Ladies and gentleman it’s ok to say NO. Time and again I am frequently asked the same simple question. “OMG those shoes are AMAZING, can I borrow them.” And the answer is always the same. NO.
Let me explain here- I am not greedy or selfish. I generously give to many charities. I just don’t like people sticking their feet in my shoes. It’s nothing against the people I know, it’s one of my pet peeves.
FEET SWEAT. No matter how perfect you think you are. It’s not like you can dry clean shoes after they have been worn. Am I not entitled to an opinion on how I want my personal property to be treated? I always have the hardest time explaining this personality quirk to my own daughter, who insists upon shoving her size 10′s into my 8 1/2′s . Besides the obvious fact that a bigger foot would stretch out and break shoes, we are back to the same old FACT- I don’t want your stinking feet in my shoes PERIOD. End of story…(EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT STINKY.)
This brings up a story about a recent trip I took to Napa. My girlfriend asked if she could wear my metallic sheepskin indoor UGG slippers outside to go four wheeling. Besides the obvious NO I don’t want my indoor slippers all dusty from four wheeling and I especially don’t want someone else’s bare feet in my hairy sheepskin slippers. REALLY!?!! She was really insulted and I was forced to explain myself. She said she got it- I don’t know, I do know that I felt bad that I had to explain myself. No should be NO. Bottom line, you should ask.
I have been told by my spiritual healer Kirpaul, that energy is transferred through one’s shoes. She said, “Many cultures women actually burn their shoes after they no longer want them.” Crazy Huh? That’s a whole other set of crazies and rituals. My issues are just the sanitary ones. Anyway… back to the old saying from American Indian folklore “Don’t judge a man until you‘ve walked a mile in his shoes.”To me that’s like me putting on someone elses 
underwear after they have worn them. Who would do that? And that’s why shoe departments make you put on a stocking foot before you get to try on shoes. It’s just a plain ole sanitary issue.
