I Miss My Nail Girls!!!

First there was Christy. She is the same age as Sandy. I started going to her when she was still in high school. She had finished nail school at night. I guess I went to her for about 10 years---until she decided to become an interior decorator and quit nails to go back to school. Luckily for me, she is still in my life---sweet gal---I just love her. I've always done my own decorating, but when my drapery lady retired about 5 or 6 years ago, I hired Christy to handle things for me. I love that I can tell her what I want and she can find/do it. At first, she said she was nervous working for me as she knew how particular I was. It has worked out well. I'm very decisive and she says she likes that. I've got her hunting for all kinds of things for me now as I'm in to another redecorating project. She's allowed me to become lazy---she does all the hunting and brings it to me. Gotta' love that---plus, she comes up with cool stuff that I wouldn't have thought of. The girl is good. But I do miss her for my nails.

After floundering for a couple of years, I found Nancy to do my nails. Loved her. Went to her for years. Then she moved---far out. Too far. Luckily, she's in my book club, so I still get to see her regularly.

Finally, I've been going to Venetian---just one of those walk-in places. But I like it okay---they open at 8 a.m. which is the most important thing for me. I'm such a creature of routine---ALL of my nail appointments have always been every Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Just works for me.

After having had acrylics for many years, I took them off probably 10 years ago. It took about 2 years for my nails to get back to normal. The only reason I "put them on" to begin with was that I had ruined my nails with harsh cleaning chemicals when I helped Jeanne move in to her house in Florissant---a million years ago. I remember thinking at the time---"Hell heck, I don't even clean my own house and here I am on my hands and knees scrubbing my sister's bathroom that harbored god knows what from the previous owners."

I've been happy with my "real" nails for many years now and vowed I'd never put anything on them again. Fast forward to 2011, lots of medicines---which is the only thing I can figure that is causing me to have soft nails. Within a day of my manicures, they bend and the polish starts to chip off. They tear rather than break and nothing I do seems to strengthen them.

A while back, Connie told me she had started doing "gel" nails. I was not interested in getting something like that started again. With my current nail condition, I decided that I really don't have anything to lose right now. Big mistake. Here's how it went:

Today was our girls trip to the mall. I always take Morgan and Jordan twice a year for clothes. Everyone knows how I HATE to shop. I decided that this would be a good time to visit the nail salon at the mall while everyone else was shopping. Bad idea. I requested the gel nails. They had to call someone so I had to come back in 15 minutes. I asked how long it would take for my nails to dry. She said 45 minutes. I figured she misunderstood and thought I was asking how long the whole process would take. I asked her again---louder this time---as if that would breach the language barrier---you know, that language that isn't really any type of language at all---just gibberish. Again, she said 45 minutes. I gave up and just sat down.

The manicure part was crappy---no hot mitts, no hand massage---just a little slathering of lotion very fast. I went to pull up my sweater above my elbows so she could get my forearms. The next thing I knew, she barely rubbed up my arm and them proceeded OVER the top of my sweater---basically wiping her hands off on ME!! What the heck??

Next, she started the gel process. The first coat was something clear. Then I had to put my hands in this light machine for 15 minutes! Then the color coat---crappy choices and very few---I should have stopped right then. Hands in machine another 15 minutes! One last coat---and, yes, ANOTHER 15 minutes in the machine. Now you have to realize, that the machine is at the edge of the table, thus forcing me to hold my arms up myself. They started to quiver about 5 minutes in to the first go round. Now it was just sheer torture. Since I didn't know this process was going to be repeated 3 times, I had no idea what I was in for. Connie never gave me details. There was not a single relaxing thing about this manicure.

Then she was looking at another bottle that had a clear liquid in it. I don't think she could read it, so she called someone and spoke that language again that really isn't a language. Then next thing I knew, she turned on the little fan and had me put my nails in front of it---after 45 minutes in the light machine, my nails were still tacky. She left for a few minutes and came back with a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol. She saturated a big wad of cotton and squeezed it over my nails---put me in front of the fan, did it again and then did it a third time. When it was finally over, I had been there an hour and 45 minutes. OMG!!! There's no way I'm going through that every two weeks. I paid and left. The results---they never dried properly and I have sheet prints on my nails, yet have never even been to bed yet. I can see that I won't even make it to Thursday. This crap is coming OFF!!

On the bright side, I'd sooner slit my wrists than endure this:

There must have been 75 people crammed in this little play area/germ infested environment!

I picked up a couple of new things for  myself. Morgan asked me if I was excited about my new cute clothes. I told her that "no, I wasn't excited because nothing in "jumbo" is cute." And that's the truth!

The best part of this day was my nap. I guess that explains the sheet prints after all---even if I was on the couch in front of the fireplace with my book. I guess it was the afghan.