Socks

It is the start of the Expensive Sock Era.

Until 2007, I only owned cotton, white socks - white socks with gold toes, white socks with gold stripes, white socks that got mismatched so I'd have to wear non-mates but it wasn't a big deal because they were both white and cotton. It was like my high school, except instead of white people, it was white socks. Just lots and lots of white socks, everywhere.

Then, I started student-teaching. Can you wear white socks with black pants? Only if you are Michael Jackson! So I invested in several pairs of cheap, fally-downy black socks. For over a year, I wore white socks for the silliness and black socks for the professionalness.

Finally, boyfriend stepped in. He said, "Kelly, you are going to Norway. You need wool socks, and a warm hat. Here, I will buy you this warm hat. Please don't lose it in Fremont the first day you wear it." (Sorry.)

I was like, "Aight. I have one pair of wool socks right for that time I went snowshoeing with Michelle, and they are satisfactorily warm. They are thick and brown."

"Thick and brown? Your wool socks don't need to be thick and brown." He took me to his store and gestured to a wall of striped, snowflaked, non-super-thick foot coverings. "You can wear... synthetic wool!"

So, I bought synthetic and syntheticish wools socks. They are adorable, and they keep my toes warm, and some of them have enough black that I can wear them to work. Plus, they don't retain water like cotton, so I can wear a pair more than once without washing them! Not that I would. I am squeaky clean.

No more high school with predominately white people, and no more sock bag (I don't have a sock drawer right now... that's another story) with predominately white socks. Thank you relocation and shopping for adding color onto my feet. And into my life.