Beauty is pain

So ya'll know I get my nails done...you've seen my super cute pics on Instagram.  If you thought I did that myself then you don't know me at all...

I've been going for like 3 or 4 years now & I met the guy (Tony) & his wife (Tammy) at the nail place in Corydon.  Then like a year & a half ago they moved to Tammy's nieces shop in Jeffersonville.  It takes me about an hour to get there but they had been doing my nails for over a year at that point & I knew them & they knew me & I decided driving to Jeffersonville every 2 weeks wasn't gonna kill me.  I mean - I drive like 7 miles to work everyday - it all evens out, people.

Beauty is pain.

When I tell the girls at work stories about our conversations they are amazed that I can understand them.   They say, 'How do you understand them?  When I get a pedicure I can not figure out what they're saying!'  Sometimes it is really difficult, but I've known them long enough now that I tell them I didn't understand & make them say it again (rather than just smile & nod - you know how it goes!) 

And we talk about all kinds of stuff.  I'm so curious about people & have YOU ever known anyone that lived in Cambodia & came here to live & then became a US citizen?  I haven't so it's super interesting to me!  Last night we talked about the process they went through to get their Green Cards to come to America.  We take living here for granted!

My funniest story is last year after the Derby Tony asked me if 'I went to the Debbie?'  I said, "Did I go WHERE?"  He said, 'The Debbie.  Did you go to the Debbie?'  I was like, "Debbie?  I don't understand what you're talking about." (& of course I'm being friendly & funny about it - I'm not a bitch about it.  Again-I've known them a while now - they get I'm sarcastic & funny.)  He said, 'the horse race -  the Debbie'.  I said, "OH MY GOD.  You mean the DeRRRRby."  He said, 'Yea, that's what I said - the Debbie.'   Then I proceeded to try & teach him that it was the Derrrrrby not the debbie.  I can't put into written word how funny it was but trust me when I tell you it was hilarious trying to get him to say DeRby.    The conversation went like this:

Jaime:  "Derby.  Say Derby."

Tony:  'Duhby'

Jaime:  "No, Derrrrrrrby."

Tony:  'Duhhby"

Jaime:  "No.  Derrrr.  Derrrrr.  Derrrrrby."

Tony:  "Duhhhhhby". 

He kind of rolls his 'R's' so the closest he could get was the "Duhhhhby."

Beauty is pain.

OK-so Wed after work I went to have my nails done.  I usually go on Mondays because they're slower after the weekend but they were closed for the holiday.  When I walked in Leah, the owner, said, 'It's not Monday, Jaime!'  (Like I said - they know me!)

I had a cute Pinterest stolen idea all ready but it turned out I needed a new set of nails put on.  When I get a new set I ALWAYS get the white tips (like a french manicure) because I'm weird I don't think the french tips ever look as good as they do when you get fresh tips put on.  Sure, they can paint the tips of your nails white & all but it never never looks as natural in my opinion.  

First I have to undergo the removal process of my other nails.  Now-I don't know how other nail guys do it - by MY guy?  Oh, he loves to torture me.  He takes a nail tip & wedges it between my real nail & the gel overlay & PRIES it off.  

And I wanted to be sure to share pics w/ you every step of the way.

Because if you're wondering if it hurts?

YES it does.  Like a son of a bitch.

Beauty is pain.

And if you're counting - I have TEN fingers so we do this process TEN times. 

(I have had them soaked off before, but that takes like FOREVER.  Yes it's less painful but it's long & messy.  I say rip off the band-aid...)

And this is what we're left with.  Paper thin, roughed up, gross looking nails.

It feels really funny for the few minutes they are naked.  It's almost like they are breathing.  But they are only allowed to breath for a few minutes before we start the whole process over.  

Who needs breathing nails?  Not me! 

Beauty is pain.

Next he attaches the new white claws tips.  

I keep my nails pretty short & I have NO idea how people function w/ nails like this.  I mean-I couldn't even push a button on my phone with this nonsense.

Finally we were finished w/ the torture.

It was time to hang out under the light for 10 minutes & be on my way.

