So I'm in the lecture this morning. We have two lectures a day minimum, Monday through Friday, which we can choose to attend. Lecturers for me fall into one of three categories:
***COULDN'T NOT LISTEN IF I TRIED! These are the A#1 best lecturers that ,when the time is up, you can't believe they are going to stop talking.
**HAS ALOT OF INTERESTING THINGS TO SAY AND IF I WORK REAL HARD I WILL GET MOST OF IT - These are the people who are gifted in their fields but not necessarily gifted speakers. They are interesting, but the listener better be paying close attention.
*WHY DID THEY INVITE THIS GUY? These speakers show up rarely, but make it worth it to have found a place in the back where you can make an early departure if you want.
Today was a Two Star lecturer. . . . great and gifted expert in the field who required some effort to stay with her. So at some point, I found myself looking at my toes. I was wearing sandals since it has warmed up. And I noticed my recently pedicured toenails bedecked in bright red polish with glitter in it. This is SOOOO not my style. But my toes made me smile.
If you read my blog last year you might have remembered the story about my last pedicure, which was pretty much an exercise in torture brought to bear by a young man pedicurist who was so enamoured by the Disney Channel on the TV that was behind him and across the room, that he sanded a hole into the side of my foot. Blood, the whole works. Needless to say, I haven't had a pedicure since.
However, with sandal weather approaching, and living in a high pedicure area of the country, I ventured to a new place I had heard about in Waynesboro about a month ago. I entered this new, very clean shop and was impressed from the beginning. They weren't too busy, so several technicians were available to do my pedicure. The owner called to a girl in the back to start the water running in the pedicure chair. The girl was dressed much more casually than the other attendants. . . . as in t-shirt and jeans. I figured she was the girl who got the chairs ready and cleaned up afterwards. You know. . . like the people who sweep up the hair in the big salons. But when I got into the chair, I realized that she was going to do the pedicure! Well, that was fine with me. There wasn't a television around, so I figured I was safe. I started to read my book and she started to work on my feet. It didn't take me too long to realize that she was really taking her time and meticulously doing every single toenail carefully. She spent time looking at each one and redoing what she had done if it wasn't right. I stopped reading and started watching her.
Eventually I had to say something. The conversation went something like this: Me: "You like what you're doing, don't you?" Jessie: "Yes, I really do." Me: "You like working on feet?" Jessie: "I love working on feet." Me: "Do you do facials and manicures too?" Jessie: " I do manicures, but I really love working on feet."
And she did. She was an artist. She took an amazing amount of time getting every step just right. I had signed up for the deluxe pedicure with the multiple leg scrubs. The sign said it would take about 45 minutes. I was in the chair for over an hour. We struck up a conversation the whole time. She reminded me so much of the girls I used to teach. We got to joking around and I told her I was going to spend the summer in New York and that I would have to come back and get one more pedicure before I left. She said that would be great, but that she thought I could do much better than choose the basically clear, slightly pink color I had chosen. I told her that when I came back she could pick the color and I would have to go along with it. She countered by saying she would pick three colors and I could choose which one I wanted. This was a smart cookie!
I was so busy in the final weeks moving and packing before I left that I nearly forgot our conversation. But I was so charmed by this girl and her commitment to her work. Artists can appear in all professions and at all levels. So on the last day before I left to come up here, I managed to get back to Waynesboro, go into the shop, and was fortunate to find Jessie without a client. She remembered our deal and seemed delighted that I had come back to make good on it.
She was like a little girl in a candy shop going up to the rows of polish and carefully scrutinizing every single one before picking the three she wanted. I saw a little impish grin as she would choose one and then put it back. I couldn't wait to see what she chose. Well, I'm gladto say she did not return to the chair with any blues or greens or purples, but what she had was a VERY hot pink, an orangey red, and the deep bright red with the glitter. I swallowed hard and realized I could live with any of those. I was having so much fun! So I told her to choose, and of course, the glitter polish was the one!
We laughed like sorority sisters as we contemplated how my nail polish was going to take New York by storm. Of course she thought I was coming to NYC, and it was kind of hard for me to explain where I was going. But as we got to the end of the leg massages she said, "Now you have to close your eyes while I put this on so that we can have a big reveal!" Dear God, this girl was charming! So I closed my eyes tight and did not peek until she announced the big "TA-DAH!" And there they were. Ruth Powell's toes in bright red with glitter. Surely a first. I asked her the name of the polish and she said, "New York Bling!" I said, "You've got to be kidding!" And she said, "I am kidding, But that's what it's called now!"
I found that when I got up here I started noticing people's toes to see how mine would measure up? Were Chautauquans conservative about their toes? Would mine fit in? The first few days of rain and cold did not give me much chance to find out as we all had our socks and sneakers on. But eventually the sandals came on, and I found that there were all manor of pedicured and non-pedicured toes about. So today, as I found myself not trying hard enough to stay with the lecture, and found myself looking at my toes, my gaudy gaudy toes, I just broke into a smile.
I'm SOOOO proud of them!!!
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