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While visiting the Today.com blogs and videos today, I came across a video from Easy Living called Shopping as a Size Zero. Why’d everybody get so quite? Okay, yes I thought the same thing. Now settle down ladies. It is hard to be petite and shop for clothes, I’m petite at 5’1” and shrinking…umm…in height, and let me tell you, it is very hard to find fashionable clothes in my size that fit me.

Easy Living followed this British woman who recounted visiting New York City and not being able to find any clothes while she was shopping (maybe she was in the wrong part of New York City). So when she returned home she visited some shops that dressed her up in Size 0 couture. At least they think it was couture.

It broke my heart to see her pick up the clothes off the rack and declare each piece too big. It also broke my heart that they kept dressing her in black and grey. Not to mention the stilettos to give her height. Hey, there is nothing wrong with being height challenged.

Watch the video, but I warn you it is over six minutes, a very long six minutes of a woman shopping…for size 0 clothes. Please make sure you are not alone in the house and that you have nothing to beat yourself over the head with incessantly.

So, tell us your biggest problem when shopping for clothes, is it the fashion or the size?

The last thing I want to hear about when I send my daughter off to college is about her field trip to the local brothel. Apparently that is what some parents will hear about after sending their daughters to Randolph College.

Randolph College, of Lynchburg, VA, had a field trip to Chicken Ranch, a desert brothel outside of Las Vegas. Oh! It was a legal brothel, where the college crossed state lines. That is different, I’m sure. I have a whole new perspective on it now.

Surprisingly enough the college was able to schedule the trip without protest from parents. Also surprising was the fact that this is the first class tour requested in 21 years at Chicken Ranch…you don’t say.

If this is the best we have to offer in the college’s American Culture Program I am saddened. It is impressive that they have visited post-Katrina New Orleans, and not so impressive Walt Disney World, but what does it say about our culture to visit Chicken Ranch?

I mean no disrespect to the ladies at Chicken Ranch either. If I recall I remember a great-relative (I won’t say which one), tell me that men have to take care of their needs. However, for the money parents are spending to send girls to college, where they are already being confronted with the needs of men, is it necessary to reinforce what men need and what a business opportunity this is?

The kicker here, and pay attention to this, Randolph College, until recently used to be an all-girls college. Hmmm.

Many of us would rather walk barefoot on coals than try on swimsuits. Have no fear, all you is here.

I just got the May issue of all you and I have to hand it to them, they do a nice job presenting swimsuit wear for the summer.

The magazine is touted as Ideas - Tips - Life with a Reality Check, and they do serve it up. Although their website topic Find your best fit in swimwear doesn’t compare to the magazine presentation it is informative so visit if you can.

In the magazine they have a page with swimsuits sorted out by body types, Pear-shaped, Curvy and Apple-shaped. I think I will rip it out and put it in my purse when I shop for my next swimsuit instead of ripping out my hair.

Oooh, I have a secret admirer in advertising. I noticed all my ads are shoe ads today. But my blog isn’t really about shoes. However this will be good for all the lost people searching for shoes who say “Who is Violette DeSantis and do I want to buy her shoes?”

Mags wants to know if she should click on my ads. Well, it is a great frontier in Ad Land, or is that the Land of Ad…anyway, enter at your own risk is what I always say. My previous post wasn’t exactly the hard sell, it was more about the humor I had continued to find day after day in my ads. I imagine I’ll be more popular if you click away though.

Everyone has been quite polite and never complained and I’m sure if you find me as entertaining as Mags then the ads were of no consequence. I am sorry that you didn’t get a good laugh before the shoe ads appeared though!

Oh well, back to the old drawing board. I am having fun with this blog and love all the people at Today.com, even the mysterious ad person who will probably hear from me soon and wonder why I’ve inquired to have the shoe ads removed from the blog called BigShoes.

I hope I don’t get a reputation like David Letterman.

Today we are going to talk about ads…ads for which I will apologize for, as I have no idea why they show up in the margins of my blog. I think it has something to do with me being a women’s interest site. Perhaps the meaning of women and interest has currently taken on a meaning not meant for us women.

