the story of how erin got new tevas

it was a dark, cloudy night in lao. but the clouds were stratocumulus clouds, low the the ground, and lit by the full moon of the laotian new year. there was lightening, but no thunder. macca tried to hijack some lao beer beer bottles for 3,000 kip at another bar, open until midnight. in the four minutes it took us to be rejected from our venture, someone took my tevas as their own from the front porch of the bar. they were almost the same size. they were not the same color or pattern, an easy mistake in the dark, dark, cloudy night. i, unknowingly, put on the wrong tevas and tripped my way back to my bunglow, not discovering until i was hurrying to the boat for main land the next morning that--

1. i had the wrong tevas
2. they fit better than my old ones
3. they were in way better condition than my old ones. mine have been glued once on this trip, not all that well, and have no traction left.

or should i say, used-to-have-been-mine. i had to go. i heard from an irish girl on our bus to bangkok that an older british lady was wandering around in a stupa (lao joke) trying to figure out how she got the wrong sandals two nights ago. at least we both still have sandals. hers (mine now) may have been in better condition, but mine (hers now) were way, way cuter.

the funny thing, well, it's all funny really, is that i was going to give those sandals two more weeks and then chuck them and dish out the big bucks for some new chacos in mumbai. i have been waiting for two summers for those sandals to die so that i could justify chacos. i dont' know if i can justify the purchase now. well actually, of course i can. i need shoes to match all the awesomeness i'm buying in bangkok. right?