Brooke's New Tennis Shoes

My sister Brooke is almost three years older than me, and has always been somewhat of a fashion and beauty mentor to me. I swear she came out of the womb with an innate sense of style. Her entire life, she has a been a paragon of grace, beauty, poise, and ultra-femininity. Here's a recent pic of her and her punkin' of a husband, Tom:


My mother always loved to tell the hilarious story of Brooke's first meeting with her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hector. Mrs. Hector was actually going to the homes of her new students to meet each one of them personally prior to the start of school. Evidently, Brooke inisisted on dressing herself for the occasion, and when Mrs. Hector arrived, Brooke emerged from her bedroom in a long, flowing gown and - this is the best - white gloves, all the way up to the elbows. To this day, she loves everything flowy and flowery, she is always perfectly accessorized, has every hair in place, and without exception, has the most darling shoes on.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I was on the phone with Brooke a few weeks ago and she shared with me how excited she was about her "new tennis shoes". I said, "Tennis shoes? You mean, like, athletic shoes?" And she says, "Yes! They're SO cool!" It wasn't that I was surprised to hear that she had bought athletic shoes - after all, she walks and works out regularly - but I was surprised that she was so excited about it. That's because I was picturing something like this:

A few weeks later, Brooke came into town for a visit. And almost right away, she said to me, "Oh! Look at my new tennis shoes!"

And ya'll. This is what I looked down and saw:

Ok. I seriously almost laughed up a lung. I was like, "Brooke, you have got to be kidding." And she was like, "Whaddya mean?" And I go, "Brooke! What in the name of all that is holy makes you think these are tennis shoes?" And she says, "Well, they're Skechers! And they have a rubber soul!" HAAAA! I said, "Brookie! They have straps and sequins on them! Sequins!"

We were both howling, and we went back and forth like this for a while. And actually, I am still sort of harassing about this to this day.

So...anyway, I just find it so completely cute and charming that she really considers the above shoe to be a sneaker. And I just had to share...