sensitive feet beget sensitive shoes

i have sensitive feet....no matter how soft the leather is , i get blisters....i can wear those thin stockings but i hate it when they show even just a bit...it makes me feel like an old woman (i'm old but i hate feeling that way, so sue me!).....anyways, i also like wearing loafers because i like the convenience of wearing something i can just slip in and out of (fear of commitment? hahaha!)...how then?

i experimented with anti-skid/anti-scratch furniture pads that you tape under furniture legs on the hard plastic straps of two pairs of slip-ons....they didn't really work so i tossed whatever's left of them somewhere in my shoe closet....but after starting this blog and while i was packing for my baguio trip last weekend i remembered them because i also took fancy on my black loafers.....i wanted to wear them so i was choosing what to pack based on them, but i also remembered that they give me blisters and walking up and down session road on them might be a problem...but what about the furniture pads?!!??

i took two round ones, taped them where my pretty black loafers cause blisters and tried them on...they did add to the comfort but the proof of the padding is in the walking.....so before i commit to the shoes for the rest of my weekend, i decided to test-walk them in makati.

lo and behold, the pads worked!

i then tried to remember which of my other pairs of shoes needed some padding and decided to buy more of them furniture paddings....off to crossing i went and i was on my way to the hardware when i saw the 88-peso store....i went in, asked a store clerk if they had furniture pads and i was led to where for 88 pesos, i can get any three packets of different shapes and sizes of furniture pads!

that's another thing about me....when i need or want something, i declare that i need or want them and i get them....i do.

whynot blog?

first off, i have been scraping the bottom of my right-brain deciding on what to blog about.....oh, but before that, i asked myself if i was really ready to put myself out there for all to read, judge and think of, compare with and relate to....but really, why not?

but yes, what about?......a maven said, write about something you're passionate about....so then what?.......what. what. what. what?.....then i thought of my lolo peping, my maternal grandfather, devoted husband of my lola ida...ever since i can remember, lolo peping stayed home and tended to his fighting cocks in the big, enclosed space under their house....he went to the cockfights on sundays then comes home drunk, sits at the head of their wooden stairs and talks and talks and talks until he falls asleep....on weekdays, he does all of the housework though lola ida does the cooking) and on weekday afternoons i remember him sitting by the big window sewing......from darning socks to sewing back found buttons to mending our spartan sandals or sewing together the severed strap of our school bags.....he was our mr. quickie.....what he couldn't sew he held together by rugby or pakong bakya or melted rubber (this was pre-glue gun)...if lolo peping had his way he would give every little thing a chance to reincarnate...which, as a little girl, i hated....i used to cut my bag straps so my nanay will be forced to buy me a new school bag....but, no.....give lolo peping an hour or so and he'd have my bag straps in one piece - good as new but still old.

when i grew up (and old) i found myself doing the same thing.....i have a big sewing kit with every imaginable thread color.....all kinds of sewing needles.....two tin boxes of buttons....my old friends knew who to call if they want a favorite shirt or blouse mended, a button replaced or a neckline altered.... i always have a small bottle of rugby and of course, a glue gun.....pliers.....wires....ribbons.....strings...different kinds of scissors.....when i have to go to mr. quickie to have something professionally fixed, it would be because i failed at my first DIY attempt.

aside from my lolo peping, i also have my dad to credit....i was always dad's assistant (being the eldest)....we built a small aquarium from scratch.....he bought glass panels and i held them while he put them together...when we first had our house repaired, he had a carpenter cut out three graphic bird figures and he painted them himself....they still dominate a wall in our old house.....because i hung around him a lot, i saw (remembered and appreciated) his creative solutions to all kinds of problems.....he was my hero.....no problem was without a solution which sometimes worked or sometimes didn't ...and when they didn't we just laughed at our folly and sought another way......he was mcgyver.

so i asked myself.....why not a blog about giving multiple lives, multiple roles and multiple chances.....not as much about recycling as about reincarnating.....not giving up on anything or anyone...finding other ways and encouraging quizzical thinking.

let me try.....