This past week I took a break from my internships (for the most part) in order to put in some full-time hours at Everything But Water. While I truly enjoy working in retail, this recent endeavor was bananas. You have not seriously worked a retail shift until you work in a swimwear store for nine hours straight in a neighborhood where the women love to travel, but what they love even more is to do it in style.

In order to tie everything that I will be covering, you have to understand the kind of shoes I wear to work. The floor at EBW is Spanish tile. The floor is beautiful! The floor is oh so easy to clean! What the floor isn’t, is comfortable. The first day on the job I wore heels (I thought they were required) and regretted it, but my feet weren’t dying just yet. The next shift, I wised up and decided to wear boots instead. Oh, how I wish I had a time machine! By the end of the day I could not walk. I kid you not. I had to drag my chubby body up the stairs and slither into bed like a snake. So, after that I quickly learned, “Cute doesn’t matter.” I borrowed a pair of my Mom’s old work shoes and have been mostly pain-free ever since.

Until I worked 30 hours and my feet were starting to feel it with another shift to go. The last eight hour shift I had my feet were sore and I began praying that the 18 hours I had until the big DIFFA event would be long enough to prepare me for heels. And then I remembered a trick my Mom told me about:

You can click the picture that will take you to an article detailing this little trick, but basically the idea is that taping the 3rd and 4th toes relieves pressure that builds up on the ball of your foot. More specifically, there is a nerve there that causes the pain. I am new to the world of heels and desperately wish I did not have to wear them, but at the same time, they’re pretty fabulous.

Speaking of fabulous, the DIFFA event was a true success. I have to hand it to the women at Strauss Marketing and PR, because they really pulled out all the stops. I was in charge of checking in media and I guess you could say directing people and answering questions in a pretty general manner. But while one passerby said I must have gotten the “short stick”, I sure looked great while sitting there!

 

Look at that lighting! Fun fact, all the draping at the event was done by my boyfriend’s company, Quest Drape. Probably the nicest party we’ve “been” to, albeit not at the same time. This was my first fashion show and it was amazing. This experience gave me a new taste for something I had never considered a career in (after I turned 14): fashion. The DIFFA event was truly a success and I am so glad I was able to participate.