Enjablog

So, I found out last week that I’m going to a shipyard this week for work. This means steel toed boots. You’d think that working in my industry for 5 years now, I would already have a pair for the occasional trips I take to shipyards. But you’d also be wrong.

There was only one time I was really supposed to have steel toed boots and that was a ship check I went on 3 years ago. I wore regular boots and no one really cared. There wasn’t much construction going on anyway… not that they were ever working when I walked by either. All the other times, I should have had them, but I was going when everything was cleaned up for civilian walk-throughs, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Anyway, I figured since I would need them occasionally anyway, I should just get a pair and be done with. Oh, how I wish I had gone to the trouble of getting them 3 years ago.

I asked around where other people (work, friends, family…) had gotten theirs. Target, Walmart, etc. All common places that sell shoes. Ok, no big deal, right? Oh wait… They only sell men’s shoes? Right… Because men work in construction sites and need boots. Women? They can just stand in the kitchen making pie. You don’t even need shoes for that.

So, I spent part of my afternoon looking around stores and finding nothing. I’m a women’s size 6.5-7, which according to the size chart at Target looked like I was a boys size 6. Turns out boys don’t need steel toe boots either. Go figure.

I came home and looked online to see where I could find shoes and my first hit was:
Where to buy Women’s steel toed boots before tomorrow??

Unfortunately for me, that was for Seattle. But they gave me some good leads. And then I ended up ordering from Zappos anyway, so I probably didn’t need that site. Even ordering from them, I had some trouble. The first pair I tried to order had sold out of my size and another pair didn’t come in my size. It’s not like I have an abnormal size foot for a woman!

Finally I found a pair I liked and ordered them. And then realized that I didn’t do 1-day shipping. Having those shoes show up in a week isn’t going to do me any good. I called Zappos’s 24/7 customer service line and explained what I had done and asked if it would be possible to change the shipping on it. I assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal since it’s Sunday and there’s no way it would’ve shipped out that quickly. The lady on the phone was so nice and said she would fix that right away and just as a thank you for calling them, she would change it to next-day shipping for me at no extra charge! So, just for messing up, I get free shipping. Woo!

We’ll see how this works out. But I’m expecting the boots to show up on Tuesday and I fly out Wednesday morning. *Crossing fingers.*