Last night I got a pedicure, and I realized a few things.
1. I am not mature enough to pretend like my feet aren’t ticklish.
2. I will never figure out how to make that massage chair do what I want.
3. I am a boring fuddy duddy.
On Monday, Annalyn and I met my cousin and her daughter for lunch and then did a little shopping. I let Annalyn pick out a new bottle of nail polish at the girly-girl store. After overruling every sparkly, glittery, feathery pink thing she picked up, I decided a two-dollar bottle of paint couldn’t hurt anything.
Of course she picked up a bottle of hideous silver sparkly polish. And would not be dissuaded, no matter how appealing I made the [normal] pink sound.
“Are you sure? This pink is awfully pretty! Or what about the [non-glittery] purple? It’s nice, isn’t it?”
It didn’t make one bit of difference, so I gave her two bucks and let her buy her stupid sparkly silver paint.
Last night at the salon, I had to laugh when the nail technician kept questioning my own nail polish decision.
“You pick color? Hot pink? Like this? Fun! Summer! No? Oh. You want red? You sure? It’s summer! Fun!”
As I watched her paint my nails with the [lovely] dark pink that I finally decided on, I had to laugh at myself. I love the bright colors I see on my friends’ toes, but I know how rarely I get pedicures. So I pick a color I know I can live with for a few months. (Yes. Months.)
It’s the same way I shop for shoes – practical, maybe to a fault. Like my polish, my shoes match everything and can be worn anywhere. But they’re not exactly fun. And they don’t make me smile.
I’m not sure how to balance fiscal responsibility and practicality with my buried deep desire for whimsy. I’m not saying I want to pick the sparkly silver polish or the pointy pink pumps every time. But every once in a while? Yeah, that would be nice. Fun, even.
How do you balance fun and practicality? What color are your toes painted?
Ha. I own several bottles of sparkly nail polish. My go to summer color is Turquoise and Caicos by Essie. I also bought a pair of sparkle Toms this summer so maybe I should have been born a drag queen!
Turquoise is one of my favorite colors. Maybe I’ll try that next time. :)
I used to work in a shoe store and could never understand why women would come in and buy shoes to match only one outfit. And now I understand! Because when they wear that outfit, they feel amazing. I don’t know how to balance practicality with whimsy – but it’s nice knowing I’m not the only duddy!
And I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who gets this struggle but still hasn’t quite figured it out yet. Thanks for your comment, Bethany!
Right now my toes are painted BRIGHT blue! (I raided my 12 year-olds stash) I even posted on FB that I was either hip and edgy or desperately clinging to youth – still not sure which one it is ;) But it is fun to wear a summer color!
I think I’d be more inclined to go with a pretty blue or green than the [hideous] hot pinks the technician was pushing on me!! :)
Right now they are a very chippy red (with a hint of sparkly). The polish was a gift from a friend. Mine are almost always painted some shade of red because, to me, most other colors just look weird. I tried Essie’s “Chinchilly,” which I love on my fingers, but it just made me toes look sickly. Red is not sickly. I’ll stick with the red!
I still have trouble balancing the practical and the fun side of fashion. I work in a church office, so most of my more “fun” shoes are not practical enough to traipse around the whole building in. Of course, this may be why I wear the red nail polish. At least I know that I have fun colored toes! As Lorelai Gilmore would say:
Rory: Yes, but I’m going to be wearing shoes. Nobody’s going to see my feet.
Lorelai: Okay, but everybody knows that private school girls are bad. And bad girls always wear red nail polish.
And now I’m really rambling, so I should probably just hit “post” and get back to work!
You had me at a Gilmore Girls quote. :)
There’s one for every situation!
This makes me smile. This summer I decided to branch out of my usual summer color and experiment. Essie actually sent me a hot pink shade through Klout perks and I gave it a whirl, ultimately deciding the color is not me. But I’ve been wanting to try either a green or blue so I browsed the colors and ended up with Sally Hansen’s Mint Apple and LOVE it. I smile every time I see my toes.
Yes. That is exactly the feeling I realized last night that I’m missing! That – every time I see [whatever], I smile. I need more of that, I think.
Love this post. And I agree with the massage chair not doing what you want it to. I got a pedicure a couple of weeks ago and splurged for polka dots. They didn’t TELL me until I was paying that polka dots are EXTRA. What…$5 to put white dots on my toes that took 2 seconds. Good choice for going with the red. LOL.
