One of the few things I bought for myself before leaving France was a pair of tennis shoes. European footwear is a bit different than their American counterparts. Where our tennis shoes tend to come in either white or gray, with a flourish of brighter colors in small flashes, European shoes are often very bold, bright and colorful. I decided I wanted the most obnoxious pair of shoes I could find. So I got a pair of bright, neon yellow and green Adidas. They are fantastic!
As with many American companies, the workplace to which I am employed has casual Fridays. On this one day of the week I am allowed to dress down as it were and wear blue jeans and tennis shoes.
Being that my Converse Allstars now have a big gaping hole in the sole and that I left my only other pair of tennis shoes in France, I generally wear my obnoxious Adidas on Fridays. Everybody at work loves them. They have become my Friday shoes. Without fail, every Friday many people at work comment on my Friday shoes and laugh at how bright they are.
These shoes have become such a big deal that when I don’t wear them on Fridays, everybody is disappointed. Towards the end of Autumn I decided to wear my sandals on Friday, knowing the end of sandal season was coming soon. As soon as I stepped into the door I got a barrage of
“Mat, where are your Friday shoes?” Last week we got several inches of snow so I wore my bigger, more snow worthy Doc Martens. Once again I immediately got chastised for not wearing my Friday shoes.There’s snow on the ground, those shoes have the thinnest of all soles, and have air holes cut into them. My feet would be soaked if I wore them. These things I tried to plead as my case.
They wouldn’t listen. Like a Texas jury they had no sympathy, but only wanted to see me and my big yellow shoes.
Looks like I’ll be wearing the same shoes every Friday for the rest of my life.
11 comments:
just keep them at your office then!
in typical brew style, I see dark socks being worn with your tennis shoes. I dont think Brew ever has owned a pair of white socks....
Illl never forget that brew used to wear shorts, darks socks, and brown doc martins...
Me too!
One of my first memories of Brew was volleyball class. He always wore his exercise clothes, dark socks, and Docs while playing in class!
One day, I asked hime if he wanted to borrow some shoes for class. I had some extras. I felt bad for the guy. I thought he was dirt poor and couldn't afford anything but that one pair of brown shoes.
I had no idea what Doctor Martens were at the time...
Looks like the only way you're gonna get out of those Friday shoes is to change jobs, Brew.
Actually you'd be proud of me Jamison, I now own plenty of white socks and do wear them with my tennis shoes. For this blog I quickly took a couple of pictures of the shoes. The reason for the black socks is that its Wednesday and I have to dress up at work. I'll be wearing those socks with some dress shoes.
But yes, I have a picture of me in college wearing plaid shorts, an unmatched striped shirt, dark socks and my doc martins.
...speaking of changing jobs, I just found out that Anteon is being bought by General Dynamics!
Looks like I'm gonna be working for one of the HUGE defense contractors again.
Brew I have that same pic!
Sip, what does this mean? Same building and junk right?
I should mention this;
the first pic of the shoes, looks like a butterfly if you squint...
or rather a "papillon". Yeah, I know some french, what of it?
Oui...
I'm not sure what a buyout will mean. All we got was an email saying Anteon was being sold to General Dynamics.
Of course, there was a lot of business jargon and crap, too. but, it really just said that Anteon is being sold to make a bunch of people a bunch of money.
I'm not really worried about it. You just never know what will happen with something like this.
Good luck with the changeover. I know how that can be kind of scary.
Braly you only know French from Steve McQueen movies.
I think you sent me a copy of the pic
Ah, yes. Papillon.
Thanks for the prayers, Brew, and everyone else.
The changeover should go fine. Actually, it might improve things for us here. Maybe we'll even start getting bonuses!
Brew I love the shoes. I say that you now have to ditch the “Friday Shoes” except for your own mirthful whims. You’re setting a standard that is going to become something tired. You’ve got to keep the people wanting more!
Good luck with the buy out. We’re hearing rumblings. Warner Bros. recently dropped a chunk of its production group and MTV just announced they were doing the same. I asked our new prez in a “get to know ya” rap session what the future held for the group because everyone else to busy trying to suck him off with bogus questions and his statement reverberated for days afterwards. I think the quote “we can get content anywhere” took a while to set into for some. Minutes later his statement was, “well there are no guarantees and we might be doing some restructuring in the near future” was obviously the clincher.
I’m not sure what I’d do if I had to work at a place where there is actually a casual Friday. Everyday is casual in production.
that is sooo funny that jamison and brew remembered the plaid shorts and dark socks outfit!! i have that same picture..brew always has had a way with fashion!
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