"You Have Such NICE Bottoms of Feet!" ..."Really? Uh, Thanks?!"

     I've been doing these fun (and addicting) pedicures for over three years now, blogging about it for two years, and sometimes, even at this stage, the comments from the Asian pedicure girls still make me laugh unexpectedly. My current pedi girl (the one I use regularly if she's available) happens to love how ridiculously ticklish my bare feet are (and I mean REALLY loves it, similar to the way that little kids used to love The Wiggles! LOL!), and, as I have mentioned numerous times in prior blogs, I think that she loves it so much that she actually scrubs extra, to tickle my feet on purpose, and break down my defenses to make me laugh, literally, out loud, and convulse like someone is electro-shocking me! She makes comments like, "Ooooh, now my favorite part..." as she is putting lotion on the pumice stone in preparation for the tickle-scrub, or tells me, "Breathe, funny man, breathe..", as I am sitting there, turning purple, trying to hold in the laughter (and failing) during her scrubbing! LoL! ..Other comments include a different pedi girl, who was admiring how well I took care of my feet, calling me, "Baby Feet", and nudging the girl who was working on my friend Allyse's feet, telling her, "He have baby feet!", and then they both laughed, and continued their conversation in Chinese, obviously still talking about me..
     But my all-time favorite comment from a pedi girl came from Annie, who was my regular toes specialist, and the best nail-design artist I've ever met on this toes journey, until she moved up to Boston to get married and start having babies. During one pedicure, she was working on my soles with pumice stones, callous removers, & lotions, and, at one point, she just held my foot in our hand, inspecting the bottom of it the same way that a diamond appraiser inspects a diamond, or that an art critic views a painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She looked up at me, smiled, and said, with a hint of joy in her voice, "You have such nice bottoms of feet!!".. I laughed, and said, "Really? ..Uh, ok.. Thanks?".. I didn't know what she meant because, how often do you see the bottoms of your own bare feet? I mean, like, really get a good, close-up view of your soles? Probably not too often, right? I've been told that my size 13 feet are cute about a thousand times over the course of my life, so I can only assume that she was commenting on my good skin & non-crustiness (thanks to a plethora of lotions!).. But, for all I know, she may have just liked the shape of my feet, or my "cute, wrinkly soles"! LOL! I have NO idea what she was referring to, though! So, as a result, I am popping up some bare soles pics on this written piece, and let you, the readers, decide for yourselves! "..nice bottoms of feet"? ...Yeah, I don't know what she meant by that, but I tend to agree 100%..  :)

Me & Rebecca, and our "barefoot in the office" photo fun  :)

It's gotta be the irresistable wrinkles, right?! LOL!

Bare Feet in School, Barefoot Teachers, Happy Memories!

 

It doesn't happen often, but, to me, barefoot teachers are
just a special kind of cool!

       
       Waaaaaaaaaay back when I started this blog two years ago, when I mentioned a lifelong love of bare feet, and a complete disdain for wearing shoes, I referenced two teachers that I had who both taught their classes barefoot, at least 50-75% of the time, and how that fact was one that played a key part in shaping my "bare feet attitude". Let's have some fun now, and expand on that point.. 
     In the junior high that I went to, it was not uncommon for me, or my friends, to slip off our shoes in class, or in the carpeted library (especially there!), to be more comfortable, whenever we felt like it. No, I didn't have shoes off everyday, but it was definitely not a rare thing to see 9th grade me with my shoes/sneakers off, tucked under my chair, whenever the need to relax in class suited me. My 9th grade social studies teacher (who eventually became the school's principal), Ms. Kroon, was a middle aged woman with fiery red "ginger" hair, who was very nice, very helpful (if you needed it), and very quiet & demure. Either her feet were always killing her in high-heels, or she just hated wearing shoes as much as I did, because she almost ALWAYS took her shoes off to teach class! I vividly remember the constantly repeating scene like it was yesterday: She would have her shoes on at the start of every class, but after taking attendance and starting the lesson for that day, there would come a point where she would go sit down at her desk, while we were all quietly reading or writing something. Then, like clockwork, "ka-klunk, ka-klunk", you'd hear the sound of her heels coming off and dropping to the floor. As a 15 yr. old bare feet addict, this made me smile every single time I heard it, and it would be at least three times, in a five day school week, that Ms. Kroon's shoes were being discarded. She was the first "authority figure", outside of my own family, that validated my own desire to not wear shoes, and I loved it.

