Barefooting Day 10

Look at that number 10 there. Double digits- woot!

Excitement aside I got the dreaded negative comments today... Thankfully from no one that could do a dang thing, and I was too busy talking on the phone to even need to stop and comment back (though I kind of regret that at this point).

I'm pretty short at 5 foot 3, and being short makes finding the proper length pants a bit more difficult. Finding short sizes isn't always easy, and I find taking them to be altered too expensive of a job (and I don't have the time, insensitive, or real ability to do it myself), and because of this I've always worn pants that are a bit too long. I've grown to enjoy the style really, and tend to keep my pants short enough I don't trip on them, but long enough that my feet tend to be covered. Today I wore properly fitted pants and found that my long pants offered more camouflage than I ever realized.

Going into school people looked, no one said anything (or anything loud enough for me to catch in any case) but people gave me funny looks. Doesn't matter much to me- I''m comfortable, happy, and it's healthy.

However, leaving the hall and off campus I did catch some stray comments, though no one seemed actually willing to stop me and say anything. I walked out of my class having just completed a test and two males behind me saw the bottom of my feet, I heard one talk about it being odd and the other replied with "Can't you get like.... Gangrene or something doing that?"

Now I've heard all sorts of things before- People worry about feces, worms, glass (I like to have a little more confidence in a small community college campus being clean at least)... I really think gangrene takes the cake though. Maybe if I sliced my foot open horribly on something nasty, let it get infected, and then ignored the infection for months? I have no idea where people come up with some of these ideas. I continued walking without a hitch in my stride, and said hello in a sing-song tone as my phone call is answered.

Outside I pass the smoking block, I hear someone behind me ask a general "Can you even do that?" loud enough for me to hear, but it doesn't sound like it's specifically directed at me. I'm busy talking about strategies used while playing the Xbox 360 game Oblivion, and missions my friend is about to get to. I rather regret not pausing to say "I don't see why not," "apparently so," or some other such thing. I wonder if it's the oddness of seeing someone walking barefoot, people weary of the human foot, or maybe wishing they could do it too but always being told it's against the rules.

Other people give me funny looks as I keep walking in the direction of my car. It's been raining and I find it a lot of fun to walk through the puddles and leave my foot prints in the dry areas under trees and over hangs. I like feeling the ground under me and knowing I'm not going to slip (something that gave me a broken elbow back on new years eve). I like knowing I've gotten far more support than anything in doing this, and that even with the odd negative comments I've met no one outright hostile.