Ah, not a pair!

                Ah, not a pair!
My dear reader, so we meet again! You read the title and probably thought that this story would be about a couple of people—a bride and groom, husband and wife, or in extreme cases, grandfather and grandmother. But you would not have guessed right! A couple can be made up of things—for example, a pair of trousers, a pair of jackets, a pair of socks, a pair of gloves or, finally, a pair of shoes—what we’ll be talking about today.
 
But first I want to talk about people’s natural desire to sleep. Out of habit of asking my readers questions, I now ask: “Do you believe in dreams or premonitions?” Many respond “yes” to this question, without hesitation. I, for instance, check the meaning of my dream in my Dream Book.
If you saw two different shoes, for instance, this foreshadows separation for a long time.
This is how Wikipedia describes drowsiness:
"Dreams are the subjective perception of auditory and visual images that arise in one’s consciousness. Everything that a person sees in a dream reflects impressions, thoughts, dreams, experiences, events of everyday life. When images appear, a sleeping person does not realize that they are asleep—they perceive everything that happens to them in the dream as reality: they talk to people, solve problems, and perform certain actions. "               
               
Everyone loves a good sleep, but not everyone can—especially the elderly. Ah well, sadly, you can’t do anything about it—you can’t trick your age!
In Ukraine and in Russia it is customary to take off shoes when entering the house, and walk around the apartment in slippers. But we have been living in America for many years, in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Our city is very clean—the garbage is taken out on time, and the streets (and some of the sidewalks) are cleaned. Guests who come over to our house do not take off their shoes and wear slippers. This does not mean that our floor is dirty, because the home vacuum cleaner works properly. My husband is in charge of this job.

               

Let's return to the idea of sleepiness. Dreams can be different—whether funny, scary, colorful, black and white, nightmarish, or pleasant. People can sleep in any pose, and anywhere, when they are tired or even have a headache.
So, sleeping induces dreams—some of which we do not remember, but others of which create stress, anxiety and a desire to change something in our lives.
One evening, after my grandchild fell asleep, I decided to fall into the arms of Morpheus (the God of sleep) a little early. I checked to make sure the closet was in order and noticed my shoes, their beauty and color, as if they had been waiting for their owner to put them on. I closed my eyes and immediately fell into a deep sleep. But suddenly, I heard a noise coming from the closet. I sat up in the bed and listened…oh my God! All my shoes suddenly crawled into the bedroom, occupying the entire floor. Moreover, shoes and sandals, boots and slippers began to talking loudly amongst themselves! They were upset by the fact that I very rarely wear them—that I was playing favorites, and not paying attention to some of the others. Poor shoes—they missed me! I sat, frightened with my legs tucked under me, trying not to breathe loudly so that the offended shoes would not notice me! Oh, what horror!
The stamping, groaning, and movement across the floor continued for a long time. Finally, the room became quiet. I decided to see what happened… there was nothing on the floor! I looked in the closet and was dumbfounded! My shoes were on the shelves, but they were mismatched! A red and a blue shoe here, a green and a yellow shoe there… oh, mamma mia! What happened?
It seems that reading children's poems affected my dream, and I had a terrible dream! Ay-ay-ay.      
In the morning, I checked the shoes in the closet—everything was in place and in order. But I could not calm down and decided to read up on whether it was possible to wear mismatched shoes. What do you think? What's so shameful about leaving the house like this? Will every passerby look at you like—excuse my language—someone who’s not quite OK? Or will they instead admire your bright, multi-colored shoes, shining in the sun?
It turns out, yes, you can wear shoes of different colors!
Here is a webpage where you can read about this abnormal phenomenon: Some think that wearing mismatched shoes looks “clownish.” It turns out that we just did not know yet that this would become a fashion trend! But if you still face the problem of “red or black,” or “green or yellow,” then buy two pairs of identical shoes in different colors!
There are some fashionistas who also buy two identical pairs of shoes of different colors. Not only bold young people, but also true style icons like Amal Clooney and Miroslava Duma. To be honest, these names did not mean anything to me until I read this article.
Some brands take care of their extravagant customers and produce ready-made, multi-colored pairs of shoes.
Multicolored shoes, interestingly, captivate not only women, but also men.
               
And then it dawned on me: I had had such an experience in my life! It’s no secret that I had worked in school for 40 years, including in the US. I tried to teach Russian to foreigners as much as possible. I remember that, when I was studying at the Linguistics Institute in our city, an English teacher would show us different objects and explain what they were called in English. One day, she opened a window in the classroom and called us over. The teacher showed a brick in the wall of the house and called it “brick.” I remembered that word forever.
So, this is what happened with me. I was teaching students in high school—the classes were hard, and pictures and photos helped me illustrate new vocabulary. The theme was “clothes and shoes.” And one day I was standing near the blackboard, showing the students these photos, and then I think to myself: “I'll show them my shoes to demonstrate!”
I call the children closer and say: “My shoes are called ‘tufli.’” And suddenly, with horror, I see that my shoes are of different colors, one black, and the other beige! The students calmly looked at the shoes and repeated the word. Can you imagine what happened to me? My face turned red, then pale, and I burst out laughing, not able to calm down. My students’ faces remained the same, as they did not understand what was happening to me. I barely survived until the end of classes, waited until the school was empty, and quickly ran to my car, ashamed and embarrassed. Ever since then, before going out on the street, I would carefully check the shoes that I was wearing.
Several years passed, and I had forgotten about that incident. One day, my younger son, Sasha, came to visit me with his son, Daniel. Daniel had gotten new sneakers and was showing them to us. So, I decided to tell them my embarrassing story about my shoes—I watch the faces of my son and grandson, which were unchanged. No one was laughing. And my grandson says: “Grandma, for America, this is normal. Children and even adults can easily wear mismatched shoes or socks. I’m a fan of this—look at my socks.” I looked, and he was wearing one orange sock and another bright blue one! And he added: “I would gladly wear mismatched shoes, too, but my parents do not buy me two pairs at once, because my leg is growing by leaps and bounds!”
Well, what can you do? Not everyone can keep up with fashion!