First, the thing that came to my mind when reading your post is are you diabetic? My feet became excessively dry right before I was diagnosed with CFRD so that may be an indication. You might want to check things out just to be sure. Dr. Scholl's foot creams work best for moisturizer that lasts and gets deep enough in the skin to heal.
Secondly, I felt the same way you do about my nails for a long time. I don't think I ever wore a shoe that showed my toenails until I was around 30. This limited the choices available to satisfy my shoe fetish to say the very least!
Then, while getting a pedicure, the technician commented on how nice it was to draw those little flowers and such on my toes verses the average person's toes because of my larger size nail. Since then, for whatever reason, I've embraced my toenails. Every chance I get I have a pedicure and ask the tech to freehand designs on my big toe nails. You can also buy nail designs in any cosmetic department that you stick on and give yourself your own pedicure.
I still hate my fingernails though. I've never met another CFer with clubbing as sever as mine. And I'm half Italian so I talk with my hands. If I am meeting someone for the first time I usually don't get through two sentences before they are noticeably watching my hands. I've contemplated saying something seriously off the wall in times like those just to see if they even hear it but I can't decide on a good phrase.
