brooklyn in springtime

Springtime is coming along nicely in Brooklyn. The trees are full and green and there's nothing better, after a long day of work, than to take a nice, slow walk home with the sun's warm rays touching my face. The only thing more I could want would be the ocean at my fingertips, and then I think to myself, the ocean is at my fingertips. For some reason the Hudson River just doesn't seem appealing to me, especially when it's a brownish-green color.

I actually long for my days in Ecuador. The fresh, blue ocean water on a warm summer day after field service. What am I doing in the states!?

Well, today was the first day I wore the pair of shoes that Shaphan made for me. Disgruntled by the high prices of shoes in New York City, Shaphan decided to make me a pair of black sandles. Measurements were taken, fittings were done and alas - I had an original pair of mohagony wood and black leather sandles. Though there were some apparent structural imperfections I put them on today and took them on a test run down to my favorite coffee shop - Retreat. In all honesty, with every step I took I could feel them biting the dust. Basically, they made it 2 blocks before they went down in a blaze of glory (a reference to one of the greatest rockers of all time - John Bon Jovi). Shaphan had warned me that I might want to bring along an extra pair "just in case." But, wanting to make him feel good, I was like, "no way, these awesome sandles will definitely make it." Let's just say...I was barefoot by the time I made it to Retreat.

Fearful that there would be a 'No shirt - No shoes - No service' policy I rushed in and stood in front of the counter where my bare feet were well hidden from the barista. I ordered my double shot iced latte and once I had that in hand Shaphan and I confessed that we had come in barefoot with blown out sandles. The barista was incredibley impressed that my husband MADE me a pair of shoes (Shaphan wanted me to make sure and add that part in) and offered duck tape as a possible solution to my blow out. We pounced on that idea. Almost as excited as my husband, he ran over with the duck tape and the two of them together taped my sandles back together.



I now am the proud owner of a mohagony wood, black leather and gray duck tape pair of sandles...and they were absolutely free.