An internet photo I found that bascially illustrated
 my behavior during the hot May/June
 days of high school! :)

      Fast forward three years, to high school 12th grade, and my math teacher was Mrs. Hickey, another very nice & kind teacher (one of my favorites over those three years of high school) who I was lucky enough to have on my schedule. Back then, going barefoot (or walking around carrying your sneakers/shoes) at my high school, was almost commonplace. Not like a beach, mind you (most students did keep their shoes on), but, on any given day, you'd see people in class with shoes off, see people strolling thru the halls with no shoes on (one of my best friendships in life, with my high school friend, Jennifer, was started by us noticing each others' bare feet in the hallway between classes!), or people chillin' out in the student commons (hangout area) without shoes. During the cooler months, this usually meant socks on, but in May, when it started getting hot & humid outside (and worse inside, with crappy air conditioning, or no working AC, whatsoever), then you'd start seeing more & more barefoot students at various points throughout the day. Again it wasn't anywhere near the majority of kids, but it was definitely out there. I was one of those who would sometimes lock my sneakers (or sandals) in my locker, and just do the last 2 or 3 periods of the school day barefoot, especially if gym was done for the day, and I wouldn't be needing those sneakers for any athletic stuff. So, my math class was 7th period (second to last class for the school day), and thus, it was very easy for me to come happily strolling in, totally barefoot, not a care in the world. Sometimes, Mrs. Hickey would already be barefoot, having removed her shoes during the class before. Other times, she would just start class with shoes on, get us working on something math-related, and then slip off her heels, leaving them at her desk, and teach the rest of class barefoot, including writing math lesson material on the chalkboard, and walking up to individual students' desks to assist them, staying barefoot the whole time. Again, I absolutely loved it! To me, that was more proof that I wasn't a complete weirdo for wanting to be comfortable & barefoot for as much as I could possibly get away with it! But the coolest thing was the one day that I was exiting her class, as it finished up, barefoot (because we had eaten lunch down at Crab Meadow Beach, and I had left my shoes in the car upon returning to school), and she poked me on the arm as I was walking out the door. As she looked down at my bare feet, toes peeking out from the legs of my blue jeans, Mrs. Hickey smiled broadly, and told me, "Looks like I'm not the only one who loves not wearing shoes!" .. Validation! Not that I ever needed it, but it was sure nice to have it..   And don't even get me started on my "bare feet in college" years.. LOL!   ..So, teachers, take your shoes off once in awhile, go barefoot in class! I bet there'll be more than one student who loves that you do..  :)

Bare feet for a good cause still means bare feet in class! Happiness!!

Tales of the Ticklish: Who Doesn't Love Peek-A-Boo Feet?!?

Don't be silly, you are NOT walking by
this without tickling! LOL!

   

My beautiful friend Ruby can't resist 
tickling her son's bare foot
 as it peeks out from under a blanket! :) .. LOVE!

