Typical

"Son of a...!"

Let me backup a step. Literally.

I was walking down Fullerton yesterday afternoon with 20 minutes to spare before my photo session in Oz Park. It was sunny and breezy and I was headed to meet one of my favorite families. I felt good about the amount of editing I had busted out that morning. Dorey, whose thing this week has been throwing up (whether it be from the heat or too many treats...it's hard to tell) seemed to be on the mend. Perhaps my completely crazed, manic week was beginning to look up.

Then it happened. One of my flip-flops...my favorite, perfectly broken-in, sweet Tommy pair with the blue patterned strap...broke. The tong just let go. A block away from Oz park, 4 blocks away from the nearest drug store and 20 minutes before my session.

"SONOFA !$#%@$!!!!!"

For those of you who have a death-grip on your own dear pair of comfortable flip-flops that may be hanging on by just a thread...for those of you who have had the same, naive thought that "even if the tong let go, I could probably still walk in them long enough to get, like, back home"...let me save you a monster headache. You can't. It's impossible to walk with a broken tong. You'll look like a total mental midget. With a limp. Give them up now or else you may find yourself running down Fullerton, a sweaty mess, now late to your photo shoot, one shoe on, one shoe off, clutching a broken-down sandal in search of a CVS. Let me also save you the trouble: the CVS on Lincoln near DePaul doesn't have flip-flops for sale this late in the summer season, and the only two pairs of Fast Flats they had in stock were size 9/10. (My own emergency pair, size 5/6, were, of course, at home in my closet.) So I tried my old reliable fail safe: safety pins. Yeah...no. That didn't work either. When I finally met up with my totally understanding, saintly clients, they had the awesome idea of using a spare hair band to keep the [insert expletive of choice here] thing on my foot. It totally got me through the hour of shooting and the walk from the train back home.

The saddest thing about this story? When I later told Mike about my adventure he wasn't surprised. "It could only happen to you," he said, kind of appalled, kind of trying not to laugh. Nice. But probably true.

Gold Stars this week (for what it's worth) go to:

*Lisa, Jeff, Logan, Cooper, cousin Julia and Grandma C. for being super understanding of my lateness, not laughing at my frantic, frizzy, sweatiness, being true Macgyvers with the hair band fix and for giving me a lift to the train station after the session. Despite my issues, the photos turned out awesome...stay tuned. Love you guys!

*Dr. Scholl's Fast Flats: They seriously do work in a bind...if they aren't at home in your closet when you need them most.

*Edamame deliciousness: Yes, friends, that's just how sad this week was. The frozen, shelled edamame I found at Trader Joes actually takes a Gold Star this week.