Victorious Blisters

That is, until this past weekend. Each summer, Governor's Island, which sits just off the Southern tip of Manhattan, hosts a pretty fabulous Jazz Age Lawn Party, complete with cocktails, a dance floor and costumes.  Flocks of people dress up in their finest 1920's garb and ferry over to the island to enjoy the sunshine, picnics and a jazz band. This year, that flock included me and my friends, and I was damned if I was going to pair my black shift dress and pearls with flats. I put on a pair of three-inch shoes that were of the era, and then realizing that I was late to meet my friends, ran out the door forgetting my spare pair of comfortable shoes

When I got to the subway, I realized I had left them behind, but it was too late to turn back if I wanted to catch the ferry on time.  I took a deep breath and figured that I would just deal with it somehow when my toes began to flare badly.

I had to run to make it to the ferry on time, which I knew I would pay for dearly later on. But once on Governor's Island, I stretched out on the lawn to watch folks dancing the Charleston and kicked off my shoes. I padded around barefoot for most of the afternoon, sipping champagne cocktails and enjoying the atmosphere. I even got up and learned to dance a bit of the Charleston myself!  At the end of the afternoon, I put my heels back on for the trek back home. As I walked to the ferry station, I realized my feet were definitely beginning to hurt... only the amazing thing was, they weren't hurting from the RA.  My toe joints felt unbelievably fine, but my shoes had worn a few blisters on the soles of my feet since I wasn't used to wearing them!

Even though my feet hurt, it was a completely different kind of pain than what I'd become accustomed to.  For the first time in a long time, my feet hurt for a no good, perfectly vain reason, and I couldn't have been happier about it.

Sara is the author of the blog, The Single Gal's Guide to Rheumatoid Arthritis. Come joint the National Young Arthritis Awareness movement at Buckle Me Up Movement.com!