* sorting several large boxes of dusty, small items
* showering, hair washing, cooking, petting animals, opening packaging, scraping “stuff” off counters, loads and loads of laundry
These are not hands on vacation! I have worn gloves to do yard work but that is about all the protection the jamberry wraps have gotten. After the first day I could sometimes feel a roughness at the nail tips and was afraid they were coming loose but clipping or filing the nail seemed to help. And what helped the most was to QUIT FEELING MY NAILS. I’m not used to having anything on my nails and my tendency is to keep checking to see if they feel smooth. Lately I just don’t do that unless something is rough enough to catch on clothing, then I attend to it.
Lots of people have remarked about my nails. I was around several children on Memorial Day and of course they noticed and were impressed. One of my friends said (in a friendly way) “Oh how seventeen!” by which I think she meant people our age don’t often do something fun and flashy. I don’t feel bad about changing that. Last night my daughter and I walked in to order dinner at a trendy Mexican place full of “cool” people with tatoos. The girl taking our order noticed right away and said she really liked the pattern on my nails, which of course made me feel like I fit right in with the crowd, just in a different way.
So… day 6 and counting, still on.
I’ve cut them a little shorter whenever I feel a rough edge.
The real me is a farm girl, and not so much the kind that sets apple pies to cool on the windowsill, more likely the kind that has a close affinity to dirt. Dirt ends up in my hair, on my face, my clothing, my feet and under my nails. It’s not that I love dirt (and I do clean up fairly often) but that I can’t seem to get away from it. I accommodate this proclivity in several ways.
For one, I almost never wear white, and I’m a bit afraid of light colors. They invite soil. A white shirt is just waiting for spaghetti sauce. Wear white pants and it won’t be long before I sit on something I shouldn’t. It isn’t worth it, so I wear a lot of earth colors. And I rarely buy a piece of clothing that costs more than twenty dollars. Throwing away a designer priced T-shirt with a weird blob of something on the front is sooooo painful. And contrary to some reports, Oxy Clean does not cure everything with a stain.
I also have opted for a no-frill hair cut that can be washed often and pretty much left to dry on it’s own. It is my answer to Florida humidity and bushy (not really straight, not really curly), kinky hair. I never wash my hair in the morning because I know if I go outside I will be sweaty and unkept in a matter of minutes. Unless I shackle myself to a chair inside I will need at least one shower later, when it’s safe to clean up.
And I don’t do manicures and pedicures. True, I live in sandal land and am insanely jealous of people with beautiful feet on display in their beautiful shoes. But I have trouble pulling it off. It would be easier now that it’s trendy to go with black or brown polish (eew…) but I rarely get past the stage where you have to let it dry. And the fact that my feet are so far away from my eyes that I can’t see them very well is a mixed blessing.
And manicures? My excuse since 8th grade was Miss Varien the piano teacher telling me to cut my nails short or else forget playing piano. After that it was the nursing profession that claimed a whole army of bacteria lived under fingernails and polish. Did we want our patients to die on account of our vanity? No we didn’t.
Well, the person who invited me to an online Jamberry party was clueless about all of this. And since I didn’t know what Jamberry was (I love jam, I love berries, what could go wrong?) I signed up. This sweet girl was thinking of me in her circle of friends and I need all the friends I can get. Imagine my surprise upon finding out it’s all about manicures and pedicures. For a week I learned the language, listened to the stories, watched the videos and entered the contests. By the end of the party I started thinking about the decorative plastic film (think contact paper) as armor for my almost nonexistent fingernails. Not only did I end up buying to support my sweet friend but for the second time in my life I won a contest and got a free sheet of Jamberry thingies to apply to my fingers and toes.
It’s a holiday weekend. I’m going to relax and be a lady (of leisure). I’m going to avoid harsh chemicals, dirt of all kinds (yeah, right…) and abrasive activities and see if my manicure can live up to expectations. Two weeks sounds kind of impossible but here we go, day 1 and counting…
This is not really me, but sometimes it’s kind of nice to be someone else…
I Just Have to Say... 