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!

an experienced barefooter

these pair of feet belong to my friend will, 24, who has been a barefooter for 6 years now! theres nothing he cant handle with his feet. im not joking, nothing.

when does he wear shoes?

never

what about winter?

hell no. sledding shoeless is the best

he can even do tricks! such as putting a lit djarum black [yes, we have good taste in cigarettes] out on his sole. ive seen it before, makes you think hes a non-mortal.

he doesnt even wear shoes to school. hes the one that got me into barefooting. i mean, before i was into not wearing shoes but i was too afraid of what other people thought to actually be a barefooter. since hes been faithfully bare for so many years he doesnt even hear stupid comments from bypassers [i still do, but try to just smile about it] anymore. hes learned how extremely bad it is for your feet to wear shoes and so hes vowed to never wear shoes again. in fact, we've both just completely thrown our shoes away. and heres what i think:

you should just throw your shoes away too.

or even take baby steps and just go out to some store barefoot. youll feel great.

what do barefooters feet look like?
i thought you'd never ask!
we like our black soles, actually we love them.




this is from last weekend when my friend and i went barefooting in new york city. we walked all the way to central park, laid around for a bit in the grass then walked to the nearest subway! you shouldve seen his feet! pitch black from rubbing his soles on the ground in the subway.




another one of my friends, who isnt a barefooter, went with me to starbucks and took this photo because he was kind of in shock that i wasnt wearing shoes. at this particular starbucks in nyc [near 7th ave/christopher st] they actually tried to make me leave! which is ridiculous because there arent any laws stating that customers have to wear shoes. luckily i know the law [unlike them] and told them "no, im not leaving and i dont have to wear shoes." it was fine in the end but it was a bit annoying. i havent had problems in any other stores in the village, only that one.

what exactly is the point of this?

the point of this blog is to let everyone know about the great advantages of being a barefooter. my friend and i are both barefooters living in NY and we are going to try our very best to convince you to just throw away your shoes forever. seriously, thats our goal.



before you say 'eww gross, why would i want to do that?' why don't i let you in on a few details about barefooting that many people dont even realise. any of this information can be viewed [in greater detail] on http://www.barefooters.org/ the worldwide organization for barefooters and the barefoot lifestyle.



i'm sure the first questions about barefooting that popped into your head were: that's so dirty, what about germs? what if you step on something? isn't that illegal?

GERMS:
sure, the ground is covered in germs. but so are doorhandles, cell phones, small children, and well...the air we breathe. you dont go around wearing mittens and gas masks, so why wear shoes?

at least you don't go sticking your toes in your eyes, mouth, nose and ears like you do constantly with your nasty fingers.

what about bathrooms and piss on the ground? well, piss is sterile, so dont even try to use that excuse.

Pain:
so you're wondering what happens if you step on something like glass. well, one of two things will happen: if you've got pansy soft soles you'll get cut, if you've got good strong feet you won't get cut. there, simple as that. also, it may not have occured to you that you can actually WATCH where youre walking. not that a good seasoned barefooter really has to look down anymore. you'll get used to it, itll become second nature and youll find yourself being able to take steps confidently and not worry about stepping on something uncomfortable.

besides, one of the whole points of being a barefooter is to be able to feel the ground and everything youre stepping on. takes walking to a whole new sensory level.

THE LAW:
i won't go too into detail about the law [or lack there of really] but i will say that the OSHA laws that most stupid store/restaurant owners will try to throw in your face DONT EXIST. the OSHA laws only apply to workers, not customers, and in many cases they only apply to jobs in which there are hazards that would affect your feet [such as heavy equipment]. another false law is that its illegal to drive with no shoes....if a cop even tries to pull this on you, ask them to show you exactly where its listed. trust me, they wont be able to find it because its not in the books!

even if there were laws, i'd still say screw them.