I hit the jackpot yesterday in the shoe department at Nordstrom Rack in San Francisco. In a matter of ten minutes, I scored three pairs off the clearance rack: shoes that were originally $89, marked down to $49.90 for the Rack store, and then on clearance for 75% off the last price.

I kept hearing a commercial in my head spoken in very serious tones by a deep-voiced announcer: “For the price of two Venti Frappuccinos, you too could be wearing BCBG pumps.”

Even after my instant success in the clearance shoes, I wasn’t stopping there. After all, my daughters and I had planned this trip into the City for weeks and even a massive anti-war protest at the Civic Center wasn’t going to prevent us from reaching the south-of-market Nordstrom Rack store. I still had three more aisles and rows upon rows of shoes to check out.

There is definitely an element of luck involved in shopping at a Rack. And yesterday, lady luck – thankfully not Lady Gaga…she would have wanted those horrible fuchsia platforms – was with me in the shoe department. As I made my way methodically along the racks of Size 6½, I slipped on black ballet flats, turquoise wedges, snakeskin pumps, red peep-toe kitten heels, gold gladiator sandals and silver Nike trainers. I could do no wrong. Everything fit…at one point I probably had 12 different shoes in my basket.

I need more shoes now that I am working in a professional environment outside of the house but I’m not Imelda Marcos.

So with some input from my daughters, I started eliminating shoes to narrow it down to the ones that I thought I would wear the most, were the most comfortable and the best value for the money.

I have never bought six pairs of shoes at once in my life and I may never again. But Nordstrom shoes at an average cost of $25 a pair? The deals were just too good to pass up.

I’ll definitely be putting my best feet forward for some time to come.