Diary of a Manicurist

Oh my beautiful friends! How many of you have stood patiently and encouragingly at my side. How I wish you could've explained to me that the remedy I was searching for was inside me all along. I have woken from my slumber. The men I allowed to parade through my life were like nails in my coffin, one by one. The final nail sealed me in nearly 4 years ago but I was not dead, no, I was not finished. I've been like a vampire struggling and clawing at the darkness though the painful metamorphosis. Now I rise. I am lovable. I am good enough. No longer am I glued to the mattress of lonely defeat. No longer am I under a mountain, as I have commanded that mountain to move by the power given to me through Jesus Christ. No longer hiding under my black cloak, I have dropped my shields of invisibility. The dark veil of tunnel vision has been whisked away to reveal a new bright day where I see the friendly gazes and approving smiles of strangers and friends. Like the seed planted undergr...

In 1990, as we were driving down a long country road in northern Indiana, I spotted a cobalt blue sofa in a driveway with a sign on it. Nearly gave myself whiplash as I jerked my neck around to get a better look. After passing it again later that day, I had to stop. Even though we didn't have our own place yet, as I was still in college, I had  to have it. I begged my grandparents to let me store it in their garage. I paid the lady $10 for it and it was mine! Everything was great until my family actually saw it. They thought it was the most ridiculous-looking piece of furniture they've ever seen. The cobalt blue fabric was faux fur, like a stuffed animal. It was extra-long with a low profile back and dark wood spindles propping up the arms. Two wood feet in the back, two rolling casters in the front. Truly the most unique piece of furniture I've ever seen from a company called Prestige in Monroe, OH. Still to this day I've never seen another one like it. The more my ...

A summary of my diary (minus the personal stuff)  ~February 20-June 30, 2015.~ If this sounds like a whole bunch of whiney boring crap to you, imagine what it was like to live it. The Allergies It all began the day after a friend's birthday party at Dino's at the end of last February. I was crushed by a brutal allergy attack (I totally blame Dino's) that lasted 8 long miserable weeks. I tried to tough it out with no medicine but it just wouldn't go away. The local news said it was the worst allergy season Las Vegas had seen in many years. I concur. I began having what seemed like random hot flashes. I couldn't handle extreme temperature changes or bright light. This caused me to have a total breakdown on a friend's birthday party bus. A neighbor gave me some allergy medicine to try and assured me that it was non-drowsy formula. He was wrong. It took me 10 days of extreme lethargy to figure that out. Doctors didn't want to give me a steroid shot becaus...

As a 22+ year beauty industry professional specializing in nails, I am as thrilled as beauty school graduation day whenever a promising new nail product enters the market. With the invention of gel nail polish circa 2011, the nail industry changed overnight. It was the single greatest thing to happen for manicurists since the mid-1980s brought us safe (ethyl methacrylate) acrylic liquid! I often wondered what it must have been like for those techs learning and troubleshooting with acrylic nails for the first time. Like being dropped in the middle of a jungle and whacking your way through to civilization with a machete, or in our case a 100-grit nail file, now I know. The last 3 1/2 years of trying to get it right with gel manicures has been a challenge. With manufacturers changing their training instructions and every different gel polish company having different products and procedures, it has been at times a frustrating yet rewarding challenge. I am ...

It is no secret to anyone how much I love some kinds of music. Music makes everything in my life except sleeping that much more enjoyable. I am therefore always drawn to places that have live music as I appreciate being surrounded by such kinds of talent. However, one thing I never really talk about...and it may come as a huge surprise to many people who know me... is how much I dread attending large arena-style rock concerts. I'm convinced there's a vile place in hell for outdoor concert festivals as well. Of course, there are the traffic jams both in and out, plus the parking nightmares. (hello Woodstock!) Then there is the never ending challenge of being able to see the stage due to the people around and in front me who are either tall or moving around too much. It takes some social adeptness to be able to assess the obnoxiousness level of those around you at general admission shows and I've gotten pretty good at it, but inevitably some asshole always elbows his way in....

It all began in Kindergarten. I thought the song "Shake Your Booty" by KC & the Sunshine Band was really  funny. I decided to be sassy and start singing it in front of my class at the end of a school day, figuring all the other kids knew the song and would think I was funny. Only one kid knew it and he sang it with me and we giggled and giggled and made everybody laugh. I remember walking away wondering why nobody else had ever heard that song before. From that point on, I obsessed over the radio, rolling the dial up and down slowly and listening to every station. My likes and dislikes formed naturally, uninfluenced by anyone else. Then in 5th grade I discovered a couple kids that were just as bananas over Styx's "Too Much Time On My Hands" and AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds" as I was. How exciting to actually talk to my peers about something I liked and have them "get it!" That's when I started to receive confirmation and validation that...

Eighteen years ago I was suffering. I've never experienced such unbearable pain, no painkiller pills could relieve the misery. I couldn't eat and was hallucinating. I did this to myself. I chose to have breast augmentation surgery. In 1996, I was very young and naive and didn't know much about anything. What I did know was that I weighed 120 lbs, my chest measured 32" and my hips 38" which made shopping for any clothing a depressing, frustrating hassle. Nothing fit right, very few things were flattering and I spent lots money at alteration shops. It was time to make a change. I wanted to feel good about the way I looked. I went to a flashy doctor at a big facility in a big city, seemed like the smart choice. It was a Friday and there would be no staff on duty over the weekend. I stayed the night in a hotel. They did the surgery without drainage tubes, since no one would be there during the weekend to remove them. I didn't even know use of drainage tubes was c...