what would you do if your shoes turned out to be blue?

i bet men out there can attest to this: things are immensely different in natural light. that really hot looking chick in the bar last night just doesn't seem quite the same in sunlight does she? no wonder girls have been advised by cosmo all these years to never agree to an afternoon date until the guy has more or less pledged his love: the adoration that one gets in candlelight and soft accent lighting just isn't the same as one would get when under the full glare of the sun.

while i've never really been bothered by mood lighting (especially since i met pat at lunchtime, wet hair and all, while gorging on onion rings and buffalo wings, and clearly he didn't mind how i looked), natural light has caught me off guard more than once. the color combination that looked oh-so-right inside the dorm? a huge don't in real light. the soft blushed cheeks in dresser table light? clownish in sunlight. while i've avoided wearing THAT outfit again and have finally found the perfect blush application technique, there are things that you really can't prepare for.

i had a hearing yesterday and since one of the pasalubongs i got included this very chic and very respectable looking pair of anne klein pumps, i knew that it was meant to make its debut in the courtroom. unlike the pink pair which kicked ass, this one didn't pack that much of a punch. it sort of whispered "i am competent" and "i am composed" more than "i am so fashionable". call it lawyer-hot; i'm willing to bet that the judge - all 65 years old of her - would've thought i was a real lawyer instead of a law intern if only for the fact that i was wearing respectable shoes.

so there i was feeling all good and pretty and competent (forget the fact that i wasn't sure the subpoena has been properly served by the court, damn them sheriffs) until i swung my legs out of the car to make my way to the hall of justice (yes, that's really what they're called, no kidding) and realized that my kick ass competent shoes were blue.

i did a double take. were they just blue black? or was it just the reflection of, say, the sky that made them blue?

no they were blue. very dark blue, darker than navy, but still blue.

all of a sudden i felt stupid. there i was in a bright red top and a black dress suit and on my feet were what clearly was not a black pair of shoes. i mentally let out a silent curse for believing my aunt when she told me - quite excitedly - that my grandmother bought me a black pair of shoes. and unlike the past couple of months when i had at least five pairs of shoes in the car, yesterday all i had were my driving shoes and the, gasp, blue pair.

the judge turned out to be in a meeting and so the hearing was cancelled. while i planned to drop by the grocery and get some things done in OLA since i had taken the day off anyway, all i could focus on was the fact that i had a pair that didn't match my outfit. it was shallow, it was stupid, and it was that brand of girly-girl mentality that i sometimes hate - but god forbid that i'd stay out another minute in blue shoes.