Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Charleston Shoe Co.

Charleston Shoe Co. is a woman-owned business that has donated thousands of shoes to women in developing countries and to U.S. healthcare workers. The owner, Neely Woodson Powell, was inspired by a shoemaker she met in Mexico in 1996 and studied shoe design at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Neely sent me some of Charleston Shoe Co.'s bestselling shoes. The company aims to spread what Neely calls "Shoe Joy" with shoes for women that are both cute and comfortable.

The first four photos are of the Cannon in Linen. The last four photos are of the Sumatra in Black. 









Obviously, their shoes are really cute! I'm not sure why, but I tend to pick out shoes that either have high heels or are flats. So these designs with a small heel definitely fill a gap in my wardrobe. I love how versatile they are. They go well with a lot of different outfits. 

I'm impressed with how comfortable the shoes are. They feel really supportive. I started dancing at a young age, and I was a professional dancer in my early and mid-twenties, so I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have pain in my feet off and on. Later on, I had a severe case of axonal Guillain-BarrĂ© syndrome. I recovered, but I was left with residual nerve pain, which flares up the most in my feet and hands. So I definitely appreciate well-made shoes! I will be wearing both pairs of shoes a lot until it gets cold again in the Midwest.

Thursday, May 16, 2024

New Piece Out (5/16/2024)

I have a new piece published by Little Old Lady Comedy which you can read here.

I thought this video about the "blockout" was interesting. 

I'll post more soon.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Books I Want to Read (January 2024)

These are some of the books I want to read...

Zero-Sum: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates 

Future Feeling by Joss Lake 

 

Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy—And What We Can Do About It by Tobias Rose-Stockwell 

 

Excavations by Hannah Michell  

 

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen  

 

Search History by Eugene Lim 

 

This Exquisite Loneliness: What Loners, Outcasts, and the Misunderstood Can Teach Us about Creativity by Richard Deming  

 

The Heartbreak Years: A Memoir by Minda Honey 

 

The Upstate by Lindsay Turner 

 

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard 

 

Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto  

 

Rogue by Mona Awad

 

Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs  

 

The Guild of Saint Cooper by Shya Scanlon 

 

I Didn’t See It Coming by William E. Jones 

 

Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin 

 

Vengeance Is Mine by Marie NDiaye

 

The Young Man by Annie Ernaux

 

No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own: Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood by Erin Carlson  

 

Nox by Anne Carson 

 

A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife by Kendall Kulper 

 

A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir by Emily Wells 

 

Shy by Max Porter 

 

Abortion: A Personal Story, A Political Choice by Pauline Harmange  

 

What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety by Cole Kazdin 

 

The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter 

 

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond 

 

Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life (10th Anniversary Edition) by Dani Shapiro 

 

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns 

 

Up with the Sun by Thomas Mallon 

 

Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages by Carmela Ciuraru 

 

Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronimus

 

Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother by Peggy O’Donnell Heffington 

 

Exalted by Anna Dorn 

 

Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques by Grace E. Lavery 

 

Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life by Mark Matousek 

 

A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters by Steven C. Hayes 

 

literally show me a healthy person by Darcie Wilder 

 

The Novelist by Jordan Castro  


I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. I posted some pictures of me with my nephews from Thanksgiving Day (11/23/2023) here.


Looking forward to the long weekend!


P.S. I definitely recommend this essay which you can read here. It was published in 2019, but for some reason, I didn't come across it until sometime in 2023. After reading it, I made a note that it is a must-read.