Sometimes you’re just walking around, minding your own business, and life just decides to give you the middle finger emoji. (That’s a thing, right? The middle finger emoji? If it isn’t, then for reals, we need one ASAP.)
In my case, the middle finger emoji from life came in the form of a torn calf muscle. It literally popped mid-kick towards the end of a Muay Thai class. In case you don’t know what Muay Thai is, it kind of looks like this:
My drawing skills are not good enough to illustrate what tearing your calf muscle midway through that looks like. But trust, it hurts, and the recovery period is something like 6 weeks. At this point, you’re probably like, “that sucks and all, but that’s not quite what I’d describe as a ‘middle finger emoji’ from life. You sound pretty alive.”
And you know, normally, I’d agree with you. If I hadn’t proceeded to re-injure myself in the very same calf at about week 5, by falling up some damn stairs.
Don’t worry, this one I have covered:
Following this, my physical therapist immediately noticed that I was walking – or rather, attempting to walk – on the ball of my foot so as to avoid putting any weight on my injured leg.
“Why don’t you wear shoes that have a bit of wedge to keep your foot from doing that?” she said.
“Wedge?” I said, “Um, I don’t own any wedges. I don’t even wear heels that often. Do I need to wear them now? This will ruin my whole look.”
There was a distinct note of panic in my voice, as I kept my priorities in clear order.
“Not necessarily,” she said. “Like, I know there are some Nikes that have something of a lift on the heel, so your foot is at an angle.”
Aha. Indeed there are. I believe those specific shoes are referred by some as Nike Air Maxes, and I had actually been scoping out a pair for a while but had been worried about being too extra.
It’s crazy that having an injury (and re-injury) that forced me to slow down for a while was the catalyst for this specific acquisition, but here I am. I am not exaggerating even a teensy bit when I say I have been living in these. I even hobbled my way through a fair bit of Chicago in them, as I had a visit planned pre-injury that I didn’t want to reschedule.
The really cool thing about this specific style is that they are made for golfers. I don’t play golf, but I do appreciate the fact that in endeavoring to cater to the golfer audience, Nike created these permanently stark-white sneakers. To a city-dweller, this is nigh-unheard of. When they do require cleaning, it’s so easy to do, it’d be absurd to describe it. So, of course, I had to get them in black, too.
How could I not? I’m not yet completely healed, and real talk, I can’t be wearing white all the time.