Sorry for the delay, everyone! My return to blogging has officially begun...albeit, in a pretty roundabout way.
See, at this moment, I was supposed to be in Little Rock, AR boarding a flight to Atlanta with my parents so that we could later board a flight to Lagos, Nigeria so that we could visit my father's family for 10 days because my parents haven't seen them since I was 3 (i.e. in 18 years) and because we miss them and because being in consistently 90 degree and sunny weather in January sure beats being in whatever freaky, bipolar, likely-due-to-global-warming weather we've been having lately. And such.
But, alas, if you watch the news, you've probably heard something or another about the nationwide strike that began in Nigeria yesterday due to the president's (theirs, not ours) decision to end a government subsidy that kept the price of fuel down for citizens, leading fuel prices to more than double...yeah...ouch.
In fact, Big Ouch for most Nigerians, considering they not only need fuel to run their cars, but also to power the generators they rely on for electricity since even in 2012 the government hasn't managed to figure out a way to provide power to citizens on a constant and daily basis. (Embarrassing aside: When I visited my family by myself in 2009, my aunt turned on the generator for me and only me every morning so I could straighten my hair...talk about
#FirstWorldProblems. Also, thank God I don't do that anymore...(post about my hair transformation TK, obvi)). If you haven't heard about what's going on,
read up! It's kind of a big deal.
And it's kind of the reason our flight to Nigeria tonight was cancelled and, for the time being, we are going nowhere, which has left us with:
Two parents, who nevertheless had to drive two hours to a Dillard's to return a jacket on the last day possible because my Dad was going to do so in Little Rock,
One utterly perplexed dog, who was picked up from the dog sitter after less than 24 hours this morning, and
One Anita, who promptly changed out of her strategically planned, cute-but-still-comfy plane outfit after picking up said dog and has now been re-watching Season 5 of 30 Rock in her pajamas for the past three hours.
Naturally, the logical thing for me to do while already trying to split my attention between Liz Lemon and updates from CNN, Delta, and Twitter–
#fuelsubsidy,
#occupynigeria– has been to to browse the Bloomingdale's website. It was there, in the "New Arrivals" section of Women's Shoes, that I stumbled upon these beautes:
Gorgeous, right? With that awesome, woven heal and bright Ikat print? Yet, while attempting to wipe the drool from my keyboard, I realized that they bear an eery resemblance to a pair of sandals my friend Graciela wanted this summer and that were also Cynthia Vincent...
Cynthia Vincent for Target Wedges
Well, for Target, that is. Obviously, we could go into the nitty gritty about where these two pairs of sandals were made, the quality of the materials used to make them, etc. etc., but you have to admit– at first glance, they're pretty darn similar. Light platform wedge bottoms...bronze-y insole...pink/blue/yellow abstract print...straps that criss-cross somewhere...
Of course, the one difference between them I do notice is that the ones at Bloomie's retail for $195 which, all things fabulous considered, is not completely crazy, but is nevertheless striking when compared to the $15 a pair of Cynthia Vincent for Target wedges currently sell for on eBay.
Considering I will be a college graduate in four-and-a-half months (i.e. with officially no excuse to spend my parent's money), the Target kicks are a much more realistic and desirable choice for me. Plus, despite that the more expensive pair is strappier and has a zip closure rather than velcro (seriously? they still put that on shoes?), I actually like the cheaper ones better because they have more yellow on them. Too bad they don't have them on eBay whatsoever (the ones I mentioned before are a different style of CVfT sandals).
If you were kind enough to read this far (i.e. you're my mother), you're probably thinking to yourself: "Did she really just begin a blog post by describing civil unrest in a developing nation and end it by comparing the high- and low-end versions of a designer's sandals?!"
Yes. Yes, I did.
