Retro Tennis Shoes

I had this dream last night. I can't really recall the first part of it, so I'll start where I remember.

I had been at a store, maybe a quick stop, when for whatever reason, I needed to go check on my sister and cousins at another store. I went in to get them and they were relaxing in this row of comfy chairs, eating ice cream and visiting. They saw me and waved, but continued to eat and visit. I hadn't been in that store before, so I was wandering around, looking at everything.

There was a table with these clearance shoes on it and I noticed colorful, funky Keds, like from the 80's, for $6.99 (you know, florescent colors, paint splattered, two colors of shoe laces, some had cut outs like slingback tennis shoes, and some had a little wedge heel). I had at least $6 cash and some change left over from my birthday money, so I knew I could get a pair. No two were alike and since my foot size has changed dramatically since high school, I was uncertain what size I needed, so I was poking through them and was going to pull out all the ones in my size to try on.

While I was looking at them, I noticed another table back by the wall that also had $6.99 shoes on it, so I went over there to see if there were any others there. I turned around to go back to the other table and all the wonderful shoes that I had been looking through were gone! Someone had came in and bought all those funky tennis shoes before I could get a pair.

I was pawing through the shoes on the table by the wall and I found a box that I thought had a pair of the tennis shoes in it and I opened it up to see a cute, colorful shoe. I took it out and tried it on and thought it would work, but when I opened the box to get out the other shoe, someone had put a high heel in with it, so the other tennis shoe was missing! I was frantically pawing through the other shoes to find the missing one, when the owner of the store turned the lights out and was trying to lock up (everyone had left the store while I was focusing on the shoes).

She really wanted me to leave and I wanted her to help me find the other shoe. She wouldn't turn on the lights, so I was debating whether I should buy the one shoe, if one shoe was better than none, when I woke up. And my first thoughts on waking up were that I was feeling sad that I wasn't able to find and buy a pair of the cute shoes.

So I'm wondering if I need to find myself a cute, funky pair of 80's shoes (because I think those florescent colors are back!!!), so I can re-claim a part of myself I wish I'd never let go of. There was some pressure in the early 90's to let go of the 80's, which was all I had, so I updated. And I think in the process I lost a little bit of myself. My wardrobe went from colorful and fun (like me) to a palette of blues (which happen to be a good color for me). But where did my hot pinks and neon green's and turquoises go? I'm slowly recovering myself by trying to re-stock my wardrobe with pinks (all shades) and I've got my eye on a turquoise shirt with pink lettering that says "Okie Grown."

I'll get there eventually, but I sure didn't know I needed at least one funky pair of tennis shoes. I hope I can find them for $6.99!