Summer Friday

Yesterday was my first official Summer Friday -- hands in the air for the Friday dance!

Image source

Do you know about the wonder that is Summer Friday? It goes like this: in an effort to help employees get a head start on weekend plans (i.e. drive out to the Hamptons), companies allow employees to leave the office early. Every company has a slightly different arrangement, but ours is pretty simple. We can leave at 3pm, provided our work is done. There has to be someone in each department who stays the full day to provide coverage, but for me that means I only have to stay every 3rd or 4th Friday. Not bad!

I had hoped to use this time to meet up with a friend for a drink (feel like I've been so out of the loop with my girlfriends lately), but everyone was either working or, in fact, headed out of town this afternoon. I decided to spend the afternoon focused on two things I love: shopping and eating!

New kicks

I think that the experts advise replacing your sneakers after about 500 miles. Once upon a time, that meant I was going through 3-4 pair per year. Until this weekend, the pair I'd been wearing had been around for more than a year. I don't know how many miles they had on them, but I think they were ready to be retired.

Choosing new footwear is never easy. For many years, I made my decision based on two factors -- do they come in a cute color, and do they come in my size? (It isn't polite to ask a lady her shoe size, but let's just say that if I ever find myself without a home, I could probably live quite comfortably in one of my shoe boxes). While I'm sure my feet looked great, this method is not really the best for providing the best foot support.

A few years ago I went to JackRabbit Sports (a great running store in NYC) for a proper shoe fitting. The staff at Jack Rabbit is fantastic. They know their stuff and they really want to put you in the right shoe. They videotape you (well, your feet!) on a treadmill to analyze your gait and find the shoes you need to stay comfy and injury-free.

Hey, that's a snazzy color combo...

Weekend report card

Ah, Sunday night. It is always tough to see a good weekend come to an end, but as hoped I am feeling pretty good.

I had a hefty list of expectations for myself this weekend...so how did I do?

3 Pair of Shoes: Palm Springs

A little insight into the mind of me: yesterday morning I was flipping through the pages of a cheesy tabloid (I may or may not have found said magazine in the trash; if it was in the trash, it was definitely right on top and not touching any garbage-like material). I was skimming an article about Sara Rue posing in a bikini (good for her, she looks amazing) and noticed that she was wearing one of the cutest pair of shoes I had ever seen. And I HAD TO HAVE THEM.

The magazine was no help in providing a source or a designer, but thanks to the wonderful thing called the interwebz, I was able to locate them. A quick type of a few keywords into shopstyle.com and I learned they were Kate Spade Brook Espadrilles ($225). I'm not surprised (though my wallet was hoping they were from Old Navy).

just. so. pretty.

I started browsing through Kate's other offerings and within 3.2 seconds, I found a total of three pair that I was completely in love with.