We all knew it would lead to this eventually...

I bought shoes on ebay.

Little white and red striped adidas sneakers with blue soles. Quite retro and cool from the .5x.5 inch picture of them on the ebay webpage. And they were in size seven which (I think) is my shoesize.

One click of the "buy now" button and it was history.

This was in August. The falklander had just left and I was feeling a little vulnerable and fragile. I waited for noon every day just so I could walk to the post box and check for my shoes.

They didn't arrive.

I started emailing the seller obsessively, and went so far as to get her contact info from the source and call her in Minneapolis. Nothing. No response. In desperation I reported "an item not received" to ebay and waited for something to happen.

A few days later I got an email from the seller. She had been quite ill and in hospital for much of late August and September and apologized for the delay in sending the shoes, but that they were now on their way.

My first thought was not, "Oh no... I hope she is going to be ok.."

My first thought was "Wow, if she had died I would never have gotten the shoes...that would be horrible."

[we will discuss how I am a horrible, shallow and generally vile human being at a later date.]

The shoes were in the mailbox when I got home from the Family-without-family Thanksgiving extravaganza this past weekend.

Apparently my feet are not size seven-at least according to Adidas. They are more like a six. My orthodics were not created for nothing though, and neither were really heavy wool socks...It's almost winter, about time I started wearing extremely warm socks anyways. If all else fails, I can hand the shoes over to the frere. It wouldn't break my heart.

Whilst in the midst of a small hissy fit over the lack of my ebay shoes, I may have acquired these. Thus far, as there is no concrete shoe-on-foot confirmation that this purchase actually occurred, it is but a vicious rumor.

The first step to conquering an addiction is admitting you have a problem.