I do think you should browse them though because occasionally quite a good one pops up. Especially if you are like me, looking for Indonesian women or gay men, I’ve always had a problem making up my mind there. How about you? I know it is such a hard habit to break, which is why the financing ad is usually up top.

And what are those ad links in another language? Yes I want some of that too.

But soon we are bored, and it is back to the TV and Movie listings and when we are done wasting time there we can either check out the kitchen blog or the emergency checklists blog for moms. Now see if we were watching our kids we wouldn’t have too much need for that one. And if we had a good catch, we wouldn’t be spending nearly enough time in the kitchen.

What’s your favorite unrelated ad to your blog?

If you haven’t heard the story of the flying priest, you really have to check it out. And no, it is not a joke.

While trying to raise money for a good cause, Father Carli floated off Sunday dangling from 1,000 helium balloons. More than just a cause, Father Carli was looking to break a 19 hour record for most hours flying with balloons. His personal best seems to be four hours which he did covering 70 miles in January. Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton wins despite promising exit polls for Barack Obama. I guess the ones interviewed can’t speak for everyone. I didn’t see any exit polls going on where I voted. Someone must have told them I was coming. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I was guest blogger at The Magnolia Diaries II. Mags pulled one of her favs from our archives.  We are so happy and honored that Magnolia wanted to share BigShoes with her readers.

If you haven’t popped over to The Magnolia Diaries II, you might want to check out her new weekly installment that began last week called Wednesday’s Shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, coming soon to Pennsylvania, USA. That’s right, tomorrow is the big election day. I put on my primary voting shoes and go vote in the crucial Pennsylvania democratic primary election. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama today, however Bill Clinton called yesterday and I just got off the phone with Barack Obama. Sure guys, show up when the work is almost done. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a BigShoes special today, as I will actually talk about some of the fascinating things one could learn about shoes. So, I was doing a little walking across the internet, in the most comfortable shoes I could find and found these little tidbits. Enjoy.

The five most outrageous BigShoes observances about women and their men and shoes: Read the rest of this entry »

Oh my Gosh!!!! Hillary Clinton has called me so many times in the last month. One time she even had enough time to call on her own, instead of one of the Elect Hillary Clinton friends and neighbors.

I’ve been invited to all the latest get togethers while Hillary Clinton is in town. I’ve had to move her number up to my fav five, number two, right after Stephen Colbert of course. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go; Esquire wants our input, real women input that is. They want us to share something that men don’t know about women. To participate, you can read about it here at WIMN’s Voices (Women in Media & News) or at Esquire. Read the rest of this entry »

Well the most exciting part of this week in the midst of the democratic primary race next Tuesday is the fact that Stephen Colbert is in Philadelphia…but I’m married with children.

So while he is spending time with Ben Franklin, Mayor Michael Nutter, Governor Ed Rendell and the Eagles cheerleaders, I’d thought I’d find some Colbert to share with you. Here is one of my personal favorites.

Pay attention single girls…and guys.

There was an article recently about mixed marriages and couples. What was in the mix? A messy person and a neat person. Now I’m no expert on neat, but when I choose to be, I can be organized…you should see the files on my computer. Read the rest of this entry »

No, I’m not going to go on and on about politics, but there is a woman running for president, and just seeing how much further she can run is very fun to watch. I have to run with the Lake Winola thing. She’s boozing, and shooting guns, a real Lake Winola girl.

Lake Winola…just so you all know, either Hillary had been planning that speech for a long time, or it was just timely that she got to use it again.  I found this nice article, and cool video, at The Swamp from September, 2007.  Read the rest of this entry »

Darren Rowse at Problogger has given us something new to celebrate, Blogger Appreciation Day! It may be unofficial, but it is well received. Having always wanted to be a writer, I found the start of my dream in the unlikeliest of all places, blogging.

There are people, who have captured the spirit of a true writing community all over the web, and they’re easy to find, and it is way longer than this list, so forgive me for the others out there that I’ve missed. I thank you all for accompanying me on my journey. Read the rest of this entry »

Stop the presses, Hillary downs a Canadian Whiskey Saturday night. Yes, that was the night I asked you to take the stupid shoe quiz.  What was I thinking? I should have hurried along the news to you that Hillary Clinton was getting wasted on a Saturday night in a bar. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ll keep it shoe simple this evening.  How about I tell you about a fun little shoe quiz I found at About.com?  It won’t take you long it is just 10 questions to evaluate which type of women’s dress shoe you are.  So, Which Type of Women’s Dress Shoe Are You?

