Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2023 07:44:37 -0500
Subject: back to IRL events!
To: [barefooters list]

Pink and I just finished working our January convention,  http://arisia.org/
last weekend, which I've always done barefoot [and had my share of little
battles about that over the years].  By now our hotel knows all about us
several barefooters and that I'm the lead "activist" to protect our rights,
and we had several folks working Logistics barefoot this time again.  That's
where we're loading trucks and rolling big heavy cases around, often in the
cold and/or on dirty loading docks and generally rough environments.  The
wheels on those could easily mash a toe on a chance encounter,  possibly even
*through* many types of shoes, but we stay highly aware and sensitive to the
movement dynamics of everything and as far as I know, nobody's even come
close to getting a foot damaged in a way that isn't normal wear and tear.

Mind, it's been 2 years off, and the hotel has likely gotten a few new
employees over time.  I thought it hilarious when I'd meet one in a hallway
going the other way, exchange a cheery hello, and spot them turning to look
down in utter amazement at my feet, like they thought I wouldn't take note of
that.  One person at the check-in desk early in the weekend tried to ding us
and say we needed shoes in the lobby, to which I shot back "no we don't", and
then she made a phone call ... some guy came out of the back office and had a
quick conversation with her, which *looked* like a bit of a lecture to me,
although we couldn't really be sure what it was about.  Regardless, once it
was our turn, she was all smiles and welcomed us in without any further
nastiness.  I suggested she google "barefoot" and "health" when she got a
chance, and now that she'd evidently been apprised of the state of things,
she said she would.  I think she was a little embarrassed by that point.

[This is the hotel where I ultimately had reasonable conversations with some
of its management leads back in 2020 right before the pandemic hit and shut
everything down,  http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/pix/a20/#feet ]

Later as we were loading the con out, slamming our gear into our truck, another
show was coming into the same space, with a big crew of guys rolling a ton of
A/V equipment in from their truck, so we were crossing paths quite a bit in the
back-of-house hallways.  Some of them looked pretty amazed at the sight of us
too.  They probably thought we were "unprofessional" or the like, heh.  Well,
we are all volunteers doing this work.  Oh, and it's also fun to drive a 26'
box truck barefoot, which is another one of my roles.  Those things have a
Very Big Butt!

_H*    [mostly x-posted from Discord]