The best $17.99 I have spent in a long time

With every trip, I try to overthink my sartorial choices a little bit less. On my most recent trip, it was a weekend visit, so I didn’t need to pack much. The catch was that I was leaving right from work to head to the airport, so had to decide either to wear office clothes comfortable enough for travel, or bring an extra change of clothes. I ended up bringing both, because of course I did. I tell myself that one day I will become a packing minimalist, but really, I doubt it.

I ended up being more comfortable on the plane than I had anticipated. A pair of dress pants and turtleneck, a nice scarf, and my Fyre leather boots felt pretty good as I boarded flight one of two. Pretty quickly, though, those boots got uncomfortable. I took them off on the second, longer, flight, and enjoyed my book. Upon landing, though, I realized why leather shoes and airline travel do not mix. I could barely get those boots back on because my feet had swelled so much. In hindsight, I think I have always had swollen feet on planes, because I will routinely need to loosen the laces on my sneakers once we're underway, but because sneakers have go much give, I never noticed the swelling. I just figured my feet were tired and loosening the laces made them a bit more comfortable. 

This time, though, ugh. Struggling to get those boots back on my feet as we deplaned was not pretty. Luckily, the next day I was able to buy a pair of compression socks in a local travel store. I don’t fully understand how constricting clothing helps your blood circulate better, but I have read good things about compression socks, and heard good things from others who wear them.

I was ridiculously excited about these boring socks. Black knee highs? Not exactly attractive and certainly not fun. I was also nervous that they would be too tight and end up uncomfortable. But, I wanted to try them because my trip home involves five hours on one plane and anything to help with the swelling is welcome.

As I type this, I’m sitting on that flight, wearing my super sexy knee highs. So far, so good. I didn’t have to loosen the laces on my sneakers so perhaps there is hope. We’ll see how I feel in four hours.

Update: The socks rock. I never needed to so much as loosen a lace. My feet felt normal and comfortable on both flights and for the rest of the day. I am sold on these bad boys. Now, the trick will be finding some that are a little less boring.