I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

Do you like perfume? Enjoy putting on a scent and noticing different things about it each time you wear it? I know you’re thinking, come on, she can’t be real. Hey, ladies, I can get my girly girl on.

I was thinking, let’s do something fun. I want to find some perfume. I’m usually an Avon girl, and I haven’t bought anything outside of Avon in a fragrance since early on in the marriage. Since I like to read the descriptions, and also haven’t bought the right magazines with the dreamy perfume ads since the beginning of marriage (okay, this was all before kids…), I thought it might be nice to explore the internet and see what is going on in the world of perfume. Read the rest of this entry »

Today was a special airing of Mr. Monk Gets A New Shrink, in tribute to the passing of Stanley Kamel, who played Monk’s psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Kroger. Kamel died of a heart attack on Tuesday, at age 65.

Mr. Monk Gets A New Shrink highlighted the five stages of grief today. It is kind of apropos since, having not personally known someone it is probably easy to make it through all the stages, as Monk did in that episode, in a short amount of time, then as we watch each show that features Dr. Kroger, we will relive the five stages of grief over. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, I am on a rant and I have my stomping shoes on.

I’ve only slightly paid attention to the polygamist story in Texas and yesterday, as I noted that the numbers increased to over 400 children being taken from the retreat and over 100 women leaving on their own I surmised, I was like wow, maybe something will be done. Meanwhile, I’m listening over and over and over to the news media declaring the shocking facts to this story.

Shocking? There is nothing new here. What is shocking is that someone is finally doing something about it. The last time they tried to do anything about this it was in the 50’s, I think. We go all over the world “righting” the wrongs of others, spouting off how they treat women over there, and we haven’t solved this problem back home. Read the rest of this entry »

And a very special BigShoes thank you to our friend Brenda Emmett at Weight Reduction Coach  for finding this one. 

If this YouTube video isn’t viral yet, it should be.

It has been said that women talk three times as much as men. Let’s not mince words. Translation, men listen to a third of what women say. I swear they have an overflow valve that handles the two thirds they don’t want to hear. Read the rest of this entry »

What did I say about the month of fools?  Today I couldn’t make it to church because I thought I overslept an hour. Why did I think I overslept an hour?

Because my Emerson Research SmartSet alarm clock reset itself, jumping an hour ahead.  Why did my Emerson Research SmartSet alarm clock reset itself and jump an hour ahead?  Because the government changed the dates for DST, see my rant from a few weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

BigShoes is fairly new and I’m trying to make sure there is something for everyone. I don’t think it will be hard to create a site for women of any age. When you think about it there are two things related to age that we all have in common. One, we were all young once, young and supple and energetic…sorry, I’m falling asleep. Two, we are all going to get old, and I don’t know about you but I plan on getting old gracefully. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that you all are having a great time visiting BigShoes and I hope that you keep coming back.  I do have to comment that the BigShoes comments for Opening Day are real impressive.  I thank you all for the link love and compliments I get over my nostalgic musings on this years baseball season.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s where we hang out when we aren’t making a living blogging and writing elsewhere. Forums are now where we make our friends, talk about family, maybe even talk to our family, or my personal favorite, hide from the family…just kidding!

How many forums can we visit? Should we join? Maybe run from??? Read the rest of this entry »

Now I’m convinced I’m going to have to make the whole month of April the month of foolish observances. Did you hear that Republican presidential hopeful; John McCain, has a list of 20 possible VP’s from which to choose his running mate from prior to the Republican National Convention in September?

Now I hate to be blunt, well maybe not, but that sounds like a dilemma I would have if I were running for president. Read the rest of this entry »

It wasn’t April Fool’s yesterday when I ranted about the newspaper I can’t get rid of and was reminded of the foolish sales technique that will assuredly get me to cancel my paper. And today on April Fool’s, I’m reminded how I can’t get my trash picked up on a regular basis without reminding someone.

Meanwhile living in the wonderful ludicrous state of Pennsylvania approaching a presidential primary… Read the rest of this entry »