Socks

Call me a goofball if you like, but there is something so satisfying about matching up socks with their mates, folding the tops down over to marry them into a pair, and tucking them in tidy rows in a drawer. I have heard of people who toss their socks willy-nilly into a drawer without even matching them up, but that person would not be me.

Today I helped my daughter, a busy mother of 4, go through the Orphan Sock Basket and match up long-lost partners. When we were finished, there were still about 25 singletons left--all sizes, from her tiny one-year-old daughter through her school age-kids and up to her 6' + husband--and since she is moving, and all the laundry was current, we decided it was time to let the orphan socks go. (I know there are lots of craft projects one can do with orphan socks, but 1) this daughter isn't crafty, and 2) she's moving, remember.) Still, even though I knew it was hopeless, it made me a little sad to dump them in the trash.

I like socks. I do not hold at all with the current fashion of wearing shoes without socks. It seems so...naked to have bare feet inside shoes. Don't people get sore feet when they eliminate socks? Don't their shoes get all stinky inside?

I especially love love love love good hiking socks. They are comfortable and they keep my feet nice when I'm out hiking. The best feeling in the world is to change socks halfway through a long hike on a hot sweaty day. Ohhhhh.......heavenly! Wearing good socks when I'm out hiking can make the difference between nasty blisters and no blisters. Good socks make my feet happy!

Maybe I would be more flexible about going sockless if I didn't have such bony feet. One time I was snowshoeing with my friend Liberty, who is a physician's assistant. She sees lots of feet, I guess. I stopped halfway through our outing to change my socks (ohhhh....heavenly!) and she noticed my feet. "Oh," she said, "you're one of those people with interesting feet."

She was just being polite. I have a bunion on one foot, hammer toes on both feet, a bone that sticks up too much on the top of one foot. To put it bluntly, I have bony, slightly misshapen feet. But I love them anyway. They take me to such wonderful places! I wear a pedometer every day, and I write my daily steps in my journal every night. I know, that's strange. I don't know why I record my steps every day--maybe because it's concrete evidence that I went somewhere that day under my own power, and did things. In any case, in all the doing and stepping, I prefer to do it with socks.