i finally met some other barefooters!

I met two barefooters from the Netherlands this weekend while I was walking around the village. They had dreadlocks and they said they worked on a ship; this is what I think they were trying to say, they didn't speak very much English! My feet got so black this weekend because I finally got to walk around without it raining on me all weekend. I walked all over Manhattan and in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Apparently homeless people really like me or something because this weekend, just like every weekend, I had a bunch of them strike up very winded conversations with me. I guess I just look like a nice person? I did have one loser talk REALLY loudly about how "disgusting" my feet were and asked EVERY SINGLE ONE of his friends "would YOU date her..." while i was waiting for the L train. It was so stupid, but whatever, it's his loss. Barefooting is too much fun to worry about what people think!
I'm very excited about next weekend because I'm going to Nassau Col. for warped tour with my friend who is also a barefooter and of course, I'll be barefoot all day there too. I'll definitely upload photos afterwards.

today

no time for words, heres a pic instead :)

another weekend gone

i got to walk around in the mud and on black asphalt one day this week! sometimes i get random stuff stuck on my soles...not really sure what that stuff is though. i did find a dead smooshed spider on my sole..sorry! my tattoos are having the skin peel off on them for the last few days, they look good underneath!

this weekend i was in connecticut staying at a family friends house. he lives in the country so i was able to be barefoot the whole time! i loved walking around in the grass in the sunshine! i had an amazing time hiking up to the top of a waterfall barefoot!!! i was walking on gravel the whole time and it didnt even hurt :) the people i was with kept asking "are you okay? do your feet hurt?" it was so funny because it wasnt bad at all!

after a month and a half of barefooting, my feet have turned to looking like this, tough, thick and strong. i was very proud to be able to hike over gravel and feel barely any pain at all. i definitely couldnt have done that just 6 weeks ago!

I will be in Connecticut for the weekend so there will be a lot of barefoot/grass action going on. I'll upload photos once I get back to NY on Sunday!

weekend update

this weekend has been the best ever. ive gotten to talk to so many people about barefooting and have gotten almost all good responses. even if people didnt jump up and and throw their shoes away immediately its still nice that they asked questions and didnt automatically judge me.

the first person i talked to about it is danny; i met her on the train going to NYC. a totally rad chick whos into metaphysics, tattoos and cigarettes [although shes too young for the latter two]. we talked about tons of stuff and she asked me a lot about my feet and barefooting. she said she loved being barefoot [who doesnt, really?] and that she'd give it a try! we exchanged numbers and now we're friends!

the next people i talked to were some homless kids [early twenties]. i saw them around 14th st & 5th ave asking for money so i helped them out a little because if i were in their position i'd want someone to help me. it was a guy and a girl; when i gave them the money the girl asked me if she could give me a hug and said "i havent held a twenty in my hand in so long" and hearing that made me so sad, but i was so happy that i could help them out. when she sat back down she was like "oh my god where are your shoes?!" and so i told them that i dont wear shoes! the guy asked me if he could see the bottoms of my feet and so of course i showed them [they were so black from the subway!] and they both thought it was so awesome. good luck to both of them, i hope they get to where ever theyre trying to go.

I had an incident with a homeless man going gaga over my barefeet. he went a little too crazy when he decided he would just help himself to them. not cool. im glad he appreciated them, but touching without asking is not nice!

i also met this woman at the pier off of Christopher street who talked to me for a really long time and asked about my feet and thought that it was a really beautiful way to live. i even convinced her to just take her shoes off and walk around with me barefoot to see how awesome it feels! she let me take a photo of our feet together!

on saturday i handed out transformers 2 comic books to people around university pl and journal square [i think!!] and had at least 30 people ask me where my shoes were and why i was walking around barefoot in the rain. it was so much fun to see their reactions and see how many of them thought it was interesting and didnt give me the usual "eww thats gross" reaction.

the big fun news of the weekend was that i got my feet tattooed with banners that say "walk soflty" and "live freely". i absolutely love them!!! i got to talk to a bunch of people in the tattoo shop about being a barefooter....although sam [who inked me] told me at the end that he has a foot phobia!!! i felt horrible that he had to do two foot tattoos on me! but i guess it wasnt too bad because he told me i had nice feet :)

i got glass stuck in my sole four times this weekend! good thing ive got tough soles and it doesnt even hurt me!!! i only bled once, but i stepped on the shard of glass pretty hard. i just pulled it out and kept walking :)

these are colettes and my feet! she was the really nice lady that i met at the pier.

heres my dirty inky foot after getting the initial outline done on my left foot!

here are my feet all black from the subway and bandaged up after i got back from getting my tattoos! sorry for the bad quality, but the only light was from the one lamp in the room. this blackness is what the homeless kids i talked to got to see!

mini update

today was horrible rainy weather [well, horrible by my standards of summer weather] but one good thing that came of it was that i got to walk in mud! we have moss instead of grass, which is so amazingly soft and comfortable to walk on. seriously, its a pleasure to walk on it. i had to wipe most of the mud off when i came in [can't leave muddy footprints on the white floors] but some of it stayed, so now ive got awesome brown soles today! ive got exciting plans for the weekend...im getting my feet tattooed! im getting a banner on the right that says "walk softly" and a banner on the left that says "live freely". im very nervous about the pain, but maybe since my feet are used to feeling the ground theyll be more used to being touched and it wont hurt so bad! ill post photos saturday night!

from soft feet to tough soles, my first month of barefooting

as of today i have been a barefooter for one month and two days. becoming one was one of the best decisions of my life. its been freeing and kind of rebellious, but mostly just a lot of fun.


here are what my feet looked like a month ago:



YUCK. not cool at all. soft and mushy and weak. i loved going barefoot before, but i usually stuck to being barefoot in the house and in the yard/neighborhood. i especially liked walking on moss and grass. my first time barefooting in the city i was in so much pain! i got blisters and they lasted for a couple weeks. but after the blisters went away the skin beneath them was even harder than the top skin was, so it was totally worth it.
ever since may 14th ive been barefoot! my birthday was may 13th, so i can later tell people that ive been barefoot since i turned 19!

about two weeks into my barefoot life my feet started looking like this:






you can see where i got blisters the two weeks before. the white area on my heel was a gigantic blister...not from walking barefoot on the ground...but from continually stepping on the back of my jeans! i also got a blister on my right foot near the ball of my foot, and into between my toes. that one hurt the most, but my soles are so tough there now!
my soles are black in this because of the continuous non-wearing of shoes and from walking in the subway in NYC. the places that look pink on the ball of my foot are from walking on concrete so much.





here are what my feet have finally become after being barefoot for a whole month:







this is my feet "clean". here you can actually see how rough they've gotten in the past month. my soles are shiny because i walked in the rain for hours on concrete in nyc with some friends. its the same general concept of leather...so basically my feet are getting tough as leather! i have stepped on glass several times and i can just stop and pull it out of my sole without it bleeding or anything. also, ive stepped on sharp rocks and instead of it cutting my foot, it only leaves a dent in my sole. you can see how my feet are getting calloused and thicker, especially on my heels and the balls of my feet. my toes are just not starting to get calloused.





just a side note: will found out that old navy lists shoes as accessories....and thats exactly where they should be! because you dont need shoes just like you dont need to wear gloves and mittens or hats!