Polishing

I've become aware of that recently, I've been making more mistakes than ever before. Never fear, though - I've found a way to cope with them!  Every time I mess something up, I've been soothing my dispairing self with the hope that "at least I learned something from (insert mishap here).  I will NEVER, EVER do that again." I try to think that every time I make a mistake, I am being, as they say "polished"and that the chance of my making that mistake and the future has been substantially lessened.  I mean, a person can only mess up so much in their lifetime, right?

For example: At least I learned something from trying to buy my whole dinner for $3 at Target. That we walked to and from. That was 2 miles away. I will NEVER, EVER do that again.

At least I learned something from going to work on 2 hours of sleep. (Which, by the way resulted in crossing the road while cross traffic still had the green light and overcharging a customer by $20.) I will NEVER, EVER do that again.

At least I learned something from wearing that awful rainbow top/yellow skinny jeans/forest green sweater/orange belt combo for picture day. I will NEVER, EVER do that again.

And so on.

Anyway, speaking of going to work, I find that to be a place where I am in an almost constant state of 'polishing'. Farmington Nails is run by Mimi and Bob (they each tell me they are the sole owner), who, as far as I can tell, are in some kind of romantic relationship between dating and marriage.

They have a daughter and several employees who come and go with the change of the wind. You might have assumed they're Asian. If you did - shame on you for not being a politically correct thinker! Shame! Shame! But, what can I say - you assumed correctly.  They're Vietnamese, which adds to the age barrier between me and my bosses a language barrier, a thinking barrier, a skin-color barrier, a social barrier, a finance handling barrier, and, most importantly, a how-we-should-run-the-nail-salon barrier.

It's basically a whole freaking Great Wall of China!

Take today, for instance. As the resident naturally-born English speaker, I make appointments and deal with customers.  I had Bob scheduled to do one of his regular customer's nails at 3. Apparently, he wanted to leave a little early today. So, Bob snuck out the back door at 2 o'clock sharp, and by the time 3 rolled around, was nowhere to be found, leaving a very unsatisfied Tammi* on my hands.

Sometimes, the social barrier shows itself when Mimi is dealing with a client. "You wait for me lil bit." She'll say. "Maybe, 10 minute, 15 minute. No problem, right? You waiting for me. No problem!" 10 minutes is not a problem. 2 hours, though, is usually a bit of an inconvenience. Poor Tammi*.

At the end of the day, they're really very sweet and do excellent work. It just might be nice if they left the scheduling to me.  And also told me when they felt like taking a little vacation.

Love, Bella