Loveboots

Last year at the thrift store, I bought some fake-fur-lined knee-high lace-up boots with 2.5-inch platform wedge soles that I thought were the cat's pajamas. Despite their impractical soles, I figured they would make great snow boots, and I loved them and wore them with pride.

One day, I even wore them in the snow. When I say snow, I mean yucky puddly melting slush, which is far more common here in Maryland than the pure white pillowy stuff that we all like to think snow is.

And after standing in the "snow" for about 10 minutes, my feet were soaking wet and very cold. Fur-lined they may have been, but my winter boots were anything but waterproof. So I set out to get some new ones.

I had high standards. One, I wasn't willing to pay more than about 50 dollars. Two, they had to be waterproof. Three, they had to be flat (fashionable as I looked teetering around in my last pair of boots, I realized that maneuverability is paramount for traveling in the snow). Four, they had to reach at least to my upper calf, and I'd prefer them to be knee high.

My boyfriend, who loves playing in the snow, was all too pleased to help me in my search, but even he grew discouraged after I rejected most of the selections he found on Amazon. I felt like Goldilocks: "That one's too short, that one's too expensive, that one's too ugly..." Eventually, I went it alone, saving an eBay search and analyzing the pickings every day.

It took only a week before I found these babies: brand new shoes from a sample sale last year!

They were stupendous! Brightly colored, enormous boots that would be sure to capture eyeballs everywhere, if not sear them. They are clearly knockoffs of Moon Boots, which I've had a secret crush on since I discovered them earlier this winter. I didn't care that they were not quite as tall as I had hoped; it didn't matter that they were $3.50 over my price limit; I wasn't even discouraged by the fact that I couldn't find a single review of them anywhere online and had no idea if they were waterproof or not.

I had to have them! Nothing else mattered except the outsized pop of springtime color that would surely lighten my every step through the dreary snows of winter.

I placed a bid. I won. I wore them to work today.

I would probably provide a practical review of these big galumphing galoshes, so other future shoppers could buy with more confidence, but it doesn't look as though this particular style of boot is still being made. So we'll just leave it with this tale of love at first sight.