Is there a Heaven for Shoes?

I came here with four pairs of shoes and some flip-flops.  Yup, that's right.  I brought as many pairs for several months as I would normally pack for a week.  But, it looks like I may go home with just the flip-flops.

My black dress shoes for work, the ones that tore my feet up, broke.  Sort of.  The heel on the right shoe kind of collapsed.  There's a bulge and a crack on the inner-side and the shoe is lopsided.  I don't mind so much if these don't make it home.  I got them specifically for here.  At 1", they're hardly high enough to wear at home.  They're also big and clunky, taking up too much suitcase space.

My favorite pair of walking shoes though, I would like to take home.  I got them in DC in July of 2006.  I had gone there to celebrate the 4th with my friends from the Peace Corps.  As we were walking towards the DC Mall, the shoes I was wearing broke.  My favorite 5" white stilettos.  I needed replacements right away, and they not only had to match what I was wearing, they had to be high enough to keep my very long white skirt off the ground.  I found these beautiful peach strappy 5" wedges.  They were a little more expensive than I usually allow for shoes, even though they were on clearance, but they were perfect.  So comfortable and I love them.  I wear them for walking; I wear them for climbing trees; I wear them to the pool.

This weekend, the insole came off of the left shoe while I was walking to my friend's birthday party.  The padding was so worn down that it really isn't too much of a difference without the insole.  But, the straps have started separating from each other.  In some places, it is only the thread holding the shoes together.  I figure, if the thread breaks, I'll re-stitch the straps back together.

My brown dress shoes are also on their way out.  The lifts are worn down to the nails.  But since I only wear them to church and work occasionally, they might make it.  In their current state, I can easily get them fixed at home.  But if the heel itself gets worn down, it'll be the trash heap for them.

My black slides are doing ok, but that's because I never wear them.  I know, because this is my 3rd or 4th pair of these shoes, that if they need to become my work shoes and I wear them regularly, they won't last the 5 and a half weeks I have left.  But then, they were only $5.  I also know not to bother fixing them.  I had a beige pair that I tried to fix in Zambia.  Wound up needing to repair myself instead - stitches to close up the neat hole in my leg after I put my 2" swiss army knife straight into my thigh.  It's a cute scar now, really.

So, if I get off the plane in December in Wisconsin in flip-flops, don't pick on me.  They may be all I have.

(And please do not tell me to go shoe shopping here.  That's a can of worms I'd prefer not to open.  I'll make do.)