First, a few words about current events.
We live in a stupid, messed up, terrifying world. We also live in a beautiful world, full of joy and goodness and wonder. I truly believe that the actions of the few do not reflect the character of a society, and should not be used to justify even more violence and hatred.
I am shocked and horrified by the attacks in Paris, and my heart goes out to all the victims of this senseless act of violence. I honestly can't wrap my head around what kind of person it takes to do this - to go out into a city and murder and maim so many innocent people. ISIS, and anyone affiliated with them or their terrible ideology, deserve to be wiped out.
The immediate implications are scary. It's hard not to put myself in the shoes of the Parisians whose lives were so brutally cut short. What if this happens in my country, in my city? What if this happens to me? But even beyond that, I worry about all the other innocents who might suffer because of the actions of the terrorists. All the Syrian refugees who might be - no, correction, almost certainly will be - denied asylum in safe countries because one terrorist came through with 200,000 frightened civilians. The Muslim immigrants in western countries who will be targeted for violence just because of where they come from, even if they themselves condemn the actions of the terrorists.
The fact is, ISIS is thinking ahead. They don't just want to kill people and create chaos, they want to provoke a reaction against Muslims. The more that Muslim immigrants are pushed to the fringes of society in western countries, the easier it is to recruit and radicalize them. Politicians around the world are playing right into their hands by decrying all Muslims, tarring all of them with the same brush as the terrorists.
I sincerely hope that we learn from the mistakes that we've made over the past 20 years. We need to find a way to combat this threat without driving more people to the cause of ISIS. It's definitely not going to be easy, but maybe if cooler heads prevail now, we can start down the road to stability, if not peace.

And now, something completely different!

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This post is brought to you by my fancy ass new gold shoes.

Let me back up a little bit. I’m the kind of person who keeps shoes until they are worn out. Not just beat up or worn in, but well past the point where sensible people would continue wearing them. Cracked soles, uneven heels, broken eyelets, holes in the toes – unless the sole was flopping loose from the bottom, I pretty much never threw them out. Like, I had a pair of boots that I would wear with grocery bags over my socks because they let so much snow or rain in. I’m pretty sure at that point they no longer counted as shoes, but I wore them like that for a good six months. This kind of behavior stemmed mostly from the fact that I was really poor, so I would buy cheap shoes in order to have options for my wardrobe, but I couldn’t really afford to replace them when they inevitably wore out.

A few months ago, I did a major shoe cleanout. I think I actually got rid of over half the shoes that I had – anything that was too beat up or not comfortable or not my style got deleted from closet. It’s refreshing, but it also means that I don’t have, for example, a pair of brown (or brown adjacent) flat shoes.

Ok, so admittedly, I guess I still don’t, but – gold! I was having a hell of a time finding a pair of brown shoes that I really liked, but I kept stumbling across all these metallic options that had me drooling. Gold is maybe not quite as versatile as brown would be, and I have this thing about not wearing shoes that are lighter in color than my tights that I’m going to have to sort out, but as soon as I thought seriously about how a pair of gold shoes would work with my wardrobe, a bunch of different outfit ideas popped into my head. I figure that’s always a good sign.

Shoes, Sunglasses, Parka: Asos
Dress: Vintage