 As soon as I got in the car I took a Tylenol.  It hurts right then when they're ripping the nails off, but it stops... until later that evening when your nails & finger tips are THROBBING.  I learned to pop one of these bad boys right after so the pain isn't as bad later on.  However, I did wake up in the morning w/ throbbing fingers.

Beauty is pain.

Lets talk about my Mac

You might remember that back in 2012 (I think?) I made the leap to being all Mac.  I bought the smaller (aka cheaper) iMac computer (even though I still had to drop around $1200!) when I was still selling jewelry.  Since I retired, I really have no use for a computer like this & I feel like I'm not letting it live to its potential & that makes me sad.  It's also very difficult to do updates to it since we have only 10gb a month of internet to use.  I have to haul it to moms house or Brian & Shauna's & this bad boy is HEAVY.   

 I got the bright idea a few weeks ago to think about selling my iMac & get a Macbook instead.  I love my iPad & take it everywhere, but if I had a Macbook I wouldn't need the iPad.  I thought for a minute about getting rid of my iPad too but decided against that because it's way more convenient when traveling....

I don't wanna bore you guys w/ a bunch of computer talk, but I went to the Apple store last week to have them tell me ALL about MacBooks.  If it's possible, I'm more confused than I was before about WHICH Macbook I want.  

First & foremost laptops don't have as much storage as desktop computers so my first job was to figure out just how much crap data I have on my iMac.  UHM, it has 500gb of storage & I have 142 free which means I've used 358gb.  That's a lot of crap data.

We have an external hard drive that we've had FOREVER.  When I was messing w/ my iMac I noticed it hadn't been backed up to the hard drive since Apr 7th.  (See how much I don't use it?  It's just not right, people.)  I tried a few different things w/ the hard drive (hooking it up to another computer, trying a different cord) but I couldn't get it to read anywhere.  I self diagnosed that it was bad.  I needed to get a new external hard drive to get some of the crap data off my iMac & to make sure it was backed up when I was ready to get a MacBook.

I went to Best Buy Saturday in the midst of all my farming related errands & got a 2 tb hard drive.  The 1 tb was $70 & for $30 more I got double the storage.  I also had a gift card from Best Buy from Christmas so I only ended up paying $50.  Yes please.

Our old hard drive had to be plugged into power to work & you can see how much larger it is from the new one.  I'm sure it's a dinosaur of external hard drives.

I had a folder of pictures on the iMac that I had moved from my other computer (aka before iPhoto ruled my life) & it was 58gb.  It took 3 hours for it to copy to the hard drive.

B-rad is breaking out in hives because he's worried about our his iTunes library.  It took him many painstaking hours to get everything he had ever bought or copied from a CD to our his iTunes library.  (It's practically his lifes work. )  The boy has more songs than he could ever listen to in a lifetime.  I asked the smarty Apple guy about the iTunes & he told me to 'just save them to the hard drive'.  Easy breezy, right?

B-rad had 64gb of 'OLD' iTunes.  SIXTY-FOUR GIG.  That's music from our other old computers that he was able to get on my iMac.  This does NOT include what is in our iTunes app now.

It was about 12,000 songs.  I mean, did you even know there WERE 12,000 songs??  It took about an hour to transfer to the hard drive.

And this...THIS is what I covet.  I really, really, REALLY want the new MacBook (because it has a force touch track pad (which is super cool), newly designed butterfly style keys & each key has its OWN LED light {rather than one LED lightbar for the whole keyboard} AND you can pick your color - space grey, silver or gold.  It also weighs a mere 2 pounds compared to the MacBook Air's 3 pounds.  I plan to carry this Macbook with me now rather than my iPad.

 I know I said I wasn't gonna bore you - but I've been studying this stuff!  Can you tell?

One bad things is that it has ONE port.  ONE.  And it's a USB-C.  It's not the normal "USB" thing everyone knows & loves.  SIGH.  From what I've read - this is what the industry is going to, but they're not there YET.  So in the meantime I would need to buy an adapter thingie to use anything w/ a usb connection (i.e. my scanner, my phone cord...).  UGH.  

 I keep going back & forth between the new MacBook or the 13" MacBook air.  Each has their own pros & cons but the girl who has NO problem making a decision was struggling w/ which one to get.  (First world problems, huh?)  

