklahoma had retreated into hibernation at the first sign of bad weather, leaving me with a bit of time on my hands. our one and only customer came in looking for a brown scarf just like the one i was wearing. of course, the one i was wearing was the last one we had. did i give her my new purchase? no way. tough luck, lady. you try working for six hours in a room with no heat and a blustery ceiling fan.

i was also visited by my dear friend katie and my sweet boy casey, who both braved the cold to visit me after their classes, probably to make sure i wasn't frozen to my cell phone. while he stopped by, casey and i launched into our favorite discussion of late - naming the new blogging program he is writing, which will appear first on madpony once it is finished. we're stuck with things like "pony express," "monolog," and.. ok, that's all i can think of. with the success of my solicitations for shoe advice, casey has asked me to pass this question on to you. if he decides to use a title that you suggested, your name will appear at the top of the madpony hall of fame.

so suggest away! and while you're at it, feel free to make fun of those pictures to the right. ;D