Last night I went out to celebrate my friend Julie’s 25th birthday. She asked that I drop her name in my blog post today, so there you go Julie 
I decided to make the night not just a celebration, but also somewhat of an experiment in height. Normally I wear the flattest flats possible – especially when going out with a group of girlfriends who are much shorter than I am. But last night I broke out the heels I mentioned a few posts ago (http://tallorder.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/heels-vs-flats/). Admittedly, women who wear heels all the time probably wouldn’t think mine were all that high – I’d say they are about 1.5-2 inches – but they are the highest heels I own. So with my heels I was around 6 feet tall.
I left the apartment in my heels and got to the party. I arrived and we basically sat around for a few hours having a couple drinks and chatting – no height issues involved here When we all got ready to go to the bar I of course got my shoes back on and was VERY consciously aware that I was the tallest person in the room – girls and guys included. We went out into the elevator. Has anyone ever noticed that elevators are the worst places for feeling tall? Something about the confined space and that lots of elevators have mirrors all around them I think. Anyway, at the bar I was no longer the tallest person but was still feeling pretty tall standing with my group. I should say that since I knew I was doing this experiment I was probably a little more aware of being tall than I might normally be. Anyway, here are a few things I noticed:
- With the loud music I had to actually lean down to hear my friends talk which wasn’t overly great… so 1 point goes to flats.
- When I was walking around the bar without my friends I didn’t feel like I was being stared at really, in fact I felt just fine. So 1 point goes to heels.
- In the bathroom a girl told me she liked my shoes – so another point goes to heels.
- I ran into some old coworkers at the bar (worked with them about 4 years ago) – one commented that I had gotten EVEN TALLER. So I showed him my heels. Problem solved… I guess? I also had to lean down to talk to him. So one more point goes to flats.
I’m not sure what conclusions to make from my little experiment (ending in a 2-2 tie heels vs. flats), other than to say that my concerns with my heels were more to do with logistics (hearing people talk) than actually feeling overly self-conscious (even though I will honestly say that I did feel that way a couple times).
I’ll have to wear them out again sometime soon and see how I feel. You never know… heels might even win next time around!
