Dusty Shoes

In case you didn't know, shoes actually get dusty--especially boots. So that phrase about dusting your boots off can still ring true even if you aren't a cowboy out in the wild. In fact, my boots had gotten dusty from sitting unused in my closet.

See my boots are these great faux leather 3-inch heeled zipper-up-the-side boots that I used to wear everywhere. Jeans and a shirt? Great, put on the boots! Fun evening dress? Add the boots! Sight-seeing around Times Square on foot? Yep, boots will work for that, too! (And that's how you know you're young--my feet didn't even hurt after hours of walking!)

But there was something about carrying around precious cargo in my tummy that didn't feel right about standing, let alone walking, on three-inch toothpicks (not to mention that my pregnant fullness extended to my thighs so it was maybe just a tad tight when--read "if"--I could fully zip them.)

Last night, however, was a fun night and a special occasion. I got to introduce Dia to my BFF from junior high and high school, Nikki. I don't know exactly how Nikki and I got together when we were younger other than the home-school Park Days and TEC, but I do remember my nerves the first time I dialed her house, imagining that she had the biggest, most beautiful and sophisticated house in the world. (Isn't that funny how when we're nervous we tend to aspire our most enviable qualities to strangers?! "I bet their marriage is bliss on earth," or "I just know that their career, etc, etc, etc") Anyway, as it turns out, while her house and family have all always been glorious and simply beautiful, Nikki was just another girl surprisingly a lot like me and we hit it off.

While there have been few (if any, really) people I don't like, I have never had groups upon groups of friends. And growing up, if it was a weekend or summer in either AZ or CA, you would have been safe to bet I was with Nikki. Nikki has four sisters and I have two and both of our moms are great versions of humble hippies, but over the years we lost contact and through, you guessed it, Facebook we got back in touch.

Nearly 6 years of marriage, my college career and the birth of my beautiful Dia all adding to who I am today, I am not who I used to be (does anybody else miss the blonde Stephanie of yesteryear????), while Nikki, with a marketing degree under her belt and years with an adoption agency, has never looked more beautiful and is engaged to a great Italian man who clearly loves and enjoys her. It was so surreal when I saw her--she is the same Nikki, just....grown up! I sure felt like she was the adult, but I know she felt the same about me--I mean, I have a baby!

It was a lot of fun and I was happy to find out about all the things we still have in common--and some new things, too! So while I am extremely happy to be off of FB and texting, I will forever be grateful to the new fangled contraptions of the millenium for re-connecting me with Nikki.

And even though I was slightly nervous while holding Dia, I dusted off my ol' boots and added some heighth to my bella-band covered jeans for our dinner last night. It seemed like it was time to re-introduce an old favorite.