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Show Just Stuff by Jan I don't know where we got it; from which relative, but somewhere back in my ancestral tree there had to have been an incessant nail biter. Neither my mom nor my dad ever bit their nails, but all of us kids do right down to the quick! I have tried to grow them out using nail polish to mittens; even tried some of that nasty tasting paint-on stuff, but it has all been to no avail. I have little stubs were nails are supposed to go. Not only are short, bitten, ragged nails very unattractive, they're very inconvenient. Scratching an itch isn't the only thing nails are used for. Have you ever tried to pop a pop-top can without nails? It's next to impossible to get hold of the little ring. How about when you wash dishes, or clean off the cabinet and you find a little bit of something stuck to the surface? Just scrape it with your nail. Right? When it happens to me I have to about rub my fingers raw to get the stuff off. Nails are great for peeling labels off cans or price tags off gifts. They're an absolute necessity when it comes to peeling an orange or picking up spilled pins. They're great to pull out tacks, separate eye lashes or pull out slivers too. Well, the other day I decided to end my short- nail dilemma, and get, some fingernails. Of ' course they weren't "the home grown type, but they were the next best thing: generic fingernails. Rather than buying the pre-fabricated glue-on-with-super-glue type I used the kind you paint on over a form. My poor nails were so short it was a major project just getting the forms to stay on. As soon as we took the forms ojff I could tell th e nails were doing to drive me crazy. My escapade with long nails lasted all of two days, and that was long enough! I now know why I bite my nails. Having long nails is a bigger handicap, if you're not used to them, than having no nails at all. With my elongated extensions I couldn't do up my pants, I couldn't put on my jewelry, I couldn't even get my key in the key hole. I had a rough time typing and could barely hold a pencil. I have three big scratches from just putting on my shirt and when I put on my make up half of it ended up under my nails. I felt like I had mud caked on the ends of my fingers, and the fingers felt like they were at least 15 inches long. Two days were all I could stand. The counterfeit claws had to come off! After much cutting and clipping, biting and breaking and a few hours of soaking in acetone, they were off! Someday, when I muster up enough will power I'll grow my own and have long, gorgeous nails, but until then, I guess I'm stuck with my nasty, gnawed nails. |