One of the bonuses of leaving the world of DC lawyer-lobbyist for the Internet side of corporate America was the clothing. Gone were high-maintenance suits, heels, and hose; replaced with shirts & nice pants, and later, giant maternity dresses.

In short, I no longer have much in the way of “lawyer clothes” and what I do have, 90% was purchased before 2003, and long before my two pregnancies.

So there are some wardrobe challenges facing the new job.

But even more than wardrobe challenges, there are shoe challenges.

We can’t find our shoes.

That’s a slight exaggeration, but not a lot. Both Jill and I put some shoes in our “everyday luggage” when we moved, but nearly all of our shoes got packed in the “get the house ready to sell” phase of packing. Unfortunately, the people who did that packing for us didn’t label any of the boxes. Determining which of those…50?…boxes contains our shoes requires opening all of them until we find them.

And frankly, at least for me, it might not be worth the effort.

I’m pretty sure that if I put my mind to it, I could count all of the shoes I’ve purchased since I was pregnant with Noah: black super-flat mary janes, dark red loafers, white athletic shoes, tevas, nike teva-type sandals, super-casual funky keds-type slip ons, rain boots, snow boots, and dress boots. Oh and some black patent leather sandals that I wore to work last summer, and maybe another pair of shoes I bought online last spring.

I think it averages to 2 pair of shoes per year, and of those, I wore 2 pair of those to work 90% of the time, and another 3 at home or after work/weekends for 90% of that time, over the last 4 years.

My “work shoes” wardrobe was in even worse shape than my “work clothes” wardrobe, that’s my only point with all that.

So perhaps I can be forgiven for buying 4 pair of shoes at DSW today. FOUR. Four pair of pumps with heels!

I hope I can still remember how to walk in this kind of shoe.

Now, I would not be admitting to the whole entire Internet how crazy I went today if I hadn’t gotten great deals. I spent a grand total of $103. And I now have:

• Black, patent-leather Bandolinos, discounted 40%
• Funky black Mary Jane pumps, discounted 50%
• Red, faux snakeskin Bandolinos, discounted 30%
• Brown, suade & patent slingback Franco Sartos, discounted 70%

And none of them are open-toed, so I can continue to ignore any stray thoughts of getting a pedicure. You know, in my spare time. With my spare money.

I also bought a suit this week, for $70. I think that between the few that are still salvageable from my previous career plus what Jill took to Texas plus this plus borrowing from Mom will get me through the summer. (Maybe I can even return Mom’s shoes.)

And HOPEFULLY by the end of the summer, the economy and my employment will be on their way to long-term good health.