Shoe Lust, a Rant, and a Pity Party

     As I think I've mentioned before, my shoe collection is almost nonexistent. I have two pairs of suede boots, one brown, one black, that are practically three years old and definitely have to be retired this year. I have two pairs of grey flats, one an awesome metallic pair from Born, which unfortunately have begun to wear away at the heel and will soon have to be tossed out. For summer, I had three pairs of flat sandals, but since two pairs were super cheap and were worn practically everyday last summer, only one remains for this year. And for work, I have three pairs of nice, if boring, pumps. One black (tooled leather, which is pretty cool), one grey (but unfortunately a rather murky dark grey, not the clear glossy color I was expecting), and one nude (the same exact style as the grey pair. Yawn).

Behold the carnage! I love how the filler/padding of the flat is red, so it looks like the shoe is literally bleeding.

     It is practically impossible to buy shoes my size (which, depending on the brand, ranges from 10.5 to 11.5 in American sizing) here in Japan, so I've long given up on it. With the Internet, however, it is actually relatively easy for me to find cute shoes in my size, but the problem is actually purchasing them. You see, most foreigners in Japan cannot get a credit card from a local bank unless they've been here for many years, are married to a Japanese spouse, or pull in a high salary. Three conditions which don't apply to me at all. I do have a credit card from back home in the States, but with no way to actually pay the balance off from Japan without paying a ton of money in service and international transfer fees, it's not really an option. That's not to say I never use it, but I rarely do, and unfortunately most of the balance has just been sitting there racking up interest and will continue to do so until I'm living in a country where it's easy to pay it off (which is definitely NOT Japan).
     This tends to cause me a lot of annoyance, frustration, and sadness when I find an awesome pair of shoes in my size (for instance, there are a ton of amazing suede fall boots on sale over on Zappos, which are under $150, which I would happily buy ASAP if I could pay in cash or had a way to pay off my credit card). And since I need to wear pumps at work, 5 days a week, I'm getting tired of wearing the same one pair (the nude, since I mostly wear the black in fall/winter, and I don't really like to wear the grey), which will surely break after being worn every work day from now until September.
     Today, PMSing and not looking forward to heading into work this evening, I decided to torture myself by looking at possible summer pumps to wear to work. An action which I totally regret now since I have fallen in LOVE with a pair of FRYE slingbacks. I actually cried a little bit (damn you, PMS) when I saw that they had the color I wanted in the size I needed!

FRYE Maya Cut Slingback pumps, $168.

     Peep toe? Check? Solid heel which is not higher than 2 1/2 inches? Check. Beige/sand colored? Check. And I love the cute cut-out design, which keeps the rather standard style of the shoe from looking too boring or matronly. Arrrrrrgh.
     Time to go drown my sorrows in a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream! So what if it's only 10 in the morning?