So I've had to re-evaluate my entire shoe collection. My foot problems became unbearable, so I started trying on all my shoes and getting rid of anything that hurt. I had to replace a large portion of my shoe collection. It was frustrating, to say the least.

After all of the ordering and returning and ordering some more, I have reached a point where I'm rather satisfied with my shoe choices at any given moment. I still have a few pairs that are less than perfectly comfortable, but they aren't painful and they're more "dress-up" (or as Angie calls it, they're "sitting shoes"), so I'm ok with less than absolutely perfect for these pairs since the rest are so very good and practical for everyday life. Everybody needs shoes that just feel pretty or powerful, and the vast majority of my shoes now do one or the other while still letting me feel stylish.

The shoes that I already owned that made the grade:
* my harness boots (find)
* metallic Calvin Klein sneakers (find)
* tactical boots (find)
* navy & black aerosoles sneakers (find)
* my kamik rain boots
* YSL shooties (find)
* thankfully, my Chippewa snake boots (find), because they were heavy hitters
* Ted Baker silver loafers (find)
* Nine West OTK boots (find)
* Hush Puppies suede flats (find)
* white sneakers, they're actually stashed somewhere I haven't dug through yet LOL
* burgundy Bella Vita suede sneakers
* white Weitzman sandals (find, totally sitting shoes because arch support isn't great)
* navy & black Nine West flats (pic 1)

New additions:

* burgundy Nine West flats (pic 2, sitting shoes until the leather stretches out)
* rust colored western-ish mules
* orchid suede Hush Puppies ankle boots (pic 4)
* black Naturalizer boots (pic 5)
* tan suede Naturalizer Blair bootie (pic 6)
* off-white Walking Cradles ankle booties (pic 7)
* screaming pink Hush Puppies sneakers (pic 8)
* brown Ros Homerson sneakers (pic 9)
* Earth Origins ankle boots (pic 10) work only, to free up my tactical boots for not-work
* black Taryn Rose high tops (11), divinely comfortable, bought for work but good-looking enough that I might be wearing them for not-work LOL
* black & grey camo Bella Vita high tops
Not shown: the black western boots I ordered through work. They're work only shoes

Now for the navel gazing part:
Jussie said my shoe collection was interesting, and Rachylou said she had to study my shoe collection. Which made me look at my shoes with a different perspective. I also am looking at my shoes through the perspective of nemosmom's question about how we choose the color of our shoes. (My response was about bass fish being attracted to shiny, sparkly lures. I am a bass fish LOL)

There are a lot of boots and a lot of sneakers in my collection. Only 6 pairs of the 25 are not a boot or a sneaker; of those 6 pairs, 5 are flats. I'm not sure what that says about me; but whatever that is, I'm pretty sure I'm not mad about it.

Things get weird for me when I look at the colors, though. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to my color scheme. There's a lot of black (thanks, new job). There are a suitable number of neutrals, overall; but the actual colors? Befuddle me. I really am like a bass fish, drawn to sparkly, shiny, brightly colored things. Metallic sneakers, metallic loafers, purple boots, candy red rain boots, white sandals, white sneakers, off-white ankle boots? These are colors I would normally associate with somebody like Angie, especially the white ones. I do not live Angie's city life; I live in the country-fried middle of nowhere with lots of dirt. And cow patties.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I just know I find it interesting. I'm still drawn to some very dystopian elements, but they're mostly getting mixed in with prettier things now. Maybe I'm enjoying the contrast between a ladylike shade of light purple suede ankle booties and a leather moto jacket being so close to each other in my closet.

Anyway, this is where my shoe collection is after the smoke cleared. Thank you to all of you for all the help with my foot issues.