An open love letter to Buttons + Payless makes me want to end my life

Dear Buttons,
I love you so very much. Like, indescribable, irrational-object love. I will never get tired of poring over a pile of you for hours, picking you up, admiring the variety, imagining what clothes you might have belonged to...

Hopelessly devoted, I remain
yours,
Emily

One of my earliest memories was of going to a fabric store with my mama where they had bins of buttons that you could buy for 5 or 10 cents apiece. My mom would let me pick out and fill up a little bag of buttons for my "collection"... I never did anything persay with them, but they have always been some of my favorite objects. They're lovely, whimsical coins from a fairy country. They are the ultimate detail as far as clothing goes...it makes me sad that not too many clothing designers seem to place too much important on buttons nowadays.

So, I told you yesterday about my great vintage button haul from eBay that came the same day as Shannon's amazing swap package, and I've picked out my favorites for you. The group at the top is one family of nine, and below is another!

This is the gigantic pile, all poured out in a crazy mess. Sifting through these gives me the best feeling...

Well, I'm sorry if all the button talk has bored any non-button fiends. Are there any such people?

Just to take a different direction for a bit,and stop obsessing, I need to know something. Today I went with my friend Jenny tearing around Athens, looking for some shoes for her to wear to her opening tomorrow night. It's too late for Zappos (I'm not sure if she would do that anyway) or any other ordering, so we were dealing with the very scarce offerings of our around-town shoe stores. So on our adventure, we spent a bit in a Payless Shoe store. Oh my god. Is there a place more depressing? What I need to know is if I am the only person who becomes deeply depressed by places like that: places filled with badly designed, gaudy oh my so gaudy and tacky shoes/clothing/whathave you? Am I alone?
I can't believe that I am, so deeply am I affected by this kind of place. It's also the fault of the current trends (so.much.metallic.sh*t.), that (way over) Boho thing, but it's also just that places like Payless, Walmart, even *sniff* Target seem to fall prey to what I like to call over-done-itis. They'll take an O.K. design, and then gussy it up with 1,000 sequins, beads, glitter, faux fur, whatever! Why does this happen? Why is it that I have to spend 4 or 5 times as much to get a simple shoe (Camper, Born, etc.). My inborn logic tells me that a more simple item should be less expensive than an elaborate (read: tacky) shoe. I have to buy multiples of shoes that I find that I like, because it is so rare, especially shoes that are affordable....
OK, end rant.
What have we learned?

Buttons are amazing and wonderful. Payless makes me suicidal.
Happy Friday, my darlings.

PS: You might notice my new "profile photo", which is actually a close up scan of that great pulp paperback that Shannon sent me...Jenny and Clint decided it looks eerily like me. And they're right...she's even got my chubby arms.