All dressed up with no place to go

There are a lot of Murphy's laws in journalism.

One that I'm still working on accepting is the dress code. In my experience, by and large, unless you're covering a major dignitary event or something in the same vein, jeans and a nice top will do. I find it a bit tougher being a girl — all the male journalists just get to pull on a collared shirt and jeans, every day, any day. While there are some nice feminine collared shirts out there, I generally dislike them on me.

Murphy's law: the day you wear a skirt to work is the same windy day you're asked to go out and cover a rugby game because the sports reporter is on vacation.

However, because of the part-time job I held throughout university, I have a lot of skirts and dresses, because of the dressy-casual dress code.

Usually, when I worked in the office I was always wearing a skirt or dress; when I started running lights and sound I might have been able to wear dark jeans but I never dared, though I always wore pants because of the way I tucked up in the chair in front of the sound board.

So now, finding something to wear in the morning (ie a nice top to go with the three or four pairs of dark jeans that I have) is sometimes a challenge, because the numerous skirts and dresses hanging in my closet are certainly out of the question.

I also know that I may longingly look at my heels in the morning, but I always choose flats. I have two pairs of heels — one are typical high heels, they're black and purple and not much else special about them, and the other pair are the best pair ever invented. They're round-toed and look like 1920s jazz shoes; they look very similar to what girls wear for dancing in musical theatre, as they have a strap on them too. And they are the most comfortable things ever.

I almost wore them one day, then though better of it. Funny enough, that day I got sent out to shoot a fire, and was traipsing through brush, up hills and through high grass. Comfortable and versatile they may be (I've been known to run through the theatre with them, like I said, they were made for dancing), I don't think they'd stand up to that.

So, in addition to a few more nice tops, I am in search of the perfect pair of flats. They dress up an outfit a bit, but it's also not the end of the world that I'm wearing them when I'm sent out to a marsh to photograph a beaver release. Though I'm also sure there's better footwear to be wearing.

The following flats criteria is all based on previous experience. In a nutshell, they will be comfortable enough that I won't feel every pebble when walking down a dirt road, durable enough that I can wear them every day and they will hold up for a considerable amount of time, made of some kind of material so they don't get immediately smelly (as all flats inevitably do), and cheap enough that I don't feel so bad when they only last a couple of months (remember, because I'm wearing them every day, in all kinds of conditions).

I'm not a huge fan of socks, and will wear flats well into October until the snow is deep enough that I look incredibly foolish, instead of just foolish. And the minute the snow is gone, I pull my flats out, and that's all I'll wear through the spring and summer.

Take that, Murphy's law.