  I sit at a desk in front of a computer allllll day at work & the last thing I wanna do when I get home is sit at my desk in front of my computer to blog so think about this: whichever MacBook I get will allow me to do all kinds of things that I can't do from iPad - like BLOG from my couch while watching tv rather than sitting at my desk or at my moms when I'm eating lunch because all the pictures from my phone will magically copy over to the MacBook (which they do now on my iPad but it's hard as hell to blog from it) & then I can type on a real live, back lit keyboard.  

See how I pulled you guys in right at the end & made you invested in my problem too?  This will help me, HELP YOU.   You guys obviously love when I blog (& for that I am truly thankful...).  & I'm a giver - I wanna give the masses what they want but from the comfort of my couch.

{UPDATE: I have finally decided to get the New MacBook, 512gb in space grey....}

Change of plans

This past Saturday I had plans - big plans - to visit a friend recovering from surgery, go to the mall to return some things & finally to Best Buy to buy an external hard drive.

Planting doesn't care about my plans.

B-rad called me around 11:00am & needed me to go to Palmyra to pick up some parts.  I had about a quarter of a tank of gas & I try to never let my tank get under that because when it comes to B-rad - I NEVER know where I'm gonna end up.  I decided to stop & get gas before I picked up those parts.  I always reset my trip because I'm a dork I like to check my mileage against the pump.  My car tells me what I'm getting but it always reads a little high.  

He was planting in Georgetown so I was making my way via the backroads to the highway near New Salisbury.  He called me, "Where are you?"  "UHM, Hancock Chapel" (if you live around here you will understand...) He said, "OK good - I need you to go back to Palmyra to your work & get me something."

Sigh.

I got to my work around 11:30 & the place was packed which is the norm on a Saturday especially on a holiday weekend.  I checked the computer for the part B-rad needed & we didn't have any.... but our Seymour store did.  I called B-rad & told him I would go to Seymour if he wanted me to.  He did say I didn't have to, but he didn't want to start the next field he was going to without it.  Since it was a 3 day weekend I felt like I should go get what he needed.  I'm a giver.  (The broken piece was a depth cover thingie & it wasn't properly putting the seed deep enough in the ground on one row.  That's a problem.)  

Now-you may remember I have other parts in my car AND I was suppose to be visiting a friend.  I called her to say I wouldn't be able to stop by because planting doesn't care I was going to visit her.  I explained the whole sordid tale but I did tell her if she felt up to it & wanted to get out of the house she was more than welcome to ride up with me.  I made my way to Georgetown around 12:15 & dropped off B-rad's parts.  The friend also lives in Georgetown & it turned out she did wanna get out of the house so I picked her up & we headed north to our Seymour store.

I whined asked B-rad if I would have time to stop in Clarksville to do my 2 errands before I brought him his part & he said I could.  (Planting cared about my errands!)  I dropped my friend back off at her house & around 3:45 I was back in the field waiting for B-rad.

 As I waited surrounded by grass, dirt & trees I wondered how long it would take me to get sick from it all.  

B-rad quickly started changing out the depth cover thingie.

 See where the silver metal thing shaped like an "L" is?  Look to the left of it on the black thing & you will see the teeth looking things are missing.  Up where the first broken tooth is is where that silver thing needed to be to get the correct depth for the seed. 

You know you love my technical farming terms.

 This was the new depth thingie w/ all its teeth in tact.  This piece costs around $21.00.

 B-rad got the new one on & in no time he planting off into the sunset.  I got home around 4:30 & 169.9 miles later.  (Like I said, when it comes to B-rad I never know where I'm gonna end up... ) But if you're keeping score, I drove 2 hours round trip to get a part for $21.  

But hey - my car gets like 30 mpg & B-rad was happy....that's priceless.

Current events

About a MONTH ago - I got sick.  It started innocent enough as tight chest congestion.  I coughed my damn head off, but really wasn't coughing anything up.  

Annoying & unproductive.  

Awesome.

