It’s been one year (and three days) since I turned thirty-five. Now I’m thirty-six.
I usually do a post on my birthday so that I have a marker of the time that’s passed, but this year it seems like that time is passing quicker than ever. I’m so, so, so busy (hence the lack of posts here—I’m sorry about that, but things just get like that sometimes!), and to be honest, it feels like I just had a birthday maybe a month or two ago. What happened to the past year?!
So. Thirty-six. That means I was eighteen years old…eighteen years ago. Which seems kind of impossible since I really still think of myself as being eighteen. (Okay, maybe nineteen. Twenty on a bad day.) Am I in my “late 30s” now? Or does that not start until thirty-nine?
So…I’m totally addicted to those Sally Hansen Nail Effects strips I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. After wearing the fishnet-y “Misbehaving” style for about 12 days, the new growth at the base of my nails was bugging me, so I removed the strips (nail polish remover works just fine!). There was a little wear around the tips, but NO chips whatsoever. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 12 days out of a manicure before—at least not one that didn’t involve wraps or gel.
This time around, I went with “Glitz Blitz”, which is GOLD and SHIMMERY and GLITTERY and SPARKLY all over and I love love love it. I’d heard that the glittery strips are harder to apply, but I actually found it a little easier since I was able to stretch them to fit perfectly without worrying about distorting a pattern.
I can’t stop looking at my fingers. Here I am relaxing on the sofa this weekend, vegan white Russian in hand (Kahlúa, vodka and soy creamer…YUM)—and see that? I have one gold toe, too. I had a large strip left over after doing my fingernails, and this just seemed like the right place for it.
Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first:My nails look adorable. After eying those Sally Hansen Nail Effects strips at Duane Reade at least once a week for the past few months, I finally went ahead and coughed up nine bucks and bought a box. I’d read a ton of reviews, so I knew they probably wouldn’t suck, but I didn’t expect them to be quite so awesome.
For my first attempt, I went with “Misbehaving”, a champagne-gold with a fishnet overlay. I’d read that the glittery styles are harder to apply, so even though “Glitz Blitz” was calling my name LOUD + SPARKLY, I opted for something easier the first time around.
The strips are kind of like really thin stickers, but they’re actually made of nail polish. They don’t add dimension to your nails or anything like that. They apply kind of like model airplane decals (sans water) in terms of fragility and placement techniques, but they go on really nicely. The amazing thing is that there’s no drying time, so if you’re like me and tend to decide to do your nails at midnight, you can hop right into bed after and not worry about dreaded sheet-prints screwing up your manicure.
Up close, you can definitely tell that I messed up the placement on a couple of stickers—mostly from fear of getting too close to the cuticle. From a normal distance, though, they look perfect. Oh! And they supposedly last for at least ten days with no chipping. I’m only on day three, so we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good, which is more than I can say for regular manicures. Kind of spendy, yeah, but if you have short nails like me, you can get two full manicures out of a box. Not too bad.
Now onto the other stuff: Hurricane Irene. Yeah. Well, we really don’t know what to expect. We’re staying in the city this weekend because the traffic heading out is bound to be brutal, so things could get exciting. Luckily, our neighborhood (Washington Heights) isn’t in an evacuation zone, so hopefully we’ll be okay. Unsurprisingly, tomorrow’s planned festivities have been postponed (Spike actually wanted to go ahead with it, but once the governor announced that ALL mass transit will cease operation at noon tomorrow, cancellation was kind of a done deal), so we’ll be holed up in the apartment—hopefully with electricity, cell and internet service!
There’s still a giant hole on our kitchen ceiling (grumble, grumble), but the roof seems to have been repaired, so hopefully we won’t get any water coming in—touch wood. I truly hope Irene takes it easy on us all! Everyone please be safe out there.
Yes, that’s right—it’s mix tape for making friendship bracelets to.
About a year ago, I was talking to Jenna and Sara on the Twitter about…well, probably about Doritos or iced coffee or something like that (roughly 90% of my tweets are about snacks and coffee), and the subject of friendship bracelets came up. I vowed that night to bring back the friendship bracelet—not knowing in my uncoolness that they’d already been “brought back”—but I never actually got around to making one.
Until yesterday.
This is the correct view when making a friendship bracelet. If you see anything other than embroidery floss safety-pinned to denim, you’re doing it wrong. Binders and tape are for cheaters. And don’t even breathe the word “yarn”.
Now, this is a view I hadn’t had in a long, long time. Like…probably about 25 years. The last distinct memory I have of making a friendship bracelet is from 1986. I was sitting on my friend Melissa’s bed, knotting away (I’d like to say I was wearing Guess? jeans, but I wasn’t that cool), listening to INXS, when a frantic phone call came in from our friend Terrill to TURN ON THE RADIO because something REALLY BAD had happened.
Yes, that’s right: It was the sad, sad day that Wham! broke up. Tears were shed. Bracelets were exchanged. Andrew Ridgeley filed for unemployment.
Friends, I am not the knotter I was when I was 11 years old. At a distance my bracelet looks alright, but up close it’s kind of a mess. I had a lot of trouble getting my knots even and tight-but-not-too-tight. Either my pre-teen fingers were just way more nimble, or I’ve become more discerning in my old age. Probably a little of both.
I’m kind of proud that I did this FROM MEMORY, though. Okay, I forgot about making a loop at the top before tying my knot (Evan reminded me about two hours in—oh well), but aside from that, I’m pretty pleased with myself. I can’t imagine ever having time to make another one (apparently I had a LOT more free time when I was 11—go figure), but for now I’ll just wear this one and be my own best friend.
There are already 9 bazillion friendship bracelet tutorials on the internet, so I won’t bother repeating the steps here, but rest assured anyone over the age of 6 or 7 should be able to make their own bracelet in a few hours. I highly recommend taking the time! It was pretty relaxing, and lots of fun. Plus, now you have the right soundtrack to accompany your knotting.
p.s. The Swatch watch is not there for effect, I swear! I’ve been wearing Swatches since…well, since the last time I made a friendship bracelet, and they’re the only watches I really like. I still have all of my old Swatches, and yes, they all still work. (I only wear one at a time these days, but you never know…)
BONUS!!! I tried to find a picture of myself from 1986, but the best I can do is my 7th grade class picture from 1987 (dudes, Joyce in the front row is wearing a FRIENDSHIP ANKLET!!). I’ll give a gold star to anyone who can pick me out of the group. Click to enlarge!
UPDATE!! Dee has correctly identified me! I’m in the back row, fourth from the right in the oversized cardigan, black hairbow, and body-wave perm. Yesssss. That’s Terrill next to me. Rest in peace, sweet girl.
Confession: I haven’t worn a swimsuit since I was 12 or 13 years old. Yeah, it’s been well over 20 years. I have gone in the water a couple of times since then (sporting the classic underwear-and-tee combo), but swimming is really a thing of the past for me. I don’t think about that fact very much, but when I do, it makes me a little sad. I miss the water. But I don’t miss swimsuits.
I really don’t want to be one of those people who kvetches about body image and dressing rooms and all that (yeah, yeah, I know I’m OK), but…well. Sometimes you don’t want to put on a swimsuit. And sometimes that “sometimes” lasts for a couple of decades.
These swimsuits are pretty cute though, right? The one from Grey Ant (sold in separates as a bandeau top and underalls) is like an awesome Scandinavian blanket re-sewn into swimwear. I can get behind that. The other one is from Minnow Bathers (they also have an Etsy shop, and Leah told me they’re happy to make suits in custom sizes). It kind of looks like what the emcee from Cabaret might wear to go swimming. Or modern lederhosen. Only good things.
