It’s been a while, hasn’t it? If you’re interested, you can see the previous WSMHO posts here, here and here.
Allison’s take:
If you’re familiar with Ray, then you know he has very distinct style. If you catch him at work he will be wearing grey slacks, a collared button up, ox blood winged tipped shoes, and possibly a tie. Outside of work is a different story. In his off time Ray typically wears either a super hero tshirt or western button up, a vest, jeans, and boots. Always boots. Specifically, snake skin boots. He’s been wearing boots for as long as we’ve been friends.
Another thing you may or may not know about Ray is that he’s thrifty. Because boots can be VERY expensive, he usually buys them gently used off ebay. I left that tidbit of information in this post so you wouldn’t think we’ve spent hundreds of dollars on each pair of these boots. We’re crazy, but not that kind of crazy.
A few weeks ago, while we were doing a little spring (winter?) closet cleaning, I counted no less than 9 pairs of boots. That didn’t include the pair on his feet, the pair in the living room or the pair under our bed.
You might be thinking “There’s got to be an explanation. Maybe Ray moonlights as a Florida cracker cowboy at night” but you’re wrong. He doesn’t own a ranch (but maybe one day!!) or hang with cattle ever. He works on computers at a bank and podcasts about super heroes. So, Ray having 10 + pairs of boots is weird, right?
Ray’s take: Okay guys, so I like boots. I wear boots a lot. Up until recently they were my everyday-all-day shoe of choice. And yes, I am partial to snake skin boots, I just like them. I do not feel like it is crazy or weird that I have 10+ pair of boots though. Girls have tons of shoes, but I’m not writing a “Weird Shit My Wife Owns, 33 pair of Ballerina Flats” post. For some reason that seems completely reasonable to people.
Anyway, why do I own so many boots? Well I wear a 12 1/2 in boots, and I Prefer Tony Lama boots. That’s not a combination you come across often in the gently-used market. So 2-3 pair of those boots are for future use. I haven’t started wearing them yet, but I found a good deal on them, and pulled the trigger. They are my spares right now.
I don’t really have an explanation for the other 7 or so pair other than they all have a story. The pair on the middle row far left, were the first boots I started wearing. They were not snake skin, but they did belong to my dad. I wore them for years. Same row but to the far right were my wedding boots. I had them patched up and resoled specifically for our wedding. They were my first pair of snake skin boots, and very comfortable. The pair on the left on the bottom row are my Dragon Slayer boots, self explanatory of course. Top Right hand corner, I wore while in Guatemala, they have paint on them from where we helped paint some houses. Bottom right were my dress boots for a while.
So every boot tells a story, don’t it? So in conclusion, not weird.
Allison’s take x2 – I love him and I actually don’t care if he has lots and lots of boots. 🙂
