Girly nails

1. Did I mention my new, temporary housemate?

L. was coming out of a relationship, at last waking up to realize that she needed some time to herself. To make matters worse, both she and her b/f had lost their respective jobs within a short time period. Long story short, she needed a place to breathe, recoup, get her finances in order.

Enter the unused spare bedroom chez moi, which was the repository for unpacked boxes and odds & ends.

We painted that bedroom first (which was two shades of sickly blue and a vile yellow-green) and got her installed, and have since tackled the dining room and downstairs hall with primer. It’s slow going because both of us would much prefer to do other things than paint; but once one person gets started, the other usually joins in.

Her aim is to get her finances back on track and rebuild a clientele in her field. She travels a good deal for her work and so is not home a lot.

L. is a nail technician, which is a technological step up from mere manicurist. As she is currently studying to become a certified rep for an American company, she has to take a series of tests, both theoretical and practical. Yesterday I was the guinea pig for the practical portion.

A fairly new way to do nails is to “build” them with a gel product, which is painted on and dried under UV lights. It’s a pretty complex process and one L. is good at; but yesterday’s test was the older acrylic-tip nail job, which she likes less. You’ve probably seen the nails on women on TV – square-cut, seemingly coated with Liquid Paper. I despise the look. But that’s what I’ve got, albeit without the blinding white tips (mine are a soft white). They look nice, I guess, but I would never willingly sit for three hours every 2-3 weeks for this procedure.

She took pictures of the best three nails, as required by the test, and emailed them last night. Meanwhile, I’m looking at the square corners and itching to file them into a more rounded shape.