Forgotten joys

My shoes actually fell apart today. Literally speaking.

We are going through a major heat wave in western Norway these days…its awful and wonderful all at once. Awful by the fact that we are not used to this kind of heat and wonderful because of that very same thing. So, Ive been wearing my favorite sandals the past couple of days, sandals which my feet are not used to and which therefore chafe my feet…between the toes…very sexy…Hence, today I had to dig deep into the back of my closet and clean the dust of my old trusty Adidas slippers. These slippers have been in my possession for at least 10 if not 15 years…and they have been wonderful. They have been good to me. I did a quick inspection of them and noticed a small gap in the rubber sole on the left one, but it didn’t look serious and I thought nothing more of it.

I have about a 20 minute walk to uni and I was enjoying my walk with my comfy non-chafing slippers when I suddenly, half way to uni, lost one of the slippers. At first I thought perhaps I had kicked it off while walking and felt a little dumb as I picked it up again. –But on closer inspection I noticed that the small gap in the sole had caused the entire cross band to loosen on one side of the shoe…and we are talking slippers here. No cross band, no shoe. With a slightly confused and somewhat amused face I walked over to the nearest bench to figure out what to do next.

I find a large rubber band in my bag (note to guys: Gentlemen! This is why we, the ladies, always have a lot of crap in our purses. You never know when it might come in handy) and tie it around the slipper…hoping it will hold all the way back home. So I start walking home again when after about 15 feet I notice something coming off the slipper. It is still stuck to my foot, but something fell off. So I turn just to see the back half of my slipper laying 2 feet behind me. I am now wearing half a slipper stuck to my left foot by the help of a rubber band. As I find this intensely amusing I decide to inspect the right slipper as well, knowing that if irony is playing its usual joke on me, this one will be falling apart as well. And sure enough; the front half of my right slipper is about to come off, held together only by half an inch of rubber. At least the cross band was still intact…

I decide that it will look way dumber limping all the way home on the front half of one slipper and the back half of the other, than it will look walking barefoot. So that’s what I do. I walk barefoot in the middle of the city on a sidewalk next to traffic. And I love it.

I simply love it. I have not walked barefoot since I was a little girl playing with my friends in the streets (streets entirely without traffic…can you believe it?) running around with a water balloon in one hand and an ice cream in the other. I had forgotten how comfortable it is walking on hot, dry asphalt in the middle of summer on your bare soles. Its surprising how soft your feet are if you give them a chance to support your body without the confinement of shoes. I would have walked all the way home had it not been for the fact that I was in the middle of a busy city where you may suddenly find yourself stepping in glass or on some unfortunate souls’ used syringe…(although, to Bergen’s defense, it is a very clean city and I saw no glass nor any syringes on my way) so I walked to the nearest shopping centre with a huge smile on my face.

With new slippers on my feet (slightly more feminine than the adidas ones…) I could finally get back to my original schedule, but with a surprisingly good feeling inside. It is amazing how life can throw you a bone suddenly and unexpectedly…and usually when you need it the most.