Diary of a Manicurist

Every year I go back home to Indiana in July to enjoy the weather, have fun and visit with my beloved old friends and family. The trip home also helps me get my head together. (Wish I could do it more often!) Every year is a new adventure and 2008 was a great one, productive too I might add! Thursday 7/17 I had a pleasant flight on the fabulous Allegiant Air. When I arrived I was able to organize an early dinner with my folks, my godparents, Aunt Carol and my fav cousins Larry & Suzanne at the best authentic Mexican restaurant in South Bend, La Esperanza. After that I settled in for a peaceful night at the home that I grew up in. I spend almost every night by myself in the back yard with a Blue Moon hangin out with the lightning bugs & crickets. Friday 7/18 I'm going to call this "the day I over-did it". I got very little sleep and jumped out of bed early to run to Vikie's salon, Illusions, to get my hair cut & colored. I swear I drank a gallon of Aveda ca

Over a month ago, I received 2 free nights at Hooters Hotel through a 944 Magazine email promotion, all I had to do was sign up for the players club. The nights they offered were not the best choices for my schedule but I decided to take advantage of it anyway and booked them for Monday 5/26 & Tues 5/27. I would still have to go to work those days but I pictured myself ordering room service for breakfast, going to work and coming back to chicken wings, beer and penny slots. Woohoo! On the Sunday afternoon before my Hooters mini vacation, I noticed a puddle on my balcony and went to investigate. My water heater had created a waterfall that was running off the edge of my balcony! I stared in disbelief. (It was very lovely, actually). So, I shut off the water and a plumber came out the next morning to assess the repair work. Not only were they charging me a hefty amount of money, they couldn't complete the work until Wednesday morning. 48 hours with no hot water heater! (Don't

I am grateful on so many levels for my job at Beauty Bar. The job has helped keep my finances level ever since I left the Hard Rock over 3 years ago. To begin listing the amazing people I would have never met if it were not for that job would be a task I couldn't even begin. So, why? WHY? WHY??? Why am I tired of doing something that has only brought me good things? I still need the money and I wish I didn't. Why can't I make enough at the salon to not need any extra jobs? I'm so ready to kick Avon and Beauty Bar to the curb just because I'm so tired, overworked and frustrated. Life gets really sad when you can't even enjoy something you love anymore. I don't know how to fix it. I don't know what to do about it. I sit here thinking about all the wonderful people who visit my table at Beauty Bar every week. I love them all. I get to connect with them for 20 minutes then like a revolving door, 20 minutes later there's someone new sitting there. I only

Yeah, that's me...well, it used to be me. When I stepped on the scale February 20th and it read one pound shy of a weight I said I'd never weigh, I got angry. Thankfully, anger and I are good friends and when I get angry I get motivated. I decided right then that I was gonna go for 30 days without eating fast food. At that point in time I had been eating fast food between 4 to 8 times a week. I've been eating fast food this often for the past 22 years! Here's how I got to that point: I was born with a very high metabolism and was always so skinny that people would ask me if I was sick. In college, I barely weighed 100 lbs and could eat 2 full plates of food in the dorm cafeteria while the heavy girls sat there with two peas on their plate, hating me. All eyes would watch me if I ever got up to go to the bathroom after eating. I swear I've never thrown up my food purposefully nor have I ever been anorexic. I was born skinny and I was teased and tormented about it but

A short concert review I wrote after seeing Angels And Airwaves a couple months ago.... I attended Area 107.9's Big Damn Holiday Jam on 12/11 at the Hard Rock Hotel. I was so excited to finally see headliners Angels and Airwaves and they gave a performance that surpassed my expectations! Angels and Airwaves is the new project of former Blink-182 vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge and former Offspring drummer Atom Willard. They first caught my attention with their 2006 hit "The Adventure" which remains one of my favorite songs to this day. If you listen to alt-rock radio, you've heard the chilling lyrics: "Hey oh, here I am/And here we go/Life’s waiting to begin/I can not live/I can’t breathe/Unless you do this with me". The most recent single off their new album I-Empire called "Everything's Magic" is currently in heavy rotation on 107.9 fm. DeLonge spent a lot of time telling jokes and stories to the crowd as it was obviously very important t