I'm confused. Either Kat did something completely out of character yesterday or Kat did something quintessentially Kat. I cannot figure it out. I know that children surprise parents all the time but I cannot even decide whether I am surprised. It's all in how you look---or in how you feel.

Yesterday, we went shopping for sneakers. Day, who loves to shop, was perfectly happy to come shopping for shoes. Kat, who hates to shop, was less happy but accepted that her sneakers were too beat-up even for her. (Kat hates to make changes so when even she accepts that new sneakers are a good idea, you know that new sneakers are a good idea.) So off we went. I wanted Kat to get two pairs of sneakers so that she was wearing different shoes each day. It's part of my campaign to keep her almost-chronic athlete's foot under control. (As Kat has noted on several occasions, it is ironic that an anti-athlete such as her struggles so with athlete's foot.)

Day found two pairs: one for gym (when her knee is healed enough to play again) and one for home. Kat found one pair she liked, a very Kat pair in blue and white. She then announced to me that she liked that particular brand. I went off to see if I could find anything else in her size in that brand and I did. There, up at the top of the shelves, was the same brand, different model. So, after corralling store personnel to get them down, I brought them over.

And then Kat took them out of the box. There they were, pink and sparkly, the type of shoe that would delight the typical three-year-old girl. And here I was, shopping with a kid who wears boys' jeans, conservative sweaters, and believes that her inner name, her other name, is Sam. She gulped. She started. She thought about setting them aside. And then�

She thought about having to go to another store at another time for another pair and decided to try them on. She tried them on and something else took over. Her eyes said "no" but, as she put it, her feet were telling her "yes." They were the most comfortable shoes she had put on in years.

Now she had a real problem. As much as Kat hates pink, Kat loves comfort. When pressed between style and comfort, Kat opts for comfort almost all the time. But there was that pink. Not just pink. Sparkly, vibrant pink. Her basic Sam competed with her basic Kat. Her heart competed with her feet. Her recognition of ribbing to come competed with comfort---and Kat and feet and comfort won.

So now, the most unlikely of creatures (in more ways than one) is parading around in sparkly-pink sneakers for the only reason on the face of the earth that would cause her to parade around in sparkly-pink sneakers: comfort.

And I don't know if it is in character or not.

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