Life in Flip Flops - An Ode

Photo courtesy CleveMed Blogs

I first want to thank the awesome Karen for choosing my cyber corner as Blog of the Week. I was tickled and though I just mind fart here half the time, nice to know someone likes it.

I had my last exam today. Well, technically I still have another exam after the next 2 weeks of a silly blocked class but at least for now, I can sleep and do normal human things. I am beyond tired. I did not sleep last night. I had this fear of oversleeping. When the body is tired and wants rest and demands it, sometimes even knowing you have something urgent as an exam cannot get your body and mind to respond to stimuli like alarms. I put on 3 alarms on my phone and 2 on my laptop and still felt that a 90 min nap was going to somehow be my undoing. Two classmates were victims of oversleeping this morning, so the possibility was very real. At least in their case, they literally live minutes away from campus. My bus-train-train-train-walk fun was not going to save me from the consequences of oversleeping. But I was good. I finished the exam and then as I sat on the train back, I started crashing. I crashed for a couple hours, woke up, streamed last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy and now I am so hungry I am going to have this evening's second helping of pelau.

There were just a couple photos I wanted to share - nothing earth shattering but I read a lot of things during the week. Sadly most of it is school work, but I do love the odd news story.

First...

Photo courtesy Yahoo News (I think)

The big uproar about the President of the United States wearing flip flops this week, was amusing. Isn't AIDS still a global epidemic? Isn't there a war going on? Don't the American press have anything better to do than report on a man's choice of footwear while he is on vacation? I mean, really - what is the big deal? If he were meeting, I dunno, Vladimir Putin at the White House with a pair of rubber flip flops on his feet, then sure...national emergency. But the dude was on vacation. In Hawaii. I have been on vacation in Hawaii. Guess what? People wear flip flops there. It's a flip flops kinda place. And as my blog name suggests, I cannot hate a man who kicks back in a pair of flip flops.

It reminded me of this British dude I know. We went to the beach one weekend, back home, in the lovely and awesomely hot Trinidad, and he was wearing a pair of green sneakers, or as the Brits call them - trainers. Besides being a hideous shade of green, my main concern - sneakers? On a hot day, on the beach? The sand was pretty hot and I asked him if he wanted to borrow my extra pair of flip flops (when I say life in flip flops, I am not kidding). They were not hot pink or cuddly blue or anything. They were regulation black, standard, boring, unisex flip flops. He insisted he was fine with his green trainers. I insisted in my mind that those things were too hideous for me to be seen in public with him. The truth was, and I learned this after a few minutes of failed coaxing, growing up and living in London, he had never ever EVER worn a pair of flip flops and he sheepishly admitted that he did not know how to walk in them. Flabbergasted I was, lemme tell ya. Never worn flip flops? That is a tragedy too enormous for my poor Caribbean mind to comprehend.

Montego Bay flip flops from Payless
are a staple in my cupboard

I mean, being here this time of year, I can understand the need for boots and closed toed shoes. Everytime I am late and rummaging through my cupboard for a hat or a scarf or some other cold-beating accessory that I may have unceremoniously flung in the corner, I notice my cute purple flip flops - alone, unloved, waiting patiently for warmer weather. Flip flops I beat every weekend back in Trinidad.Wake up Saturday morning, pull on a pair of jeans, a cute tank top and a matching pair of girlie flip flops - head to the mall, the movies, the restaurant. God, I miss that. On the bright side, life in fluffy socks, fluffy slippers and boots means the emphasis on pedicures is not that intense. So Mr Obama, rock those flip flops. My only concern with the photo are those macaroni legs, honey. I love you, but not the legs.

Well, my ode to the flip flop went on longer than I expected so my other mindlessly random photo, I will post tomorrow. Maybe I can do mindlessly random photos every day. It is such a blessing when I can sit in bed, with my laptop, typing a blog post and not feeling harried or guilty because I need to get back to the books. I can write more than 200 words about rubber slippers and how much I love them.

I'm so tired and hungry though. I don't know if I can even make it to the kitchen, I am so exhausted. And to think I wanted to go out tonight. This right here, home in socks and jammies - best night ever.