these boots

<----these are my boots.

Weird to me how you can think something fairly simple like, for instance, "black dress boots" and then get to a store with tons of choices all of which fit the description and somehow none of them are really what you want.

Fortunately, then I found these, which are exactly what I had in mind.

Tall, kind of sexy, heels but not too spikey, not so wide at the top that they gap open (a more common problem for me than you'd think, especially given I'm 10-20 pounds overweight, not underweight...), no studs, buckles, or other gee-gaws.  Ah! These are just what I wanted.

We watch our money in our house so I can't just run out and get whatever fashionable thing strikes my fancy.

And, to be honest, over the past 11 years that I've been a mom, my sense of self as a fashionable, put-together person has faded out a whole heck of a lot.

And, still being honest, lately I've been really yearning to get that part of myself back.

This year, for my birthday, that same 11 year old and my dear husband got me these boots.  I picked them out.

Ah! That felt really good!