What gives?

Shoes Ruined By China
Originally uploaded by Elmoisamonster.

If these shoes could talk...so goes the saying and though this widely overused cliche gets a bad rap, it's pretty true.

From picking up children at the YWCA to returning from a year overseas teaching, they have seen and experienced quite a lot. It was so torcherous in China that I had to hunker down and have the heels replaced, but for $.06 a piece I could not pass that opportunity up (you can see now how weathered they are once again by the picture where I proped the aging, rubbery heel against its twin).
Even the old draw-string/puch spring action thingys need to be replaced by genuine laces (this cost a little more than the heel repair, $.36 total).

After being at the Great Wall, the Taj Mahal, the aftermath of the tsunami in Thailand, streets of Korea, Hong Kong and Macau, the port of Hamburg, London, England, Stone Henge, and last but not least the moldy months of March and April and May in China. I want to keep them...mold from China...MMmmmmm. Don't you think customs should have held my shoes since they carried some crazy mold spores somewhere inside even after two washings in Hong Kong?

Working at the food coop in Minneapolis has also lent its own flavor, quite literally, too. Soup, hot water from the dish washer, random meat scraps, and fish oil have all made my shoes what they are today, not just the year abroad and the time before that working at the YWCA Children's Center. Mmmm gross, but I cannot seem to part with them. Some things are good to hang onto; making that choice is one of the most difficult though.