I haven’t been to the gym since April. I promised myself I would start back to the gym on January 15. I didn’t. I can always find excuses. One of them has been that my tennis shoes were falling apart. Even though I generally only swim at the gym, and that doesn’t require shoes, it made a good excuse. I kept telling myself that in addition to swimming, I was going to get on the treadmill. So I needed shoes.
I’ve been shopping for tennis shoes twice now. (I call them tennis shoes. You may call them sneakers. I never play tennis in them. I don’t even buy tennis shoes; I buy cross trainers. Usually. But in BeckSpeak, they are all tennis shoes.) I hate every pair I’ve seen. The problem is, I only buy Nike. I don’t want to buy Nikes that are going to have the same problem as the falling-apart Nikes, but they are the only Nikes I like the look of.
So today I went to Target and refurbished my gym supplies (I shower there, too, so I always have to have a full supply of products) and got a new backpack, because my old one just wasn’t working. (I mean, you know, back in April, when I actually went to the gym. Whatever.)
Then I went to Academy to try again with the shoes. I sort of wanted black tennis shoes (as a backup pair), which means Reebok (don’t ask me why, but if they’re black, they have to be Reebok, not Nike). So I tried on shoe after shoe of white leather Nikes and black Reeboks.
And finally, I bought Nike hiking shoes because I STILL hated every pair of tennis shoes.
Then I went to my gym, which is downtown. We have access to a parking garage, and the gym validates parking so it’s cheap. But then I saw that there was some open metered parking right in front of the gym. I parked there. When I went to insert coins in the meter, it was jammed and out of order. So then I wondered… if you park at a defective meter, will you get a ticket? Deciding not to chance it, I drove another half block and parked in a different metered spot. I only had enough quarters for an hour and a half. So I could either swim and shower, do the treadmill and shower, or do the treadmill and swim then go home to shower. I figured I’d decide once I got inside and checked on how busy the pool was.
Then I walked up to the gym door and saw the sign. The gym was closed today because of weather and icy roads.
I took myself to lunch.
Have you ever seen what I call my “formal tennies?” They’re my black, canvas Nike cross-trainers. I wonder if Nike stopped making black cross-trainers after the dead Heaven’s Gate cult members were photographed…all wearing black Nikes.
Oh! Heeding Tim’s wisdom, I was going to buy some black Chuck Taylors instead of Reeboks. Funny thing. I don’t WEAR a size 5 or 6. Apparently, no one else does, either, since those were the only two available sizes.
Um…try boys’ sizes. I think that’s what my Chucks are. And I think I’m actually a 6 in boys’ size.
ooohhhh chucks…go for those fo’ sho’. they won’t give you any support, but you’ll look kick ass. i’ve got 4 pair, but no solid black ones…i should get some…
rhonda’s right – boys/men sizes will be two smaller than what your women’s shoe size is.
Jandy–I guess I need to come to Dallas. We’ll buy black Chuck Taylors together then go eat salad and admire our feet.
Here are the Nike hiking shoes:
that’s possibly an ideal day.
oh yeah, i like those shoes!
HAHAH – good lunch then?
i agree with you – all of them are tennis shoes even if you aren’t a tennis player.
so let’s see those shoes! as a huge shoe fan, you should own as many pair as possible. so if you didn’t find a black pair that you cared for, you should go look tomorrow too.
At least it was a salad. But that has nothing to do with making good choices. I just happen to love salad. A lot.
I hate shopping. This’ll be my last excursion forever.
I’ll post a photo of the Nikes.
i could eat salad every day.
That’s a sign that exercise is overrated.
My sneakers (not tennis shoes!) are a pair of silver, green, and black Nike shox that I bought for Dylan a week before a growth spurt, so he never wore them. Now I stalk the Nike outlet waiting for the coveted pink sneakers to be in my size.
You’re probably too young to remember the 80s, which is when I had my hot pink Reeboks. Good times…
Did you wear them with leggings, slouchy socks, and a shirt with enormous shoulder pads? I remember enough of the 80’s to know that I probably fried more brain cells using 8 cans of AquaNet a day than by doing anything fun.
LOL on the Aqua Net. I think eighties hair is the reason polar bears are losing their habitat today.
