My shoes are ruined

I'm just gonna say it: I love shoes.

I have quite a few pairs of them, my interests lie mostly in sneakers. I like bright colors and unusual designs. I have had many of my shoes for years.

I have several pairs that are very dear to me, if I have a big meeting or an important day I always pick out shoes that make me feel good about myself. I recently had a couple of out-of-town business meetings that I had to attend and a friend that I was meeting for lunch. I - of course - wanted to look and feel my best, I took my current favorite shoe with me to assure everything went my way. They are made by Circa, they are light blue with black skulls all over them.

I arrived at the hotel in Utah, I was wearing my nice blue Circas. It was pretty late, but after driving six hours and drinking 6 cups of coffee, I wasn't feeling like hitting the hay quite yet. I opened the window of my room and looked out, in the distance I saw a convenience store marquee. I thought I'd walk over and get some fresh air and some Cheetos.

The walk was longer than I had first anticipated, it was probably close to a mile, I hadn't brought my jacket and was very much regretting it. It was pretty chilly, probably high 20's. I opened my Cheetos and looked out the store window at my Hotel, I decided to try a shortcut back to the room. Instead of following the road that wandered in a big "U" shape around a field, I took straight off cross country. I walked a few hundred yards when I came to a little marshy looking section, I paused and considered turning back and going to the road, I was kind of cold so I decided to slog through it. It was cold enough that I thought it would be frozen.

Three steps into the marsh I found myself knee-deep in black swamp mud. Cold, tired, angry and wet I decided to keep going. When I got back to the room I looked down at my feet and they were solid black mud. They also smelled like stagnant, fish water. I knew what I had to do, they had to go. As I bagged them in plastic and threw them in the trash I felt a great sadness, the shoes that had been on my feet through many happy moments were being discarded in a far away trash can like common garbage. Shoes that had been on stage with me, at work, on vacation . . . now gone.

It was totally my fault, had I not been so ill-prepared for my journey they would have remained clean and in my collection. Those shoes paid the ultimate price for my lack of concern.

May they rest in peace.