I caved in and went to Nordstrom's shoe sale.

Well... I am not 11 - I am 11 1/2 - a guy measured my feet using that contraption they have for measuring. The clerk was a lovely young man who is Sudanese - I took his card and will call him if I ever want to shop there again, because he already knows all my issues. I said: "Bigger with each child, and the third - last - baby was a 9 pounder and boy was my belly huge with her! But how come such a big difference? 20+ years ago I was 9 1/2." He responded with: "It happens with women all the time." I am not sure if it is true or he just tried to comfort me.

I spent a long time and bought a few pairs. One - in 12. You know how sizing differs between brands?

The clerk took a long time in the back, looking for these unusually big sizes, and I wandered around the floor, looking at shoes on display. I looked at their sizes. On display, you have shoes that are 5-7 American or 35-37 European. They do not put bigger shoes on display. At first, I thought that it is because they are catering to the thick of the bell curve. then I realized that there is more to that...

...unfortunately, the shoes I got, even though they are well made and not cheap (I mean - not Ross-level cheap - they are on sale at Nordstrom)...

... are still ugly by themselves. Say, I bought this wonderful pair of closed toe leather shoes in several different but closely matching shades of dark raspberry color. The shoe on display... looks like an objet d'art. I mean, really! It looks perfectly proportioned and it is pleasant to look simply admire it. The same shoe, but size 11 1/2 and not 5 or 7 - absolutely the same shoe!!! - looks ugly to me. Looks like a behemoth. Out of proportion. Bulky. Wrong.

Whatever - I cannot help having such big feet.

And, actually, on me, the big shoes do not look so bad. They do not look great, but at least they look normal. I guess this is because putting the huge shoe next to it smaller sister underscored just how huge it was, and on my foot, outside of the comparison with a size 5-7 shoe, it looks decent.

I hope they fit! if not, Nordstrom has a good return policy. Or, and they are also shipping a pair to me for free, because one of the sandals was not available in a big size at the store today.