For what it’s worth (apparently $5), I love your polka dots. :)
Oh man, did this ever hit home. Since I’ve been doing the Summer of 7 this summer, I realized that I’m just like this with my clothes. I buy things just because I think it can be reused so many times. What I’ve found is that I never wear that stuff and when I do I don’t feel amazing. What I love to wear is though few “wild” pieces that really make me feel beautiful. I’ve just determined I’d rather have one $30 shirt I’d wear twice a week than 3 $10 shirts that I hate and won’t wear.
Amy, that’s a great perspective – thank you for sharing. It’s interesting that, even though you’re doing the Summer of 7 – or maybe because you are, you still feel this way. That’s really making me think.
Yes, it seems backwards sometimes but what I’ve learned with possessions is they are gifts from God and the more I *love* it the more I’m grateful for it. Of course, we have to be careful here. It’s no excuse to buy the more expensive option because we’d love it more but it’s definitely an excuse to buy something you love versus something you hate or are “eh” about and end up not using which turns into excess and waste and nothing you’re grateful for.
I get being “conservative.” I ate at Panera today and had broccoli soup because I love it. I always look at other soups, but go back to my standard…but that is because it is yummy! My toes aren’t painted…a combo of pregnancy and laziness, but I also understand picking something you know you will like. On another note, I got a mani/pedi in March because I had a coupon to a fancy-schmanzie salon. I didn’t get matching, so maybe that was daring? What I did notice is that the paint on my hands came off within days. I couldn’t believe it and I couldn’t patch it up because I didn’t have the paint. It was a bummer and a wake up as to why this salon has customers coming in every week (rich customers). It seemed like quite the rip off. I figured the fancy place would have bulletproof paint, but I suppose that is a bad business plan?
Oh YEAH, manicures are a crock. I never get them because the two or three times I have, they last approximately 37 minutes. Maybe if I were a lady of leisure who never used her hands it would last? But I doubt it.
I probably err on the fun side too often. My toes are not currently painted, but the most recent color was aqua. I have a million jars of polish in varying shades of bright pink. ;) I keep looking for the perfect color. I’ve tried to do a better job of having fun with the little things and being more practical in the big things.
I think that is the right balance, Nicole. Fun with the little things and practical in the big ones. I’m going to try to remember that!
The more posts of yours that I read, the more alike I think we are! I am way too practical most of the time, buying things that will never go out of style, but also that I will never really LOVE. that said, I have splurged a little this summer and bought a few new nail polishes! Right now my toes are a deep purple color. When I really want to treat myself, I paint my own fingernails… It never lasts longer than a couple days, but it makes me smile to see the pale lavender color and it makes me feel much more girly than usual!
Oooh, lavendar nails sound pretty – and definitely more fun than practical! Good for you!
During my week off from my job, babysittiing 3 boys who are 7, 10, 13, I went for a pedicure. My hairdresser had encouraged me to go outside of the box with my “safe” choice of colors. After all, she was wearing a beautiful teal on her toes and said, “You only live once!’ So, I picked what I thought was a teal, and once I got outside of the shop, it was a BRIGHT blue! The next week, the 10 year old said, “Why’d you paint your toenail blue? Not cool, Ms C, not cool for an old lady…” YIKES thought this 54 year old! I did leave it on for another week and then took it off. Months earlier, yes months, than I normally would:) Mary, you make me smile! And, encourage my heart!
Oh no! You are not old, first of all. And I say people of all ages can wear blue if they want! But I’m not going to lie – this is kind of my fear when I consider painting my own nails a bright color! :)
I always try to have fun with my toenail polish. Lately I’ve been doing Jamberry nail shields on my big toes and painting the others a coordinating color. Right now I’ve got black/white chevron with the other toes red. I’m switching to teal this evening. :)
I’ve got a great giveaway going right now – five chuldren’s books by Laura Numeroff. Be sure to stop by and enter. So glad I found your blog today.
Oooh, I love teal! Your nails sound really fun! :)
I am extremely inspired with your writing talents and also with
the format for your blog. Is this a paid subject matter or
did you modify it your self? Either way keep up the
excellent high quality writing, it is rare to peer a great blog like this one nowadays..