It seems like everyone at my office is going on vacation. Half of them left this week and come Monday it will be myself and 2 others left in the office. I've been working extra long days and nights at the office to try to make a deadline with the new software, but it feels like I'm just being pulled in too many directions all the time by everyone else. I guess in an effort for them to get their work done before they leave for vacation, people have been getting me to help them all the time. That's all nice and great for them, but now I'm behind on my project and no one is going to help me out. I have to finish my coding and testing my new software by the end of next week so that the first week of the year can be spent installing and integrating the software at the customer site. Luckily for me, the week that I go on a cruise is the same week that the demo to the customer takes place.

So what does all this hard work actually afford me? Besides a lack of sleep and an utter drain in creativity (I really haven't felt up to doing any artwork, commissions or personal) when I get home from work, everyone was rewarded with what we call the annual "suit bonus" on Wednesday. For the past 2 years now, the suit bonus has consisted of my boss has given us each a large amount of money in American Express gift cards to spend on our business attire. This is a step up from the other years when we were just sent to a specific fashion store and told we could pick a certain number of shirts, ties, and maybe 1 or 2 suits that would all be tailored. The gift card approach has given us more freedom in what we can purchase. This can range from full suits, pants, ties, and such. For the guys who've been with the company a while and have quite enough suits, we're allowed to purchase other things as well. Since I already own around 7 or so suits, last year I ended up buying some pajamas and casual wear as well.

So since I've gotten my gift cards, I haven't had any time to use them until just this morning. I got a $25 Express gift card for my bday and all Express stores were having a sale of 20% off everything before 11 AM so I hit the mall with my parents bright and early. The herringbone vest I've had my eye on since October was to be mine... except that they were sold out of mediums. It wasn't just the herringbone vest, but all the style vests were in short supply. Christmas really snuck up on me this year. Given the ludicrous amount of workaholic habits I've been building, I totally let it slip my mind that Christmas shopping is in full effect. Banana Republic, the only place that sells suits that fit me without any tailoring, was out of anything in my size. I tried going to Macy's to find some more cologne. I had a sample of Signature by Kenneth Cole from last year that both Katie and I really find pleasing. What wasn't pleasing was that both Macy's stores in my mall stopped carrying Signature. Or maybe Ken Cole stopped making it. The girl behind the fragrance counter asked me try out RSVP by Ken Cole instead. IT SMELLS TERRIBLE, like bottled ass. Well not that bad, but definitely not Signature. I've gotten really jaded to Kenneth Cole products too. I'm not really one to buy things by product labels. And fancy brands are not necessarily better. Kenneth Cole's fragrances I can stand, but everything else he makes has not scored high with me. My Kenneth Cole belt fell apart. My KC shoes are separating at the rubber soles, and the soles are cracked in half. My friend Bryan had a KC laptop bag he got for Christmas one year and the buckle broke. I swore I would never again buy KC products except his fragrances.

Those Kenneth Cole shoes I bought back in 2004 from Bostonian. I bought a black pair of wide-toe leather oxford shoes by KC as well as a pair of Bostonian Andover in burgundy. I swear to you the Bostonian shoes are THE most comfortable dress shoes I have ever worn. I've stood for 8+ hours in a cold server room in both the KC and the Bostonians before. The KC shoes had my feet hurting within 2-3 hours but the Bostonians felt great throughout the whole day. So I found a coupon at zappos for a free pair of cedar shoe trees from Bostonian stores. Armed with my coupon and utterly disappointed at all the other stores I've been thus far, I headed to the Bostonian. I ended up buying two pairs of shoes, some shoe cream polish, 3 pairs of socks, a belt and another cedar shoe tree in addition to the free one.

I got a black pair to replace the broken down KC shoes. It's called the Bostonian Houghton I think:


The pair I absolutely love are these brown dual leather ones called the Ritz. It's got both calfskin and deerskin Italian leather and looks extremely slick with either wool suit pants or boot cut denim jeans. I'm definitely gonna wear these the most:


While I'm at it, here are my burgundy Bostonian Andover ones from 3 years ago:


I now understand why women love their shoes. If I didn't have these suit bonuses, I really would never buy any shoes this expensive. But you really get what you pay for with these. I highly recommend getting a pair of nice shoes if you ever have to dress to impress. And tailor your suits too. Unless you're built like the suit model, you will probably not look as good in an untailored suit.