Friday, March 17, 2017

Life Mistakes...

Over the past few months, I have been mulling over my life and how to handle some of the more depressive situations.  One of the things I have come to realize is that I expect/ask too much of my friends.  Meaning, needing emotional support when they are not in for that.  

I do not have very many friends and many of them are busy with their own lives.  It is not fair for me to expect them to drop everything to hear my problems and so forth.  I try to compensate that by letting them know how much I appreciate their being in my life by getting things that I think they may like.  I feel I have not much to offer, but I try to repay kindness as I can.

Not everything is positive and light.  I remember a friend from college hearing about my new Beetle and thinking I bought the yellow one.  I had gotten a blue one and she was telling me how happy she was that I did not get that "perky yellow car!"  I try not to be negative, but sometimes, my pain and lack of being able to do the things I used to do really gets the best of me.  

I have tried to put all of that in the past and start fresh.  However, past pains do have a tendency to raise their ugly heads.  I know I wear my heart on my sleeve and take a lot of stuff personally.  I am exactly the description of my astrological sign - the crab.  When hurt, I want to crawl back in my shell.  Sometimes, when threatened, I will pinch and hurt others, but I never want to be like that.

For my friends, I apologize for leaning so hard.  It was not what you signed up for when we became friends. The past several months have been difficult - hell, the past several years have been difficult.  Life is like that and sometimes, it is just hard to roll with the punches.  

I just hope that you understand - I know.

 

 

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Nail Polish Frustrations...

Back in January, I gave myself a manicure.  I was quite proud of myself, even though I had polish all over my cuticles and on the sides of my nail bed.  I knew that the polish would flake off after my first shower.  I loved the color and was hoping to see if what I had done would enable the polish to stay on longer than a few days.

About a year ago, I spent quite a bit of money to get a mani/pedi from Hollywood Nail Spa.  I had not even been out of the spa for a hour and my polish was already flaking/peeling off.  I was mortified!  What was the point?!

I thought maybe it was the old products that the nail tech was using.  I really examine what the nail techs are doing and their kits when giving me a mani/pedi.  I check out what the products look like and quite honestly, the nail base coat and top coat bottles were looking pretty nasty.  Crusty at the top and looked thick when being applied.  I figured small wonder that my polish started chipping and peeling.

So, I got the Zoya nail polish, in Sarah, and my Essie base and top coat polishes and started on my nails.  I put two coats of base coat on my nails.  Next, I applied two coats of the Zoya polish, let dry, then applied the top coat.  The polish performed so well!  My polish wore down, rather than chipped/peeled.  Basically, my manicure lasted for about 17 days which was amazing.

So, I figured I would try again.  This time, the polish would be Zoya's Olivera - a really pretty dark forest green.  I thought it would be perfect for St. Patrick's day.

I followed the same pattern as last time:  two coats of base, two coats of color, then one coat of top.

After about 3 hours, I found that my right pinkie nail already had a chip!  I figured - do not freak out about it.  I applied a small amount to cover the spot and used top coat to help even the polish.  Perfect!

Next morning, I noticed some texture to my nails from having slept.  That dulled the shine on the nails somewhat.  Also, there were some areas where the polish had been "moved" and caused a rough edge.  At this point, I am getting annoyed.  By the evening, I noticed chipping and peeling was taking place.  Now, I was full blown over the whole thing.  I could not believe it and not really sure why it is happening.  

Now, I am going to remove the polish because quite honestly, you could not even tell I applied it on Friday - it looks like it has been on for at least a week and is already chipping.  Ugh!  My hope is to get my errands run for grocery shopping day, get a pot roast in the oven, work on some decluttering, then work on my nails.

This time, I have some fast nail drying spray.  The spray I bought I used to use back in the 80's when I was regularly giving myself manicures and it worked really well.  I am just really disappointed that this manicure is performing so poorly.  I have lined up a bunch of polishes for me to use that I think are really gorgeous - light, pastel colors to reflect Spring. 

I like getting a mani/pedi, but I am trying to work out a routine/schedule that I can stay on track.  Once I get that worked out, I want to work in putting in a bi-weekly mani/pedi.  The main reason is that I want to make sure that my feet are being well cared.  I do a horrible (and I mean HORRIBLE) job giving myself a pedicure.  I butcher my toenails and they look all scraggly and nasty.  I do okay with putting lotion on my feet, but pretty much hit and miss with sloughing off the dead skin on my heels.  I need to get better about that.

Have to wrap this up for now, but will let you know how the manicure goes!