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If the Shoe Doesn't Fit...

I�m really not sure what has gotten into me, but I�m being uber-productive in my personal life lately. This weekend, we listed Ryan�s house with a realtor, purchased a metric shit ton of paint and primer, primered most of the second floor of my house, painted what will soon be our master bedroom a lovely shade of blue gray called �Storm Cloud�, raked leaves from my backyard, raked leaves from Ryan�s yard, destroyed his lawnmower (oops), dropped off a housewarming gift to our friends who just bought a house, ate a lovely dinner, listened to our racist sheetrockers go on and on about how great it is out south part of the city is versus our crime ridden neighborhoods and even chatted with the family to wish them a happy Easter. Phew!

And yeah � you didn�t miss that. We hired racist sheetrockers. We won�t be hiring them again, despite the fact that they did decently good work. As I stood out on my driveway holding a bag full of goodies we�d picked up at the paint store, I had to resist the temptation to beat the bigot who stood in front of me with a paint stirrer as he inquired about the racial mix of the neighborhood and asking if the crime rate was bad �because of all of them.� Of course we countered with comments that it was great to live in a neighborhood with a mix of people and cultures and of course had never had any problems with our neighbors. He then went on to sing the praises of his part of town where they don�t have many of �those type of people.� This wasn�t Dave the Sheetrocker � it was his buddy Jake the Sheetrocker, but had Dave the Sheetrocker been around, he probably would�ve dropped the �N� word about two or three times. Dave the Sheetrocker informed us that he isn�t a racist, he�s just German and Germans hate everyone. You can�t make this shit up, people. I wish I were a stronger person so that I could have told them that those types of opinions were not tolerated in my house, but I wasn�t, therefore they were tolerated. I did leave the room/driveway both times the conversations got to the point where they were sharing such opinions, but I really wish I would�ve said something. And don�t worry � I don�t believe that all Germans hate everyone. Again, had I more nerve, I might have tried to explain to Dave the Sheetrocker the difference between having pride in one�s heritage versus using one�s heritage as an excuse to be an asshole, but I have a feeling it would�ve fallen on deaf and unusually small ears. Seriously. His ears were a bit small for a man of his stature.

Enough about those idiots. I went to grab some lunch today and while waiting in line for my soup and salad, I saw one of my fashion pet peeves. Ladies, take a look at your feet right now. If you are wearing sandals, and your toes curl over the front of the sandal, you may want to stop reading because I fully intend to disparage you like a sheetrocker would disparage any non-Germans. I absolutely am grossed out by women who choose to wear sandals that don�t properly fit their toes. I just imagine their toes dragging along the ground all day while they walk about with a false sense of security about their feet being protected from the ground. Not to mention that the whole look is just wrong. What is sexy and/or fashion forward about wearing sandals that don�t fit? And why is it that so many women are fully comfortable doing so? I�ve got a wide foot, so I recognize that not all sandals will fit my foot, but rather than having my deformed pinky toe drag across the pavement, I choose to purchase another style of sandal. As the woman behind me in line stood on the tile floor with most of her toes touching it, I couldn�t help but wonder her motivation in choosing her footwear. Did she think it looked okay? Does she have some sort of mental block about buying the larger size shoe that would have actually fit her foot? Maybe she was financially disadvantaged and had to wear the same footwear she wore in jr. high. I sincerely doubt the last one as she was sporting a pretty snazzy outfit. Anyhow, I don�t get it and I don�t like it one bit.

Alright, lunch break is over. Back to work�

2:05 p.m. - March 28, 2005

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