Blood Test Blues Beget New Shoes -- And Also Happy Endings

I'd just read a book that left a bad taste in my mouth (I've endured many a dud that I've spared you) and was in need of something super sweet.  Enter Kerry Winfrey's Just Another Love Song.  It's about a small-town girl and the high-school-sweetheart-turned-country-music-star who got away.  They meet again fifteen years later while planning the annual summer fair, an event bursting with bake-offs and corndogs in a charming if sometimes caricatured tribute to the Midwest.  Now, it isn't the best romance I've ever read.  It's not even the best Winfrey romcom I've ever read (that would be Not Like the Movies).  But it was amusing and cheerful and soothing.  And with that other sordid story still fresh in my mind -- plus a trip to Lab Corp looming -- it was exactly what I needed.  

Indeed, as the phlebotomist prepped me, I was already buried in its pages, prompting her to ask if I was okay. "Yes," I said, still not looking up, "I've got my book friend here."  I actually uttered those words: book friend.  But I didn't care.  Because through years of trial and error, I've learned that books get me through icky stuff, however weird and antisocial it may seem to others.  So a shoutout to all the authors out there who weave worlds to take us out of ourselves -- and our less-than-ideal day-to-days.

And also a shoutout to Samantha over at PinkBopp and The Big Hair Diaries, who generously shared the Amazon link for these adorable blue flats: 

Shoes: Amazon

I know, I know.  I'm supposed to be on a buying ban.  And one month in, I still am (as recently as today, I resisted 10% Rakuten cashback from Kohl's; how strong am I?).  But for me, getting blood drawn always means getting a small prize, and I wasn't about to deny myself because of some self-imposed fashion fasting (especially because I'd had enough of actual fasting).  And these ten-dollar beauties were just the thing.  Cute and retro, they remind me of the earlier 2000s when I last had a pair, marveling at their cloud-like comfort as I crawled the mall.  Now the mall is mostly empty storefronts and subpar pizza.  Although to be fair, even in its heyday, food court pizza wasn't that great.

So that's how buying the blues -- and reading about a guy singing the blues -- made me feel anything but.  

Just Another Love Song may be just another romcom.  But to me it was a symphony.