These Boots Were Made for Walking...

I have major boot envy. As the weather has turned colder the cute boots with skinny jeans have emerged. All different shades of browns, black, some with buckles or other cute adornments. They are everywhere. Mocking me. I have been lusting after a pair of boots for four or five years now. Every season I hit the stores and try on multiple pairs hoping that, one day, I will find a pair that works. You see, I have been cursed with (what my sister likes to call) 'chicken leg calves.' Seriously. She calls them that. In stores. In front of male sales clerks. Who then crack up laughing. At her humor or my chicken legs, I am never quite sure, but it hurts. I do not have the calf muscle of a runner or an athlete. I have a wimpy little calf muscle that barely appears when flexed. I have a calf that measures a good TWO INCHES smaller than most of the smaller circumferenced boots on the market. (Circumferenced is not a real word. I just wanted to point out that I do actually know that.) And, as a result, my leg literally swims in every pair of boots I try on. It is not a cute look. I am not one to follow fashion fads. In fact, I tend to run screaming in the opposite direction every time I come across the latest 'must have' fashion item. Skinny jeans and boots are just this years thing. One year it was knee high boots with skirts. Some years it's heeled, some years flat. The point is I want the boots because I like them and have liked them for some time, not because they are popular. This year I recruited my sister on my mission. She has been religiously scoping out boots on her shopping trips. I have also turned to the internet, scoping out every possible shoe website and reading hundreds of descriptions trying to find a pair with a small enough circumference. As a result, my sister handed me a bag containing two shoe boxes the same week that I purchased two pairs online. So, last Friday when my family got together post Thanksgiving I had four (!) pairs to model and contemplate. Some I originally disliked, but grew on me. Some were a no from the start. But in the end, there are two candidates. Neither perfect, but both doable. My brother (who considers himself a fashionable dude and likes to pass judgment on those of us less fortunate) informed me he doesn't see me as a boot person. This stung. I have lusted for years. I have spent countless hours on my quest. I have made it my life's mission. I have recruited others. I'll have to decide if I want to settle. I just can't accept defeat.