Let's start with this story...

I work in an office with 95% men. Ok the percentage is a guess...I work with only 2 other women, which means the thermostat is set to arctic cold year round. Men are just natural heaters. I am not a natural heater. In fact, I moved to Texas from North Dakota ten years ago, and have become so acclimated to the southern heat, that when it dips below 90 degrees, I have a sweater on. I brought a space heater in to my office within a month of joining the company. It was August.

A few months ago, right before lunch, a co-worker came in my office and we were making idle chit-chat working diligently on a project. She asked me what smelled so funky in my office. My morning routine quickly flashed through my head: Shower? Check! Deodorant? Check! Light perfume? Check! Lunch stored in office fridge and not still in my purse? Check! I have no idea what that hot, burning, rubbery smell....ack!! My foot is HOT. Hot and my shoe is melting! I was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, and the tip of my shoe had been resting on my space heater.

And that's the melted shoe story.