I Like to Wear Pretty Nail Polish

About a year ago, at the advice and urging of a friend, I started getting manicures as a way to help me break my terrible habit of biting and picking my nails and cuticles. I picked bad enough to regularly bleed. Up until then, I was using clear nail polish on my own - it tastes nasty, though it did nothing to stop me from picking. As part of the manicures, I'd get either clear nail polish or sometimes a very light pink that looked "normal" unless you looked closely. Slowly, things started to improve.

Then last spring, a friend of mine took her young son to the mall with her. (He was 6 or 7, can't recall.) She stopped to get her nails done, and he asked if he could have his painted blue - his favorite color. She saw no harm in it, and they both got their "manicures." All was well, until he went to school the next Monday. He was bullied for having blue nails - sadly, not just by his classmates but also one of his teachers. My friend did a more-than-sufficient job going to school and being a Mama Bear. But, to show some solidarity for him the next time I got my manicure I also got my nails painted blue and posted the pics on Facebook so he could see he wasn't the only boy with blue nails.

I've been getting my nails painted with different colors - and even patterns - since then. I'm enjoying the chance to have a little different way to express myself, and every now and again somebody will ask me about it and I get to tell them the story of my son's friend. Currently, my nails are purple with the ring finger on each hand silver.

My cuticles and skin still dries out and cracks real easy. I'm better - but not perfect - at avoiding picking and instead using clippers to trim off the edges, and using hand lotion more frequently to try and avoid the worst of it. And I look forward to my appointment every other week, where I get to be pampered a little bit for an hour or so.