The Tips

Today, I did my nails. From start to finish, while skipping only one step.

I got into the studio early in the morning, as usual, but there weren't any clients. So I started filing off my animals. Which went very, very slowly, until Sis pointed out gels get removed with the rough side of a file. Whoops.

I was halfway done when I noticed that my light box had disappeared. Seeing as working in a nail studio is very similar to sharing a room with a bunch of undiagnosed kleptomaniacs, it wasn't so much 'what happened to it' as 'who took it and where is it now?'. Usually, the answer is 'S.' and 'in her cupboard', but S. has her own light boxes and she's still under scrutiny after losing the white gold gel. Also, she usually steals from Sis and J. Everyone steals mostly from Sis and J., though I. occasionally gets her personal gels borrowed without asking, too. I noted to myself I needed to ask that at some point,

Then a customer came, and I scooted over to watch. J. promptly asked if I could please clean the entire shelf of merchandise next to the counter. I resisted the urge to pout and cleaned the counter. Then I removed an appointment from the book. Then I watched J. work on the customer.

It was a very slow day in the studio, so I had lots of time to work on my nails. I had a vision. A vision and a dastardly plan of forcing myself to live with longer, gelled nails.

So I filed and filed and filed some more until I'd filed too much, but the animals were gone. Then I went to J. to ask for the short-nail tips, glue and a clipper.

I spent the next two and a half hours filing, pasting, filing, accidentally removing, repasting, filing some more, purposefully removing, repasting and filing until I thought I'd done a reasonably well job of filing my own nails into shape. J. did not agree and sent me to I., who helped me file off the excess glue and make sure my nails were uniform in shape. Sis, who'd watched me file with growing pity, asked me why I hadn't done that in the first place. I told her I wanted to practice and learn. I'd learned so far that enthusiastic filing is mildly painful and how to remove tips.

Next, I got to work with gels.

I learned something new as soon as I started hardening out the ground layer of gel. Enthusiastically filed (read: overfiled) nails hurt a lot when put in a machine. Then I put on two layers of sky blue, skipping building gel in favor of keeping a shred of sanity after my vigorous filing excercise.

Then I wanted to paint clouds and grass, but even with tips and what I considered to be long nails, I didn't have enough room for the pastoral masterpiece I had in mind. Also, I don't have the ability to do complicated stuff left-handed. So I switched tactics and went from masterpiece to simplistic fun.

White got swapped for sparkly pink, I drew some vertical lines on my nails and voilà! instant fun nails. A quick layer of sealant over it and off to show it off. Apparently, even pink pinstripes on a blue background are creative: I got complimented on my nice ideas. Then I showed J.,  who agreed it was a nice idea, but was not at all happy with the mess I'd made from my right hand. There was gel on skin, gloopy lines... My left hand was super, though. Sis pointed out to me that your dominant hand always looked a bit crappier than your nondominant hand, which cheered me up a bit.

Then I went home, admiring my brand new, self-placed tips. I'm getting better. Let's see if I can keep them on until after my vacation.