Yesterday, Diane and I took Jeran shopping for shoes. He’s going to be 17 on Tuesday the 11th and we figured it was about time he had some. Oh, he’s had lots of shoes over the years but they don’t last long because his feet just kept growing. Considering that he’s around 6’3″ you would think he’d have fairly large feet, but he only wears a 10 1/2. Go figure. His older brother, Cedric, has him beat with shoe size and he’s a bit shorter.
You’d think taking Jeran shopping, for anything, would be a big deal, but it is. He hasn’t liked shopping, for anything, for a long time. That’s apparently changed. Or, maybe it was the lunch stop at Olive Garden that swayed his decision. We tried to convince him that Home Town Buffet was the best place ever, but he fixated on Olive Garden. That turned out very nicely because I had the absolute best shrimp carbonara ever. Jeran had cheese raviolis and Diane just had soup and salad. In addition, we devoured 12 bread sticks and 6 glasses of raspberry ice tea. It was a terrific lunch.
On the way to Portland we stopped at Fred Meyer just for fun to check out their shoes so Jeran would have a reference point in case we couldn’t find anything at DSW. With my help, it took about 3 minutes to find some perfectly suitable shoes at Freddie’s, but we couldn’t leave right away because Diane was stuck in another part of the store. Finally she finished whatever she was doing and we were on our way.
Lunch was first, or course, since it was … well … lunchtime. It just made sense. We chose the Olive Garden in Hillsboro because we knew where it was. After spending about 30 seconds with the menu, all of us were ready to order. I just had to get a ruling on the chicken & shrimp carbonara to see if I could get the shrimp & shrimp carbonara. Out waitress, Misha, said sure since there was actually a menu item for shrimp carbonara. I know, I usually get chicken because it’s one of my favorite animals to ingest, but shrimp win the day when available.
After the meal, we headed for DSW and the dreaded shopping. This is the store. It’s located in a small strip mall right next to Jack & Wynette’s favorite Asian food restaurant. We at there with them once, and I was awesome. Terrific folks own and operate it.
This is the women’s side of the store. Diane is back there someplace looking at the free shoes. Instead, she found a pair that we had to pay for. She reported that they are extremely comfortable so it’s worth it that she has comfortable kicks.
These are the men’s shelves. Based on our astute observations, Jeran and I determined that they apparently sell more women’s shoes than men’s. That was OK, by us. That’s Jeran in the white hoody, checking his phone for something. He wouldn’t tell me what, so I figured it must have been one of his girl friends. He’ll deny that, but I bet it’s true.
This is what Jeran used to look like. He’s the one on the left. With him are his older sister, Lydia, who recently turned 18, and Cedric, who is currently serving his country aboard the USS Nimitz CVN-68. As you may have guessed, they are all much taller, now. It’s true.
When he was in the seventh grade, Jeran had some emotional problems that required an unusual amount of surgery, counseling, and patience to resolve.
Thankfully, he had good doctors who were able to restore his boyish good looks allowing him to go back to school where he is currently in the 11th grade. That’s what he tells you if you ask what grade he’s in. Not, “I’m a junior,” but “I’m in the 11th grade.” Here’s what he looks like now. He’s the only child wearing glasses. Lydia has connects and Cedric will never need glasses. He’s got 20-10 vision. The transformation is amazing, don’t you think?
While shopping Jeran was fixated on the price tags, not the shoes so I had to talk to him about that. I explained that we were there to get him some good, comfortable shoes and he wasn’t to concern himself with price. He asked how much he could spend and I told him $700. I knew he wouldn’t believe me, but it worked to get him actually looking at the shoes and he picked out a couple pair of very nice shoes … one for casual, one for dress.
He got these for dress …
and these for casual …
Quite spiffy choices, we thought.
I got new shows, too, and a new belt. Now my pants won’t fall off.
On the way home we stopped at Freddies again to pick up Diane’s ring. She left it to be appraised and thought it might be a good idea to get it back. She left Jeran and me in the truck, with the windows up, and it was sunny out. It didn’t take long for it to heat up inside to the point where Jeran started removing his clothes. I had to remove one layer, too. We thought maybe she did this on purpose for some reason, but we hadn’t done anything wrong. Then I noticed the keys hanging in the ignition. Jeran was sitting in front so he turned the ignition on so we could roll down our windows. In that manner we kept the police from arresting Diane for leaving her children in a hot car while she shopped.
Today we went to church the brought Diane’s Mom, Jean, back home as we always do on Sunday. We watched movies and ate popcorn. I share this photo so you can see the laser-like focus Ziva had on every bite Mom took. Ziva knew that if she stared long enough, she’d get a kernel or two. She got more than that and eventually convinced the other two dogs to join in on the guilt trip. It’s quite effective.
That’s all I have for today. Hope everyone had a great Palm Sunday.
