After 2 hours in line and a few hundreds dollars less, I met SJP (who shook Cecilia's hand and wrote my name correctly).

This is not it.

The combination of being a fashion freak + a #shoesaholic causes already chills of danger. Nothing simple or understated can possibly generate out of it.

It all started like this

This was early in the am. And, in case you wonder, we still can't decide if her eyes are blue or grey, but they are captivating and bewitching.

Below is what I woke up to on Saturday morning. As I needed any other reminder while getting my eyes to open at 6 am to take Cec to her oh-so-delighful rowing practice at the crack of dawn.

When in Nordstrom

There were people coming from Tampa who stood in line from 5 am. It was heavily pitched, publicized, advertised and social media hyped.

Appearance was scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm. We descended the escalators at 1 pm to find all papz pointing at us and women staring. We thought 'wow' and they thought 'who are these? where is Sarah?' The line (a mile long enveloping the entire first floor) was starting in front of the escalators where she was expected to come from. But we didn't know that part.

We were greeted and nonchalantly stationed at the very end of the mile long line, offered chic mini bites of pizza and no champagne, but invited to a shoe associate to attend our desires.

'He can come here, if you know what you want to buy, or you can go, but loose your spot.'

We killed 2 birds with one stone by me going and leaving Cec in line a.k.a., fresh flesh for the paws of who at a glance looked voraciously aggressive wild women. The usual motherly recommendation 'keep the phone with you, I'll be at the shoes department' didn't make me feel any better ('what will she remember and tell her friends?').

Needless to say, I knew my collection, the names of my favorite styles and of course my size. [They are Made in Italy, like me, hence a high price/quality ratio and they'll fit like a glove]. No shit .

'Hi Susie, pleased to meet you. Can you please bring me a Carrie in Cream and a Slim in avio suede both in 38 1/2? And it's 1:15 pm, my daughter is in line, I will look at them and buy the one I want. No need to try.'

This is how it looked from the shoe department

Do I have to mention the cat-fight I had to witness between my sales associate (A) and another (B) when the other (B) found out that (A) was going to make a commission out of sale of a pair of 'Carrie' (MINE) that was found abandoned on the floor, with no owner around? After moments of commotion culminated with the floor manager called as a referee on a ring, turned out thet (B) assumed that MY Carrie were indeed the SAME pair of shoes she had reserved on pre-sale for a client. They were the SAME shoe in the SAME size. Not cool.

Lost?

All you have to gather from the above: la Francesca GOT her pair of shoes and went back to the line. Switched with Cec who went at the escalators because 'she is coming any moment now'.

There she comes

This is what Cec was able to snap before being swept away and run over by a couple of pick-up-track-sized women. Pretty damn good indeed.

So she's wearing my shoes in black [conversation point in my pocket].

Atmosphere was calm, relaxed and well kept under control. We ended up befriending a group of women next in line to us and have a blast (I wish they could have sent me their names and the pictures we took, they were fabulous and opinionated like us and we formed an immediate bond).

A chongalicious situation happened when someone in line, behind us, decided that trying to bypass the line of a 100 women and convince the sales person that she deserved the spot, was the one thing to do. Overall, who has the time to wait for another hour? I don't even need to tell you what happened to the rachet-y girl.

The guys above are 2 fab Nordstrom stylists and, to say it like one of our SJP fandom friends, 'I can't even get close to his look if I wake up at 3am'

Then it happened

While she was signing my right shoe and Cecilia was trying to make her sign the box, conversation was flowing from 'I love your ring' (Cecilia) to her spelling my name correctly (that's where her eyes looked at mine, letter by letter) to 'You girls look so good' (SJP)

I could not stop cataloguing and branding all she was wearing, everything was outstandingly enviable. To begin with the white blouse under a strapless (or almost) dress that is trending. Or the stacked rings oh, and the stirrups. Wearing a pair of shoes will never be the same.

Then one of our SJP fandom friends screamed: 'You gotta see her socks' referring to mine (and yes mom, I was wearing cashmere socks + bronze Oscar de la Renta T straps).

It was a thing in the line, while we were all prepping on what we were going to say to SJP to avoid the star-struck face and a blank mind, they suggested I mention my shoes + socks that would kill her. So I told her and those grey eyes sparkled: 'Let me see'. Came out of the table + chair, as minute as gorgeous, 'ohh love them, but girl I love the whole look. They look like Tango shoes' and the 'they are Oscar de la Renta' was my name dropping of the episode.

Done. Cec is not pleased that she misspelled her name to Cecelia and, as a consolation, I told her she was lucky enough to have been SaraJessicaParker-ified like Idina Menzel had been Travoltified.

The End.