It began thusly. I had very short nails. The reasons for this were threefold: I played the piano; I used this as an excuse for keeping my nails short and used keeping my nails short as an excuse to bite them; and I figured I had ugly nails anyway, so what was the point? (Normally my self-esteem is decent. This must have been a lapse.) Oh, and also, I hate painting my right hand with my left hand because I am NOT ambidextrous. So that's four, actually.
As it happened, this is my last year of piano lessons, and at the beginning of the year my nails and I had a heart-to-heart (about thirty seconds long) and I decided I was sick of them being ugly and I might as well try something different. So the biting ceased. I've heard it's an addiction, but I have superlative willpower, so there you go. After a period of time and some sessions with one of those nail files that flips out of multitools, my piano teacher said, "Oh, you're letting your nails grow," and I took that as encouragement.
Added to my arsenal was clear nail polish, which is convenient mostly because it's hard to tell if you mess up while using it, and I happily used that about once a week.
The latest development in this saga happened this Saturday while shopping. The friend I was shopping with was standing in line with her purchase and happened to exclaim at a pretty color of nail polish by the cash register. There were two bottles of this color, as it happened, for $3.80 each, and I had a brief mental conversation that went like this, Gollum/Smeagol fashion:
Gollum: Hey, that IS pretty.
Smeagol: But you never paint your nails.
Gollum: I do too! It's just clear, so you can't see it.
Smeagol: Like I said. You don't paint your nails.
Gollum [rebellious]: Oh yeah? Well, NOW I do.
So I bought it. It's a sort of metallic silvery-green shade (though others in my family steadfastly maintain it is blue) and currently adorns all of the twenty nails I possess. Oh, but there's a story about that too.
See, I look at my hands a lot. It comes from using my laptop a lot and playing the piano a lot. Hence, I notice my nails frequently, and my left hand was bothering me this morning because there were a few spots where I had been less than meticulously neat. After finishing chemistry, I decided it was time to redo this hand, which ended up being a FAR larger project than it should have been. This is how events proceeded:
1) The nail polish remover comes out, and cotton balls.
2) I discover that this is not your ordinary submissive nail polish and declines to remove itself meekly.
3) A few wayward sparkles clinging to my fingertips, I decide good enough and go to redo it.
4) I discover that in my zeal, two or three fingers of my right hand accidentally got acquainted with the nail polish remover.
5) Left hand redone.
6) Clear nail polish added overtop of green stuff (because darnit, once I have it on properly, it's STAYING)
7) Except now we must paint right hand with left hand, which, if you'll recall, I do not enjoy. The same friend was kind enough to do that hand for me on Saturday evening.
8) This is accomplished without mishap (mostly).
9) I dance around my bedroom flapping my hands. I don't know if this actually makes it dry faster.
10) I am fervently glad I did not time how long this all took.
Casualties: Many cotton balls, a Q-tip or three, and a piece of scrap paper.
Oh, and this is all while owning exactly two colors of nail polish not counting the clear one. I think it might be dangerous to own more. Then there would be a loooong preliminary process of CHOOSING a color.
This might just scare me off ever wearing makeup.
2 comments:
And if you're ever tempted to go into the realm of makeup, remember that not only do you have to take all that time to apply it, you do not have the option to just leave it on overnight, as with nail polish. Think of all the makeup removing...
And superlative willpower always wins.
Having said all that, it's good to do things like that every once in a while, even if it does take ridiculous amounts of time. I think it's mentally healthy.
~Cal
This was just such a blast, Amy. Good writing!
A really neat post.
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