I'd say I've been converted to the Dark Side, but I was probably already there.

[constance]

Last week, my brother and SIL unexpectedly sent me a pair of Crocs flip-flops, which I feel most strongly that Crocs are the ugliest shoes in the universe, bar none (the flip-flops are marginally less awful than the clogs, but they are bad nonetheless). And I wracked my brains trying to think of any occasion on which I might have said, yes, please do gift me with hideous footware, and got nothing. How could they send these abominations to me? I thought. Did they really think I would like them?

I was going to return them, a thing which I almost never even consider, but then I felt badly, as I always do, about returning something that someone bought for me specially because they thought I might like it, and so I decided that I should at the very least try them on first. And okay, so you know how the people who defend Crocs say they are supremely comfortable? Well, those people are right: I don't think I've ever had a more comfortable pair of shoes on my feet ever. They are so comfortable that I haven't really gone barefoot at all this week, and I'm generally a barefoot-around-the-house person, and I'm generally a person who wears comfortable shoes. I'm not anywhere close to being able to put the hideous things on my feet and traipse out into the world in them, but by God, I am keeping them.

So there.

:::

A quick bit of advice: George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones is not a novel to be listened to in the workplace. I sat a little nervously through the violence in the first couple of parts, but when I got to the casual incestuous intimidation, I couldn't get to the volume button fast enough. If you have never sat listening to talk of the nipple-twisting of adolescent girls in your open-doored office, let me tell you: it is a little dismaying.

Looking forward to listening to it at home, though.

Comments

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Sooner or later, I suppose I'll have to get a pair of Crocs. *sigh*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I defy you to try them on and continue to resist.

[friendly.livejournal.com]

OH SHUSH, I am a Crocs apologist.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry! Now that I've thoroughly insulted your taste, I will remind you that at least now I see why.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Do I just have a really high threshold for ugly shoes, or are those flip-flops actually really cute? They seem so delightfully curved and aerodynamic, sort of like a Mazda Miata reinterpreted into footwear. I'd wear them in public. (Don't listen to me, though; I'm wearing a pair of clogs with half the back end chewed off).

My opinion of the original style o' Crocs depends on who's wearing them. It goes without saying that toddlers wearing Crocs are one of the cutest sights around, but there are even some adults who can pull off that look. Not me, though; I look like I've got boxes strapped to my feet.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Well, toddlers can carry off lots of things adults can't get away with, although IMO: while toddlers can manage to cuten anything up, Crocs remain unattractive on their own, no matter what size they are.

The flip-flops are a little nicer than the clogs, but they're still not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. I prefer my flip-flops to be more... decorative, I guess.

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I love the Roy Dotrice audios of the Song of Ice and Fire series - but yeah, I can see how they might not be the best thing to listen to out loud in the office. Yikes!

*checks GRRM's site just on the off-chance that book 5 has been completed since the last time I looked* *damn*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, yeah, Roy Dotrice's gruffness is highly listenable -- even or maybe especially when he's being gruff about semi-noncon between siblings -- but not only can he not make Martin worksafe, it somehow sounds even more wrong in that voice. I am all for that dynamic in the privacy of my own home, God knows. But I'd rather not share my preferences with my coworkers!

[octoberstory.livejournal.com]

As if we didn't already have a zillion multifandom things to discuss! :D Jon Snow is so tremendous.

I'm with the others, those shoes are not so hideous. I've seen eight way-more-hideous pairs already today. I want a pair of their ballet flats. Have you seen those?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I already love him, and I am only a little way in!

I think I have seen most. I was intrigued by the mary janes, as I always am, but I cannot get over the idea that they are kind of awful, even though people I love think otherwise!

I suspect that they'll grow on me, though. That's the way these things happen for me.

[toujoursimpur.livejournal.com]

This is SO TRUE. I don't know you and just got here by a rec to your Harry and Ginny's House of Dreams (which was so ingenious by the way) but I just had to say that I HATED Crocs but all the girls that I waitressed with last summer wore them because they were the only pairs of shoes that you could be on your feet for 8 hours in. (For that matter, Uggs are so unbelievably warm in the same way that Crocs are comfortable that I despair at the future of my feet and their attractiveness.)

Why didn't these companies devise a way to make their footwear as awesome as they are but ALSO ATTRACTIVE?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Crocs is getting a little closer, at least, with the flip-flops and mary janes, which aren't exactly lovely, but are much better than the originals. At this rate, we'll be beautiful and comfortable by the year 2020. :/

And hi! And welcome! And thanks!