Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge! I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by.

This school year I started treating myself to powder dipped manicures. It’s been a guilty pleasure to have my nails done and colorful! So fun!

Last month I treated my daughter to one with me. This was when she was preparing to go on a school trip to Italy for Spring Break. She was worried about biting her nails while she was there, so we thought a manicure might help curb the habit. I think later that day we got word that she was actually going to go to Germany. Italy wasn’t safe enough anymore. The calendar’s a little fuzzy in my brain, but I think it was the next day after that when the trip was canceled completely.

But, at least our nails looked good!

But now it’s almost a month later. Not so good.

And nail salons aren’t essential businesses opened during social distancing, and if they were open, it’s not worth it at this point.

So, we googled how to take this stuff off, and ordered a nail drill.

Today was the day. It was a long process, friends. But in light of the fact that we all have to learn new ways of doing things now, I have recorded the steps for your education:

1. Wait for the package from amazon
2. Wipe down the amazon box
3. Wipe down the nail drill box
4. Wait for all zoom meetings to be done
5. Wait for anyone who was stuck inside on zoom meetings all day to get a little bit of sunshine
6. Wait for little brothers to be busy
7. Unpack the nail drill
8. Read the directions (There weren’t really many directions…)
9. Find a USB brick to plug in the nail drill (Where are all the chargers? Are the kids hoarding chargers?)
10. Take turns roughing up nails with the new nail drill (Ouch. That thing is loud and fast, and somehow hurts sometimes! Actually, ouch.)
    
11. Cut foil and cotton (I did feel bad about using foil, since I only have the one thing of foil, and I don’t want to have to go to the store…)
    
12. Soak cotton in acetone (100%. All the things we googled were clear: It must be 100% Acetone)
13. Wrap fingers in acetone soaked cotton, and foil (This was hard to do once one hand was wrapped, by the way.)
    
14. Wait for 30 minutes (Boring! Waiting is hard.)
15. Unwrap each nail (With hope in my heart!)
16. Realize it only worked somewhat (Hope isn’t my strong suit)
    
17. Scrape some, drill some (We got to use a smaller drill piece that doesn’t hurt!)
18. File
19. Soak (More Acetone)
20. Hope
21. Wipe (Yay!)
    
22. Clip
23. File
24. Paint with nail hardener
25. Sigh with relief to be done.
    

I don’t know when we will be able to get our nails done again. Last time we did it, the world was different, on the cusp of change.

Some people I know are planning on growing gardens for the first time, or are working on menus that utilize the exact right groceries to minimize waste. I know there are people out there with 3D printers printing face masks. This pandemic is bringing out the best in people, and now I’ve joined the ranks of people working to make the world a better place. I’ve figured out how to take off my powder dip nail polish. I guess it’s a start.