[To distract myself from my current program of being hungry all the time diet and exercise, I am a little obsessed with clothing and shopping*, mostly of the online window-shopping variety. Hence, some shoe talk is below. Sorry.]

My get-out-of-debt mission is going well. As of today, I am square with the IR$ for 2009. Next: catch up with my quarterly payments. After that: tackle credit card debt. After that: squirrel away moving money. After that: save for retirement. Does it ever end? No? Shit.

A little extra money came my way (reimbursement of my deductible from my car accident from last November) and (to reward myself for being so damn frugal) I set out to spend it on second-tier impulse items — you know, stuff that is useful, but not boring nor outrageously splurge-y. You know, like shoes.

I poked around my newly-purged footwear collection, looking for gaps in the repertoire, if you know what I mean. I quickly talked myself into needing — needing! — a new pair of boots. But first, my two go-to pairs (including these black suede lovelies — scroll down to 2nd pic) were in need of fixing so off I went to my favorite cobbler man in Ventura, Mr. Lee. I’ve been meaning to write about him, which I’ll do, but suffice to say he’s a genius, and he’s going to bring my babies back to life.

On to the new boots. I want (need!) a more casual pair of black boots — mid-calf, sturdy, leather. After a lot (a lot) of browsing (Zappos, Endless, ShoeBuy, eBay), I found what I wanted. Bam, ordered for a steal of a deal from an eBay store. Pow, got ’em, tried ’em on. Kaboom — super cute, much sweeter and kick-assier than the photo! BUT: Sigh, too small.

Suddenly I was at a crossroads. Should I exchange them for a larger size, or go completely another direction and get the impractical silver boots, boots that are silver and also black and also printed with flowers? A side-by-side comparison:

Yin versus Ka-Yang!

Where does one turn with a burning question like this? Why, Facebook of course.

Becky Haycox: Great, classic eBay boots arrived, but are a half-size too small. Sad trombone. Is this a sign to return them and get the 100% impractical silver ones from Endless.com?

• Jill: I think it might be just that sign… silver goes with everything!
• Judy: how can silver boots ever be impractical! I used to have white ones with silver stripes
• Jill: Just remember: metallics are neutral, like brown, but much more exciting

Wow, they made me feel thrilled at the notion of owning silver boots! But maybe not these silver boots, boots that are built for someone a little younger and more glam than I am these days (although I feel that I could be up to the challenge to rock them — if they were about $40 cheaper, maybe). And they might be for someone that has more disposable income than I to buy trendy items that will look outrageously outdated some time in the future (winter 2010?).

So I ordered the black ones, but made sure to reassure my friends that they really are superfoxycute, I promise! Jill (my boot advisor and a Fluevog collector herself) says she supports my decision, which makes me feel a lot better. From my niece: you are doing the practical thing, but really you should get both.

By the way, my niece Sarah (she of the FB comment, above) and I have been laughing about this cartoon. Have you seen sandalboots? Bizarre! This has led to us posting links to the ugliest shoes in humanity (far worse than sandalboots!) If I can do it without getting nauseated, I will assemble some of the gems from our exhaustive research.

NO MORE BOOT TALK, JEEZUS!

*does this happen to you? i’m just addiction-swapping, aren’t i?