Sole Mates

As most of you know, I am preparing for reassignment to Texas. Over the past several months I have been upgrading my home in hopes of making it more appealing to the potential renter. In a fit of my obsessive compulsive disorderness, I decided to organize my belongings to make it easier on the movers to pack my crap. And like the average woman, I have a fair number of fancy shoes in my closet. I’m no Imelda Marcos but I do have quite an assortment of lovely footwear. In fact I recently made a discovery about my sole obsession and it ties in perfectly with my love for the outdoors. I own over 10 pairs of activity-specific shoes. I found this fascinating as it never occurred to me that my collection, outside the bedroom closet, was so large.

Here’s what I found:

• Merrell hiking Shoes: Super comfy. I’ve put a lot of miles on these. I wore them nearly every day in Iraq and they accompanied me to the top of two 14ers last summer, to include Mt Elbert. I also own a pair of Solomon hiking shoes.
• Asics running shoes: As a runner, I go through these semiannually but I stick to the same brand and style. They just got me across the BoulderBOULDER 10k finish line! I’m thinking about trying the FiveFinger barefoot shoes though.
• Diadora Soccer shoes: I haven’t played soccer in years but I can’t bear to part with them. They got a lot of field time in 1998 when I made the All Air Force Women’s Soccer team, San Antonio, Texas, 1998.

• Brooks trail running shoes: I don’t do a whole lot of trail running but they come in handy on incline days when I run the 4 mile trip back down the Barr trail.

• The North Face show shoes: Perfect for snow tubing or shoveling the driveway.

• Flip Flops: Being from Florida, flops are a must. I own several pairs and have a variety of brands: Rainbow, Teva, Sanuk, Havainas to name a few.

• Golf Shoes: I went through a short phase in the late 90’s. I think these actually ended up in the yard sale sack.

• Solomon Snowboarding Boots: For my new obsession. I moved to Colorado in 2007, learned to board in 2008 and I’ve hit the slopes just about every free winter weekend I’ve had since. I think it may be time for an upgrade next season.

• La Sportiva Rock Climbing Shoes: My new favorite summer time activity. I haven’t spent as much time on the ropes as I would have liked but these shoes assisted me with my first successful lead climb last summer. Hope to get more use out of them before I leave.

• Diving Boots: I’ve had these since my days in Okinawa. I think it’s a mandatory item for every islander. They now come in handy for rafting and kayaking.

I do have my combat boots and various casual shoes but I didn’t want to push it. So there you have it, Jen’s activity-specific shoe inventory. Does anyone have me beat?