New Yorkers wear practical shoes

From now on, when I see a girl wearing gravity defying heels, I will know for sure that girl is either a tourist or out of her freaking mind. Or both. Because even as a tourist you have to be pretty crazy to try and trudge around NYC in heels. Or you have superman feet.

I started work yesterday. There were two days of training in another borough and I had an hour long commute. The first day I was wearing heels, because momma always said you have to wear heels to look like a professional lady. Haha. Anyway, I thought I was going to be late, so I ran through the 3 block long subway station, the 3 sets of stairs, and 2 escalators to transfer trains. Then I ran from the train station to the training area, involving more stairs and escalators. Then I decided to walk a few blocks to eat lunch. Then I had to do it all again to get home, minus the running. The pads of my feet are not only one giant blister, they are black and blue and bruised. Not that my feet giving me problems is anything new, I get blisters in tennis shoes, but it is still pretty awful. Today, I wore flats, despite the rain and the fact that my socks were soaked 60% of the day. It was a relief.

I guess my point is that all this running around and all the time I spent on the train gave me the chance to really notice what the people around me were wearing. The answer was practical shoes. People in business suits were wearing tennis shoes, rubber boots, and Uggs (which I'm sure they changed out of...its common practice to keep a pair of heels at work to change into...two girls in my training class had Uggs  on, one changed out of them, one didn't...I was jealous of both) and these ugly black orthopedic things that I'm pretty sure they didn't change out of ever. Lots of women had on those ugly black bulky super supportive extra padded shoes. Lots. Heels were the minority for sure. I was jealous of them, though chances are even with my incredibly limited fashion sense, I'd never ever buy shoes that look like that.

Working life in NYC is no episode of Gossip Girl, that is for sure.

I start training at a local branch (though not the one where I will be working yet) on Thursday. I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of information that I've learned so far and that I've yet to learn, but I'm excited.