Manolo says, it is Monday and you are back at your desk working hard to insure that your family does not go without the latest cell phones, the newest laptops computers, and the new flat screen television in every room in the house (well, maybe not the three and the half bathrooms). Yes, you are leaving the house at seven-thirty every morning, and then trading away your precious time so that your family can distract itself to death, so that your teenagers can develop well-muscled, dexterous thumbs, and your husband can watch sporting events at any hour of the day.

Remember when you were the little kid and your uncles and aunts would sometimes get together at your grandparents’ house, where they would drink highballs and smoke cigarettes and entertain each other with funny stories and old songs?

Your relatives had these hilarious tales they would tell each other, properly embellished with wild gestures and perfect mimicry. Your Uncle Bill’s were the best. And even though all the cousins were racing around the yard, in and out of the house, playing various games, when Uncle Bill started talking about his time in the Army and his crazy friends, you sat right down on the floor and listened to him, because it was like the funniest episode of Sgt. Bilko ever made. Better even.

And now he is gone. And so are your grandparents, and Dad, and the few others you desperately miss.

But that is the nature of things. You get old and you miss how things used to be.

Sigh.

Perhaps you need to look at some pictures of beautiful shoes. Something simple, understated and elegant, something maybe your grandmother, who was the great beauty, would have worn when she was younger.

Something like these classic Jimmy Choo Lizard-Embossed Peep-Toe Mary Janes.

Beautiful!