Then came my urge for a minty-green.
Then pearly white silver for a wedding I attended.
I wore nail polish as a kid. The peel-off kind that would tempt me to pick at it only minutes after putting it on, it came off so deliciously in long plastic-y strips. I wore the regular kind, too. I wasn't very good at putting it on, and my nails were never overly long anyway (I can't stand having the white part more than a couple of millimeters). So it looked messy. Then it started to feel gross, like it was blocking the sensation through my nails. Like a mask you can't see through.
So for years I didn't use nail polish, except for the odd time I'd paint my toenails. I thought, "thank goodness I don't like it, since it IS bad for you and who needs it!?"
And then there was a Friendsday Wednesday with a Canada Day theme, and I decided to paint my fingernails. I thought: "Well even if it feels gross I can always take it off the next day. And good thing I didn't throw out the nail polish remover in my cleaning fit last month." My friend Mary Beth did the painting for me and I noted how she did it - in three even strokes per nail, wiping off any spill as she went.
And it didn't feel gross. It didn't feel like a mask. It felt fine. And smooth. And the ends of my fingers felt grown-up, and they flashed color at me as I did things like type, or drive my car, or reach into my purse. My hands felt illuminated, highlighted.
So I've gone back over to nail polish. I'm still a short-nails girl, I really don't think I could ever be the kind for fake nails and professional manicures. But, one never knows.
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