Simple Pleasures, Part 1: Green Sneakers

I have a pair of green sneakers, and they are one of my greatest 'simple pleasures'. They're just some random thing, a typical Payless special - no particular shape, no special brand, no real plan - just bein' shoes, as hard as they can. They were kelly green when I first got them, and they remained that way for quite awhile; they were the "wrong" green, they looked somehow immature and foolish sticking out of the bottom of my jeans. I'd wanted green sneakers, and there they were, but I'd wanted something fun, funky and eccentric, not a cartoon of Fail. So I avoided them...I avoided them like an acquaintance whose name you cannot remember -- with regret, uneasiness, guilt and a sense of resentment for being so unfairly burdened by such a little thing.

 One day, I was going on a hike, and I only had one pair of sneakers. So on to my feet they went. I remember some sort of grim sense of pleasure that I was going to finally thrash these shoes into something other than their First Day of Dumbass School state - at least with dirt on they'd be a different tone of fail. 

It was a loooooong drive to the trail. Alaska's main export could be Vast Tracts of Space, if that was physically possible. Because yes I know that's not how exports work. Geez. As it is, I work in AK's Dept of Natural Resources. In Land Sales. So.

I was bored. And I had a green sharpie. And then I looked down at all that kelly green canvas propped on the dashboard in front of me...

The rest is history. I drew my little heart out, and because the sharpie was a 'true' green, it darkened the overall color, and made them a one-of-a-kind Kana masterpiece. And I didn't even eff them up as per my usual; they're beautiful, if now hopelessly battered from regular use. Here are pics of today's Green Sneakers:

Left: frogs and snails love vines!

Right: Snail leaves Frog in favor of a mushroom

They are my favorite sneakers. EVER. They turned out so much better than I could have ever hoped after I'd first been confronted with the kelly green Remedial Class joke Payless had offered. The fact that they went from being so bad to something so awesome is part of what makes me so happy when I wear them. And so that concludes the first installation in my new intermittent series, Simple Pleasures.