Pedi Cures All

Saturday was a relaxing days in many ways as Mrs. LB and I got to do a few things we haven't been able to in a while. The girls are out of town with their grandparents - in Wyoming of all places! - so we got a child-free weekend for a change.

The day was fairly uneventful in that we didn't do anything too crazy - no weekend getaway to some beach town, no high-priced romantic dinner somewhere. We just kind of took it easy and did a few things that were relaxing and enjoyable.

Getting a pedicure was among them.

I was looking forward to it, but I was a bit apprehensive. I guess it was mostly because of my toe. I have a black toenail that is pretty gnarly, and I worried that the pedicure person (do they have a name? Pedi peeps?) was going to freak.

I sat down and the water was so hot! I wasn't able to handle at first but after a while I got used to it. The girl who, um, how do I say it?... the girl who adminstered the pedicure... no, that sounds like she gave me some shots... the girl who pedicured me... uh, no, that's not a verb... the girl who performed.... hey now! Let's not go there... how about the pedi girl...

The pedi girl (still sounds lame) didn't actually have to see my toe until after my feet went in and out of the water. She got to them and if she had a bad reaction, I couldn't tell. She didn't seem to speak much English (I believe she was Vietnamese) but she must have said something because the guy who was scrubbing my wife's feet came over and clipped the toe. Well, at first he clipped it and then he got some scissor-type thing and clipped it more, and then he got a little electric drill kind of, but it just shaved down the nail.

At one point there were three people standing around my toe. They were speaking Vietnamese (?) so I couldn't tell what was said. I imagined it went like this:

Pedi person 1: Look at that thing. That just looks disgusting.
Pedi person 2: I've never seen anything like it.
Pedi person 3: What the hell is a guy doing here in the first place?

Maybe not but still...

The damn thing worked, though. My nail looked much better afterward, and it didn't even hurt. My nail is still kinda gnarly, not as bad as before, but much better.

Here are some pics I snapped while the girl was pedi'ing me up.

 What is that blue stuff? It felt good except I had a small cut on the top of my foot and it HURT when she put that stuff on there.

The bags are funny.

Okay, here's another brief disclaimer. I had asked for them to paint my toenails. Yeah, I was going to have them paint my toenails - I said that right. But I was going to paint them black. Why? Well, a couple of years ago I ran into a soccer player who painted his toenails and fingernails black. He's a cool guy, good player, and I just thought that was cool. So it kind of stuck. The last time I got a pedi, the lady asked me if i wanted to paint my toenails but I said no. But the bug was planted and I said that I would do it the next time, that I'd paint them black.

Plus, I have naturally black toenails anyway, at least 1-2 of them, so I said why not?

But they must have thought that was too weird because they didn't do it. Instead they gave me some glossy finish.

Anyway, here's the finished product.

 And an up-close shot...

See the shininess? And look at my toe - it looks way better!

All in all, a pleasant experience.