Looking For Shoes

Hey all.

For those of you who don't know, I lost my one and only sparring match at this past week-end's tournament. It was a close match, and I came home with bronze because of the way the tree fell.

I won't get into the gory details. Suffice it to say I'm not impressed with my performance, and I'll be working diligently to improve the situation before the next tourney.

On to other matters at hand...

I'd like to get a pair of Taekwondo shoes. I'd like something I can wear around the dojang (since I spend a few hours there several times a week, between my own classes and my son's), as well as at tournaments while warming up. I learned at this last tourney that warming up in bare feet on the cold, concrete floors of the high-school hallway is not a pleasant experience - even for those of us with the most weathered "Taekwon-toes" in the dojang.

I probably won't train in them, since we're not allowed shoes at tournaments, and we're taught to train the way we compete.

Here's where it gets interesting...

I'm looking for a style to match my latest girl-power-themed mid-life crisis.

Hitting the Big 4-0 was something that took me completely by surprise. Not the number itself, although I shied away from even thinking the number until the very last possible minute. No, it was the manner in which my mid-life manifested itself.

I've never been a girly-girl. I never understood the concept of "make-up" or "wardrobes" or "shoe fetishes" the way my friends all did. Shopping gave me a headache. Every stitch of clothing I owned was either black or red...not a drop of pink or purple to be found. I've spent several decades sporting the same bland, utilitarian Timex watch, small gold hoop earrings and no other jewelry to speak of.

I still don't think I'm "girly" per se.

But my 40th birthday brought with it a sudden, inexplicable, and somewhat scary appreciation for the more feminine things in life.

Like my new purple, flowery cell phone with the Bluetooth earpiece that is bedecked with Swarovski crystals so it looks like I have a cross between the Star Trek triangle emblem and a disco ball stuck in my ear.

And my pink iPod with the matching pink aluminum case that I had laser-etched with my name and a flaming horse.

And my new short, spiky, sassy haircut that is modeled after the one Halle Berry sported in her Catwoman movie - after she develops the feline 'tude, of course.

Right...back to the shoes. What I'm looking for is something functional, yet feminine. Pink would be preferable. Something shiny would not be frowned upon, either. But it has to be something that won't dent or mark the mats in the dojang, and something I can do light work-out/warm-up work in.

What do you all think? Any suggestions? Reviews? Favourite on-line shopping sites for all things "martial arts"? Lay it on me, folks! :)