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I finally bought new shoes. Converse. This used to the only shoe I ever wore, but after moving to Chicago, I realized I needed something with better support. But I gave in, and bought these babies, because I just needed new shoes, and they’re pretty affordable. (And they’re cool, I mean, come on.) When I lived in Bellingham, WA (and Las Cruces, NM), I walked a lot. I walked to school, walked to the bus station, home from bars, out to shows. When I first started dating my wife, we walked everywhere…all over Bellingham. So, when I got to Chicago, I was like, “I got this.” But, I walk more here than I ever have. We don’t have a car, so even grocery shopping involves a lot of walking and carrying.

Early last year, we walked all the way from our Lincoln Square apartment to the newish Target in Uptown. That’s almost two miles. (Oh, we have one of those carts, a stroller, and baby carrier, so it makes these trips less daunting). We were piled up with stuff. It wasn’t that bad, so we did it again a month later and happened to witness a drive-by. After that we started taking the bus up to the one north of us. Anyway, the point is, that we didn’t realize how much we took a car for granted, how much we took shoes for granted. After a month, the converse that I had for years fell apart, and I switched to Saucony.

My feet felt better, because they have way more support, but they got beat up just as fast as any other shoe. I went through two pairs since last year.

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I mean, look at those beasts! I realized as I was thinking about buying new shoes, that I’m just really hard on shoes—I’ll have one pair that I wear and wear till they fall apart. So, if you’re thinking about moving here to go to school, really think about the shoes you wear. You want a pair that can take a beating and is pretty comfortable. In my case, however, my toes poke holes in the top of all my shoes, except for Cons. It’s impossible to poke a hole in Cons. So I bought them. Yeah, I’m not as comfortable, but you know, I probably get some cool points…right?