The Inapprpriate post: Begging Homeless People and Shoes

I encountered a few pet peeves this morning on my way to work.  One of them is inappropriately hostile beggars (they may have homes or be homeless I guess I really do not know).  Here in Chicago, the street people who ask for money are kind of hostile and forward.  They will heckle you as you walk past them, call you names if you don't give them money or the food you are carrying, and they yell at you to give them the money in the first place.  Now I know things are rough for a lot of people, but I am not one of those people who is rolling in the dough.  I am trying to get myself fiscally responsible, but it is a project for me as yet.  If I lost my job, it could be really bad really fast.  So I get that desperate times call for desperate measures, but I don't get how they think yelling at people is a good strategy to get those same people to give them money.  Also, on the same front, shaming them with yelling when they don't pay out seems not the best strategy to get them to pay you or any other street person.  Now, the street performers don't seem to do this.  It seems only to be the purview of the more homeless looking beggars.  But I just don't like it.  I don't like getting screamed at on the street because (as happened this morning) I did not buy a scary homeless person breakfast.  I didn't buy myself breakfast either.  I had it at work, as I have been lately because I have been broke since the middle of last week to payday on Friday which means I eat what is already at my house and I eat food at Sam's house and with Sam, and I usually take his leftovers for lunch.  In fact, if it weren't for him my situation would be way more dire this week, doable, but would involve ramen as my primary meal and cereal from the breakfast stores at work for both lunch and breakfast.  But anyway, not buying anyone breakfast at all not me, not homeless crazy person, and please do not yell at me about it.  Not cool.  Just not cool.

 

I also encountered inappropriate shoes.  Now, I encounter them everyday on office people who are obviously wearing non-office shoes with their office clothes on the way to work because they want to save their feet on the walking portion of their day or because summer in Chicago is freaking hot and sandals may just need to happen.  That is totally fine.  That is not the choice to go with their outfit, that is the choice to get through high powered blocks worth of fast walking and not all heels meet those specifications and not all outfits should have flats as an alternative, so fine wear the tennies or the flip flops to get to work and pull the sassy slingbacks out of your bag or your bottom desk drawer or wherever, and rock the whole look in the office and out at lunch and maybe even after work at dinner or drinks, that's totally cool with me.  All that I ask, is that when you put together a whole fancy outfit consider please your shoes.  Even with a non-fancy outfit consider the shoes.  Just think about things like your pant length (or skirt length) and think about the colors and the whole look as you consider what shoes to wear.  Not just any shoe will do, it can wreck the whole look or make the whole look.  I am not a person who advocates always match the bag to the shoes and always wear heels or anything like that.  I can and do get behind the funky and the dramatic, but even then it needs to work and not look merely like you were stuck playing dress up in a costume box and just threw any old thing on.  Bright silver Mary Janes cannot go with everything.  I know this because I have some.  They are really light and therefore almost have to be treated as white shoes and they are inherently dressy because the sparkle.  That doesn't mean you can't pair them with something casual, that just means you must make sure that the look can handle a little upgrade.  So, chiquita banana outside the Hilton on Delaware wife beater tank, and ripstop cargo pants (even in nice pretty white) is maybe not ready for slightly heeled silver mary jane's.  Maybe not quite what you are going for there.