Today is going better than yesterday did, though evidently not for the IT person responsible for the P.O. closest to my office; I went there again today at lunch and they were still closed due to computer problems—same handwritten signs on the door and shutter over the counter, same lack of anyone around to provide more information or even directions to other post offices nearby. I ended up driving to one about three times as far away but they were up and running so I got my packages mailed out. Those boxes were for my first swaps arranged through MakeupAlley (MUA), which a friend introduced me to almost a year ago but which I hadn’t spent much time at until the last few weeks. What brought me back was nail polish. I’ve liked nail polish for what seems like forever—I remember taking a bottle of bright red on a family vacation in the early 70s—but my interest has waxed and waned. In college I grew my fingernails scary long (this was before computers were everywhere) and painted them often. In the years since, I’ve mostly painted my fingers conservative colors or clear for work or just left them bare while putting wilder colors on my toes.

It’s the toes that have sparked this most recent resurgence in my love of lacquer. One of the pedicure pictures I posted on Flickr was invited to a nail polish group, which got me looking at that group and other similar groups and that led me to nail polish blogs and those led me back to MUA and the Nail Care Board there. It’s a very annoyingly formatted board, where it’s impossible to easily see what’s new since the last time I visited and most of the discussion takes place in the subject lines rather than the posts and there’s no sticky feature so good information gets buried, but all the same I’ve picked up some helpful tips there—like the foil method for nail polish removal (no more scrubbing off glitter!) and which cheap drugstore colors are good substitutes for certain pricey polishes—and met some ladies who really get the appeal of color on tips and toes and don’t question why I do pedicures even when it’s not sandal weather. No telling how long this phase of my infatuation will last but for now it’s burning bright.

On this date in 2008: Morning Mystery
2007: Chilly Boy
2006: Battle of the Patio
2005: Sunshine State
2004: Starfish a.k.a. Sea Star
2003: I’ve Been Gone Again
2002: No entry