"Shoes of Death"

I have sworn many-a-time that I would never buy shoes over 3.25" - I can sense how tall a pair of shoes are when I put them on - and I know I can't walk very far for very long in them without my feet hurting. I also have a theory that Carlos Santana hates women. He makes some very cute shoes (and some really not cute ones), but they always have very high heels.

So what did I do? I fell in love with some chocolate brown Carlos Santana shoes - complete with a 3.5" heel.

I've looked at these $89 shoes a couple of times at Foley's/Macy's, but this weekend, I really wanted some brown heels to wear to go out. They didn't feel that bad when I tried them on, and the guy at Macy's offered to give me a (hush hush) 11% "international shopper" discount. So I bought them.

As I continued my shopping trip, I peeked in the window of the Naturalizer store, and saw the exact same shoe. ON SALE for $70. [The color says "bronze," but they are really dark brown - even darker than the CS ones, even though the pics don't show that]. This was a sign, I needed these shoes. And they were Naturalizer, so they're bound to be more comfortable than Carlos Santana - right?

Of course, they are not. I tried to protect myself with ball-of-foot cushions. The front strap was already a little tight, but I thought they might help. I wore them out to a couple bars on Sat night with my Pine IV jeans and a dark green strapless top. The first bar (sitting) was ok. The second bar (standing for an hour) was not. My toes felt like they were bleeding.

After recovering for the rest of the weekend, I brought them into work today. I wore different shoes for my long walk in, but I'm wearing them around the office, and they seem ok. I took out the cushions, too.

I'm also going to NYC this weekend (yay!), and I want to bring them, but I'm scared!