2 days later, my head decided to suddenly unleash massive amounts of snot.  (I paint a pretty picture, don't I?)  It was one of those times when you sneeze, snot uncontrollably goes EVERYWHERE.  I knew w/ me 'being allergic to everything on the planet' that if I wasn't careful I would get bronchitis.

I self medicated on a cocktail of Mucinex & Vitamin C & but that wasn't getting the job done...

Guess who wasn't better after 5 days?

Guess who finally went to the doctor because she was so miserable & exhausted because she had still been going to work everyday even tho the horrific cough made sleep impossible.

Guess who had bronchitis?

I left the doctor w/ a prescription for antibiotics & an inhaler & a long list of other meds to buy to help me live through the ordeal.  I have been doing really well w/ my allergies since I finished my shots 5-6 years ago, but the doctor wanted me to buy Flonase to start using daily.

Ugh.

It has taken me nearly a month to get totally better & over the stupid cough. 

***

B-rad has been planting like a mad man.  He had to stop late last week because the ground was so hard before we got some rain that the seed wouldn't go into the ground.  

'Tis the season for me to get a call at 9:00 or 9:30 'Hey can you come pick me up?'

***

Sometimes I get cramps in my feet & it hurts like a BITCH.  It makes my toes do awful looking things.  I got a foot cramp one night & I texted a pic to B-rad that I needed him (because if he's here when I get a foot cramp if I whine enough he rubs my foot) & he said, "Sorry.  Hot water."

Planting doesn't care about anyones foot cramps...

***

I've told ya'll I'm obsessed w/ initials right now.  I got the bright idea to get a ring of my monogram.  I found this gem on Etsy.  It's sterling silver (because I'm a freak & allergic to everything else) & it came from China.  (Don't tell my mom!)  I just love it.

***

And if you didn't notice my nails above (shame on you because I strategically took the pic to include the ring AND my nails!) - how cute are they?  My nail people are awesome.

 ***

My birthday fell on Mothers Day this year.  (BOO HISS.)  B-rad wasn't able to take off from planting to do anything with me.  Planting doesn't care about anyones birthday.

I got lots of "Happy birthday" texts & I didn't want to sit at home all day by myself so I went to see a movie that afternoon.  I saw "Hot Pursuit" but I wouldn't give it good reviews.  It was just 'eh'.

I stopped & got myself a Reese blizzard at Dairy Queen then went to Culvers to bring us home dinner.  YES I ate my dessert before my dinner.  It was my birthday!

Isn't it funny that the girl who never wanted kids has a birthday that sometimes falls on the day to celebrate mothers?  

Yea, hilarious.  

I get ONE day.  ONE... & I had to share it w/ the moms of the world.  Whatever.

 JLL said it best when she texted me happy birthday she said, "I'm sorry all the moms have to steal your thunder."  Yep, she knows me!

***

Mom always makes us a birthday dinner, but this year she had gift cards so we went out for dinner.  Mom, Butterfly & I went to Olive Garden & when the waiter brought us the check - this was inside.  Mom was ALL about it.

***

I don't think I've told ya'll, but Butterfly & Rhonda have broken up.  It's been a few months & he's in the process of buying a home now.  He's coming back to Indiana but not back out to the country with us. (Once you leave escape the country I think you never come back.  Can't say I blame ya...)  It's in New Albany off Green Valley Road.   A while back, he asked me to go look at it with him & it's really nice.  It has a lot of potential (like everything is WHITE.  All the walls are white, the kitchen cabinets are like an off white, there's tile in the sun room that's white.  WHITE WHITE WHITE.)  First thing I said was, "MAN this place needs color!  You need to paint the walls ASAP."  He said, "Oh yea - I didn't even think about that."  Hmph, men. 

But now he wants me to help pick out colors... I told him, "Lucky for you I love telling people what to do AND spending other peoples money.  I'm in!"

After we ate for my birthday, we went to a furniture store to look around.  He's staying w/ a friend so his mail has been coming to mom & dads.  She brought him his mail & he said, 'Oh I hope my t-shirt came in.  Mom, you're going to LOVE it.'  I knew right then that I needed to be ready w/ my camera.

He was right, mom LOVED it.  :)

(If you can't see it it says, "I'm not gay.  But $20 is $20.)