dig them shoes

So my friend is looking for two new pairs of shoes, one to go with a specific skirt before The Season is past and another for a wedding. The wedding is in Italy and she is in the wedding, so the shoes have to be fabulous. We spent a good part of Thursday looking at every pair of strappy sandals in, perhaps, ten stores. By the end, we were getting tired and I had to pee like nobody's business. We stopped by one place which will remain nameless only because I can't remember the name, otherwise I would be blasting it all over the place because...(dramatic pause) the sales clerk was such a mean dumbass. R. explained what she needed and why and the girl took her to a pair of shoes that, as R. said, looked like "REI shoes." She meant that they had tough looking straps and buckles and were actually like a pair she'd seen in REI. She reiterated that she needed something classy. Apparently this was too much for the woman to handle because she walked away from us and said something sotto voce to her co-worker. I assume it was something mean and probably catty, possibly even directed at innocent me who was dressed down, way down, while R. looked cute and matched and had just had her hair done. As we were leaving, R. said, "So, you don't have anything else to show me?" and the woman shouted over her shoulder, "What we have is out!" I said to R. "Somebody took her bitch pills this morning, huh?"

We never did find those elusive strappy sandals.