Never Let a (Straight?) Man Do Your Nails

I LOVE having my nails done. Acrylics, to be more specific. They make my sausage fingers look slimmer, and I like having at least SOME part of my body look slim!
I've been going to this place at the mall called California Nails for a couple of years, now. They do a fantastic job - I love them there! I used to go to one at South Towne, but stopped going to that one after the gal that was doing my nail fill not only did a crappy job, but explained WHY she did a crappy job - "Man, I was up all night partying!" Um, okay, thanks. So I started going to one at Fashion Place Mall, and they are WONDERFUL. I've had almost all the girls there work on my nails, and they're all fantastic. I don't care that they all chatter in Thai or Cantonese or Chinese or Japanese or whatever it is they speak; I've even learned their accent so I can tell what they're saying, rather than saying 'I'm sorry, can you repeat that?' all the time.
Well, last Thursday I went to get a fill, and the only available nail tech was the one guy that works there. I'd never had him do my nails before, and I thought - what the heck, if he works here, he's probably just as good as the gals! So I sat down at his station, and he went to work. At this point, I have only one word to describe my experience:
OUCH.
The man totally butchered my cuticles (and if there are any boys reading this, it HURTS to have your cuticles filed), and filed my nails all wonky, so they look like chipped and curved eagle talons. He kept asking me how I liked them, and I smiled through my tears of pain and said 'they look great!' just so I could hurry and get out of there. To try and distract myself from the pain, I studied the guy a little: Tight black t-shirt, beaded necklace, spiky black hair, and - a ring on his left ring finger. Huh. The first several observations led me to believe that he was gay (I don't mean to label people, but this has just been my experience with gay guys); but a wedding ring? Guess he could be married... Then I examined the ring a little more closely. It was bigger and prettier than any WOMAN'S ring I'd ever seen! It even had probably a 3/4 karat diamond in the center, slightly raised. WOW. Yeah, that took my mind off the pain for a bit.
In all, it took the man 12 minutes to do my nails. I'm used to the gals taking about 35-45 minutes (and a little more care with my cuticles) for a fill; but this guy had me in and out in 15 minutes. He rushed me right through and did a crummy job; needless to say, I was disappointed. Next time I go in, I'm asking for one of the gals, and I'm starting over with a brand-new set of lovely nails that make my hands look like they have slim, feminine fingers and not wonky eagle talons.

On a different note, I might have a Coke tomorrow! Thanks for all of you who gave me feedback on my soda-pop goal. When I think about it, I was probably just asking for your permission to actually have a Coke; but when it comes down to it, I think that it's all in my head. If I have the self-discipline to seriously limit my food calories, I have the discipline to limit my beverage calories, no matter the source. I could probably have a Coke twice a week and be fine. It's just been so long (8 or 9 weeks) since I've had a soda, I have to work up to it. I hate to think of myself as a big fat failure because I didn't hold to one of my goals for the year. But maybe a bigger and better goal would be to not deny myself, but to have the strength to control the amount of what I allow myself to have. That goes for food, beverages, money, time-off work... life in general. So this is my new "I AM":

I am in control of my life.


:)