He
believed the shoes she just bought from a clearance sale event should
be her 46^th pair.   He knew that because he never stopped
counting how many shoes she actually owned.   Folks, all 46 pairs of
shoes were just her dress shoes, not including her casual shoes and
sneakers.   Because her dress shoes were a lot more expensive than
her casual shoes and sneakers, so he only counted the number of the
dress shoes she collected.

“ Do
you want to see my new shoes? I got a very good deal, saving a lot
of money ! ”   Holding a luxury-looking shoe box in front of him,
she looked sweet, exuding a lot of self-satisfaction.

“ I
really don't know what motivated you to buy so many totally
unnecessary and extremely expensive shoes you seldom wear.   How many
pairs of shoes do you really need? ”   Showing a poker face, he
didn't look very happy.

“ What
do you mean “totally unnecessary ” ?   I think it's totally
necessary for me to collect as many nice shoes as I could, because it
is the only hobby that I have.   Unlike some of my friends, I am not a
pampered housewife.   I don't spend a penny on luxury fitness center
or on any country club.   I don't own expensive jewels and handbags.  
I seldom eat out in luxury restaurants.   I travel a lot less than I
did in the past.   I never squander money in casino gambling.   I
never max out my credit cards and most importantly I work very hard
so it's fair to reward myself with something I like.   What's wrong
with that?   Besides, it's just a pair of shoes, not a new car !  
Would that bankrupt you?   What if I buy a new car every 3 or 4
years?   Would you get mad?   Oh, by the way, how many computers and
electronic devices have you bought or collected in the past 10 years?  
And why did you buy so many stuff you really don't need? “   
Immediately fighting back with her tremendous firepower, she looked
ferocious when questioned.

“ I
am not saying you waste money.   What I mean is that you still need
to find a lot of space to store these shoes, right?”    Obviously he
didn't want to pick up a fight against her.

“ Don't
you think you need more space to store your old computers?   Don't
you think buying these high quality shoes is an investment? ”

“ An
investment?”

“ Yes,
the shoes made in Italy, for example, would probably be getting more
expensive because of inflation and currency issues.   In my opinion,
the Euro would be once again appreciating steadily against the
dollar.   The dollar's value will fall again, so it would take more
dollars to buy products priced in Euros.   Today you pay a thousand
dollars to buy a pair of new shoes. Tomorrow you may pay more to
get them.   Have you ever heard that a penny saved is a penny earned?
  That's why I said it's an investment.   It's not like buying
computers.   The value of a new computer would drop a lot faster than
that of a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo, because of the rapidly
emerging technologies.   New technologies will make a lot of stuff
outdated or even worthless very, very fast.   If you sell your
3-year-old computer, how much would you get?   I bet you wouldn't get
30% of what you paid three years ago.   More importantly it's not
easy to find a buyer to buy your old computers.  Tell me honestly who
would buy your 19-inch CRT monitor?   But a pair of high quality shoes
is different.   A pair of fine shoes is like an exquisite piece of
art.  It gives me a lot of pleasure to see it.  It's always a
pleasure to appreciate a nice piece of art, isn't it?   Other than
that, I believe I would easily get a lot of offers if I decided to
sell my almost brand new shoes with top-of-the-line brand names.”   
Every time when they had similar issues, she was always able to find
some plausible excuses to justify her deviating behavior and to fight
back when necessary.

“ My
computers are necessities.   I need them everyday.   But your shoes
...” Peeping her cheerless face unwittingly, he decided to end
this meaningless conversation immediately.

“ You
know what?   I always feel very relaxed while spending some time in
high-end shoe stores to see a lot of gorgeous shoes and to try them
on.  I would even feel more relaxed after walking out of the shoe
stores with a pair of nice shoes in my shopping bag.  Recently I've
been working under huge amount of pressure.   I feel more stressful
than ever when stepping into my office.   You know stress could
develop into an anxiety disorder.  An anxiety disorder, if left
untreated, could develop into depression.  A depression, under the
worst case scenario, could take my life.   Is that what you want,
huh? So it's very important for me to get rid of stress.  Buying a
pair of fine shoes would help me a lot on this issue.   Sure it would
cost some money, but It's still cheaper to buy a pair of shoes than
to treat mental illness, right? ”    She talked slowly, firmly and
a little bit persuasively.

“ Oh
really? “ He really wanted to say something to ridicule her, but
decided not to do so on second thought.

Folks,
46 pairs of shoes were a lot of stuff.   Without proper management,
they would create a mess.  You may be interested to know how she
managed, organized and recognized so many shoes.   There was no doubt
that she was an extremely organized woman.   She wouldn't mess things
up no matter what. What she did was that she simply took pictures
for each pair of her shoes, loaded the pictures from her digital
camera to her computer, and printed them out.  As each pair of her
shoes came with a shoe box, so after putting each pair of her shoes
in the individual box, she pasted the shoes pictures on each shoe
box in order for her to recognize thereafter.   She then put all the
shoe boxes on the shelves in her walk-in closet.   She put 10 shoe
boxes in one vertical stack.   46 boxes made 4 and 6/10 stacks
accordingly.  Every time when she needed to decide which pair of
shoes to wear to match her dress and her pantyhose, she quickly
glanced the shoes stacks and made a decision in a very short period
of time.   When she got home, she always put the shoes back to the
shoe box right away.   That's how she took care of her 46 “babies”.

“ It
would look much better and more organized if they were 5 full stacks
instead of just 4 and 6/10.”    She expressed her opinion while
standing in front of her shoes shelves with him.

“ What
?  Are you telling me you will continue to buy more shoes simply
because you just want to see a round number?”   Stunned by her
remarks, he raised his voice abruptly to show his emotion, because
having been with her for years, he knew exactly how to interpret what
she said.

“ Yes,
I am planning to buy at least 4 pairs of shoes in the future.”   She
answered his question straightforwardly.

“ “Tiff”,
please tell me, honestly and seriously, when will you stop buying or
collecting these expensive dress shoes?”   He begged her with a
smile.

“ Honey,
please tell me, honestly and seriously, when will you stop searching,
looking, comparing, bidding, buying, and collecting computers whether
they are desktops, laptops or netbooks.?”