      During my happy, silly, fun, lifelong love of tickling bare feet whenever the joyous, laughter-inducing opportunity would pop up, one of my favorite things in the entire world is the irresistable cuteness of "peek-a-boo" feet! Things like feet peeking out from under a blanket, feet sticking between car seats, feet hanging off a couch arm or bed.. all completely impossible to pass up if you're walking by! I think it's simple human nature to want to make someone else laugh out loud, or just feel happy, so seeing bare feet "gift-wrapped" & waiting (for tickles) is what makes that whole hilarious scene so delicious! If you've ever seen videos of the Renfaires (medieval-style festivals) over in Italy, they are always locking people in stocks, with their bare feet sticking out, and tickling them, MUCH to the delight of the crowd that gathers to watch, and relish in, the hysterical laughter! (I would LOVE it if those types of fairs happened here in the states, but, as I blogged about in an earlier "Tales of the Ticklish", we are just too uptight a society here).. I know I'm not alone in this, as many of my dearest friends (Ruby, Emilie, Jocetta, Erin, Kim, Sue, Nicole, Christine) all think like I do! Hah, and many of their kids do, too! I mentioned, a few weeks ago, that kids (well, at least the family & friends that I personally know & love) absolutely LOVE tickling feet, especially once they find out you're ticklish! Plus, they are the most ruthless in getting YOU to laugh! If you don't know this fact, you simply don't have any kids around when your shoes are off! LOL!! ..In fact, many people probably don't even realize how much they love tickling "peek-a-boo" feet, they just love seeing those feet, and get all happy at the sudden thought of running fingertips up their child's.. or parents.. or loved one's.. or ticklish friend's bare soles, to cause some kind of perfect combination of laughter, spasms, giggles, and yelps! It's as much addicting fun for the tickler as it is the ticklee, I assure you! It just takes a freak like me to sit down & actually compose a blog about it! ..Laughter is always worth the annoying freakiness! Keep tickling those feet when you see 'em!

AHHHH! I LOVE this photo from FlickR!! Irresistably fun camera angle!!

Dirty Bare Feet: "Ew.."? or "Awesome!!"?

   
   

Saw this photo online, had to edit it with a
motto that I fully believe in!

I was walking around
a NYC rooftop, barefoot, during a
20-min. phone call.. This was my
"reward"! LOL!

     Well, to answer this blog title's question, I guess it depends on the situation! You see, being a happy, "Who gives a sh*t?", barefooter like I am, it's completely normal for me to inadvertently trash my own bare feet, and get them filthy, as I go about my day in a carefree way, with or without flipflops on.. Even being the self-admitted pedicure addict that I am, just being outside barefoot, especially during summertime, is a surefire way to trash your feet (Hah, but usually instantly cleaned by jumping into a chlorinated swimming pool!).. And continuously mopping your floors doesn't matter, you are simply getting dirty feet if you love being barefoot. Wedding reception, "shoes off & barefoot", dancing all night (which, of course, I'm still a complete expert on! LOL!), on the most beautiful, polished marble/wood floors that you could ever hope for, and you are still gonna be scrubbing those tootsies off in the shower later! Stopping off at a supermarket, barefoot? It's not the smooth, shiny (addictively cool to the soles of your bare feet) market floors that'll get'cha.. It's that asphalt parking lot! And kids? Kids are SUPPOSED to have dirty bare feet! That's part OF being a kid: "Go outside, and don't worry about putting shoes on! Come back if you get a splinter!" For us adults, it just makes us still feel like a kid inside (as does bare feet, in general)... Still, all of these "dirty feet moments" are easily fixed with some body wash & a scrubbrush in the shower. So, to me, "dirty bare feet" just means that you really enjoyed your day, or had lotsa' fun, without your shoes on! I guess the, "Ewwww" part would come in when someone has bad hygiene, and doesn't shower regularly to clean themselves up. Or, sadly, like a homeless person, doesn't have regular shower/soap access. Then I get that "Ewwww!" part, because "ain't no one got no time for" any cheesy, gross feet! Outside of that unpleasantness, IT'S SUMMER! GO BAREFOOT!

From Instagram, a barefoot handstand! To me, this is what being a kid is all about:
Shoes off, dirty bare feet, and just having FUN!!!

Happy 4th of July, 2013! All day and all night barefoot! 
But, wow, did I need a nice chunk of Dove bodywash to fix these! LOL!! 
God bless America, and the happy freedom to go barefoot!