Nails Travails

Right now I'm just waiting for my hair to dry before I head over to get a haircut. Because my hair grows in so many different directions at once, it is important that it is washed and brushed before I go to the barber. I've been to get a haircut without the wash and it hasn't been pretty. With hair like mine, I would never be angry at a barber who was stumped and made a few mistakes. I just try to reduce that chance for error by doing the necessary prep-work.

I should never have stopped biting my nails. They are driving me crazy. The skin underneath is healing and is very itchy.

I'm back from getting my hair cut and my nails are still bugging me. I spent the afternoon cleaning my house. I swept and vaccuumed the whole place. I scrubbed down both bathrooms, and took care of dusting all the surfaces. I don't really know why I go so nuts with the cleaning, but it's all worth it when it's over. Still, with wet hands for much of the afternoon, my fingers are bugging me tonight.

I went to an engagement party a couple weekends ago and one of my readers was commenting on how he, too, was a chronic nail-biter. We lamented together how much we wanted to stop, but how difficult it was to do. We sounded like a couple of addicts.

My advice to him now would be to keep gnawing away. Fingernails are not all they're cracked up to be. I'm finding that the withdrawal symptoms of quiting are quite severe. I'm scratching myself a lot by mistake, my nails are getting caught on my clothing, and they snag into things like door jambs and bend back. In other words, I'm taking a beating. Harpo is enjoying the fingernails, and I must say that shampooing is much nicer. I'm sure that it's worth it, but I'm not feeling it right now.