Heels or no heels?

This will be another low-mileage drop-back week for me. Over the weekend I'm making a whirlwind trip out to Littleton, Colorado to attend the wedding of a dear old friend that I've known since my undergraduate college days about 30 - yes, THIRTY! years ago. Oh. My. God. The stories we could tell about each other!!!!

It's been nearly that long since I've worn high heels, and I'm debating whether to pack those or a pair of dressy flats. Seriously, I think I haven't worn heels more than 3 or 4 times in the last eight years, literally - one conference, a job interview, maybe a cruise or two, I think that's it.

I didn't even wear heels at my own wedding, just sandals. Those are my actual feet on my actual wedding day in 2001. Hey, it was in Maui, what do you expect? Even those sandals weren't very comfortable, so I left them in my hotel room after their one and only outing. Besides, I needed my feet at the top of their form to complete the Maui Marathon two days later, even very slowly.

I think my feet in heels would feel like they broke in half after ten or fifteen minutes. I wouldn't want it to interrupt my running, would I? And flats take up less suitcase room.

And then there are my nasty fingernails. They're all chopped off extra-short for minimal maintenance. If they're any longer, the bicycle grease just gets under them, you know? They wouldn't know what to do with polish on them.

And the hair. . . . I got it chopped shoulder-length a couple months ago so that I could avoid that long wet drippy ponytail after swimming. Now I just have it pulled back in a short ponytail most of the time. I just like it out of my face. I did re-color it yesterday, so at least I won't have light gray roots shining through from underneath.

And makeup? Sigh. The only "beauty product" that's gone on my face recently is Oil of Olay SPF 15 after every time I wash it, habitually, just to keep off the worst of the sun damage. I'm pretty sure that Bolder uses more beauty products than I do.

Then there's all the other stuff you have to pack for dressing up. All the special underwear that goes underneath a dress. Nylons. Gack, I haven't worn nylons any more than I've worn heels in the last several years. I'll need to pack some dressy jewelry, too, of which I own exceedingly little and also seldom wear. Most of the time it's my plastic Timex Ironman Flix watch and my plain gold wedding band, and maybe a pair of gold hoops in my ears for special occasions.

Not that I don't like going fancier places, mind you. I enjoy a luxury destination resort with the best of them! But I enjoy the places most that you can "come as you are" wearing a clean polo shirt and maybe a pair of flip-flops or Docksiders -- which includes nearly all the great restaurants in my small town. But if it's the type of place that's stuffy enough to require suit coats on the gents - usually I just go elsewhere.

I suppose I'll have to get some photos to post here later. There aren't many opportunities any more to see me in anything but Lycra shorts and jogbras and maybe an expensive wetsuit or fancy bike jersey now and then.