All the pre-gym agony you went through had to have burned a lot of calories anyway.
Good point. Let’s eat chocolate cake.
They ticket here and in Nashville even if the meter is defective…even if it takes your money before you realize it’s defective. 🙁
Gary
that happened to us in downtown Nashville.
Of course, if I’d taken a chance, I’d have spent nothing, since I would have been turning right back around and driving away once I found out the gym was closed.
I’ve gotten parking tickets at the gym before though, and they aren’t cheap. Good to know that they’d probably ticket me for the bad meter.
Good for you on trying.
I bought several pairs of tennis shoes (I don’t like the word sneakers because I am not sneaking anywhere), and I found that New Balance works for me and Asics.
I do like that picture though! They look like good shoes!
I dig salads too, but with lots of egg, ham, turkey, cheese, and so forth in it. Oh and bacon. 😛 Not too healthy, but darned good!
Tim’s right, the effort cost you some calories…Now, I want chocolate cake too.
I think Tom wears New Balance. I don’t know why I can’t try them on. Every time I reach for a pair, my mind screams, “They aren’t Nikes!”
It’s not brand snobbery though. It’s that every pair of tennis shoes I’ve ever bought that weren’t Nikes ended up hurting my feet.
Yep…I know where you went to high school! We call them all “tennis shoes” or “tenny shoes” LOL.
ah the 80’s bad hair, bad wardrobe….and we thought we looked so FINE.
We didn’t?!?! We didn’t look fine???
(I know we didn’t. I have the photos to prove it. They scare me. Everyone’s hair was fried.)
I hate to say this, but it’s a generational thing. When we were young, athletic shoes came in exactly three kinds: sneakers, tennis shoes, and gym shoes. (Correction: I forgot Converse Hightops, which were for basketball) Tennis shoes were for playing tennis, and the souls were designed for every surface: grass, clay, hardcourt. Gym shoes had a multi-purpose tread, and sneakers had no tread at all–they made no noise so you could ‘sneak’ up on people.
I hate going shopping for athletic shoes for this very reason: I just want a pair of goddamned all purpose gym shoes. I don’t know if that’s a running shoe, a cross trainer, or what, and it annoys the hell out of me.
They are just fucking athletic shoes!!! A cross trainer will work just fine for jogging! A jogging shoe will work for cross training!!! AUGH!!!
The shoe companies did this, of course, to maximize profits and fool everyone into thinking a pair of shoes that cost $1.59 to make in Thai sweatshop is worth $75.
Hey, the first step is going… good for you! A swim sounds sooo nice… I wanna swim! Especially since that’s the only exercise my foot could probably handle for a while. Ahh well.
The shoes are hot! I like those! And yeah, my chucks/allstars are in a boy size. When I got Rhonda hers at Academy, the sales person told me the only chucks I could buy were the boy chucks. — One can never have enough sneaks! I may be getting myself a new pair for running after this last escapade.
Oh, poo! You poor thing.
I’d say you get an “E” for Effort. Good for you!
Huh? You shower at Target? 😉
I like your new shoes! They’re tennis shoes at my house, too. I like Nikes and New Balance. I have a pair of asics I really like right now. I’m very picky, and my feet are very long and narrow, so I sometimes have a hard time finding something that works. I can’t wear Reeboks, they don’t fit my feet right. I’ve found that for me personally, I have to have the right shoe for the right activity or my feet/legs pay later: walking shoes for walking, running shoes for running, etc, and they definitely need replaced after 6 months of use. The husband just kind of rolls his eyes when I bring home another pair of tennis shoes.
Feel free to come up to my house with the dogs, and we’ll get our exercise walking the ‘hood.
Feel free to come up to my house with the dogs, and we’ll get our exercise walking the ‘hood.
Okay, as long as we can shower at Target afterward. 😉
Oh, Becky, this post made me laugh! Thank you!!
Hilarious — and endearing!! If you come to NY, I’ll take you to lunch and we can not go to the gym together! (P.S. I used to sell shoes back when I was in high school, which was about 150 years ago, and found that Nike’s were always the best brand in terms of customer satisfaction — the fewest returns, the most repeat customers, the most comfort.)