Pulchritudinous.

I did not make that word up. It means "beautiful".

This is a post. Obviously.

I am oh so very happy. It got up to 60 degrees today. I cannot wait until summer. I hate the cold with all my heart and never wish to feel it again. I guess living in Hurricane has made it so I love the scalding heat, which is what it is like here in the summer. Meanwhile, it is hanging in-between warmness and coldness. The warmness has brought on pretty spring flowers, and the coldness has caused them to die again. Here are some flowers that haven't (and I hope won't) died!

Being a ballet dancer, I must at one point (haha, no pun intended.) take pictures of my feet in pointe shoes. Since I didn't want just one endless stream of pictures of my feet in the same shoes, I decided to take a picture of all my shoes. You might not be able to tell the difference, but I can. I can tell you how each and everyone feels. And I will.

Preview...

1st pair

Principal Pointe

My dance teacher made us painstakingly sew on our own ribbons. We couldn't pierce the satin, which, by the way, is very hard to do. I happily finished them, put them on, and realized that I had sewn one of the ribbons on upside down. So now the elastic that is supposed to go around the back of my ankle (to prevent some sort of ankle ailment) is wrapped around the front of my ankle. I don't think you can see it in this picture.

I know you probably don't want to here this, but I will tell you anyway.

These shoes are very comfortable. The one defect (besides the backwards ribbon) is that I don't have any elastic to hold up the back of the shoe, so it sometimes slips right off my heel. Probably my favorite pair of pointe shoes.

2nd pair

Principal Pointe

My wonderful sister Maria sewed the ribbons and elastic on for me on the handy dandy (and might I say quite faster) sewing machine. She did a marvelous job. Sadly, at the first rehearsal of Nutcracker, I lost them. Never to see them again until 5 months later. They looked like they had been used. They were very broken in when I got them back. Person who took them: I hope they served you well.

The best fitting shoe I have ever had (due to Maria's fabulous sewing skills). Very comfortable, as comfortable as you can get standing on your toes of course.

3rd pair

Principal Pointe

As you can probably tell, my pointe shoe brands didn't vary much. These ones I tried to sew with the machine. Didn't do a very good job. I wore these in the Nutcracker. When I brought them to my teacher to show her, she took them, cut the ribbons, and put tape over the front (the place where you stand on your toes.) It was a new fad that was going around, the tape was supposed to keep your shoes clean. But all it did to mine was make them sticky. I didn't want the tape in the first place. Oh well.

For some reason these shoes just didn't turn out right. They were making me lean back on my pinkie toes (you are supposed to stand on your big toe and second toe), which made me roll back. Which is not good for your ankles. I didn't really like them.

And so... I got new ones. I decided to turn away from Principal Pointe and go to Russian Pointe. I must say, they are really pretty and they fit my feet just right. Can't wait for them to break in though, right now they are as hard as a rock.

4th pair of pointe shoes.

Russian Pointe

I sewed these on the sewing machine. I finally figured out how to make the stitching look good. They were the second pair of pointe shoes that I tried on. The lady that was fitting me was surprised that it took that fast! I was happy though, I don't like pointe shoe fittings.

So far I have had a good experience with them. They are as hard as a rock right now. Which is a common characteristic in Russian pointe shoes. They fit perfectly, and they are beautiful! I love 'em.

My feet and my pointe shoes. So far in my three years of pointe, I've only had one blister. Which should probably be put in the world record book.

Now that you know everything you could ever possibly know about my pointe shoes, good day.