Monday, April 13, 2015

The Nail School Chronicle: Weeks 18 and 19

Press Sample

The Nail School Chronicle Weeks 18 & 19

Hello Loves!  I apologize for the sudden absence last week, but I'm back with a two week update and a full blog schedule coming your way!  Now, let me see if I can remember everything that happened over the past two weeks.

Week 18 was the week before Easter.  Not much to write about from that week.  There was supposed to be a nail art contest on April 1st.  Note that date...April 1st...April Fools.  Yeah, Ms. Rhonda thought it would be cute to tell us to expect an Easter and April Fools themed nail art contest only to "fool" us with a pop quiz instead.  That was a sucker punch if I've ever seen one.  lol  Not going to lie...I was kind of relieved.  I've been burning the candle at both ends for so long now that I'm seriously lacking in the creativity department.

So, what else happened that week?  Well, Ms. Donna stopped by and asked me to do a polish change for her - a french polish change.  Oh, I should probably tell you that Ms. Donna is the Director of GCI.  Yeah, no pressure, right?  I'm not going to lie...if she had asked for a gel polish french I could have done some really impressive nails.  But polish?!?!?!  Do y'all have any idea how bad I suck with polish??????  You know that stuff actually dries on it's own, right?!?!?!?!?!  Yeah, so I kinda bombed on that one.  It was fun chatting with her and she's really nice, but this might be the worst french I've done in years.  *sigh*  Sorry for the blurry picture.  She's a busy lady and I was trying to snap a picture while someone else was pulling her away to handle something.

The rest of Week 18 ended in a major migraine and me missing two days of class.  Dang it, I have way too many health issues that are impacted by stress.  I always tell my mother that if she and my Daddy were dogs, they wouldn't have been allowed to breed.  Poor Mama.  I guess if you're not a dog person, that comment might not make a lot of sense...

Moving on to Easter, William's birthday, and food poisoning.  I admit, I'm a short cut mother.  My little one turned 2 last week, and we decided to combine his birthday celebration with Easter dinner.  We don't do large birthday parties for the kids - just small gatherings with family that usually include dinner and cake.  Since we were already planning to have Easter dinner with my family, we threw in a cake and called it a day.  He's two...it's not like he cared.  lol  It was a nice day.  Great to spend time with my family...until I ended up sick about an hour after dinner.  Food poisoning.  Three days worth of horrible food poisoning.  Sheesh.  I can't catch a freaking break.  I'm pretty sure it was the result of my lunch from that day and not my mother's wonderful cooking.  Thankfully Monday was a school holiday, so I only ended up missing two more days of class.  But, that put me even farther behind...which brings me to Week 19.

Week 19 kicked off half way over, but it started with a progress report.  Progress reports are issued monthly and tell us where we are and where we should be.  No biggie.  I knew I was about 80 hours behind.  But, y'all, where in the heck did the time go?  I'm 5 weeks away from my scheduled graduation date!  Sweet mother of manicures, there's no freaking way I can make up 80 hours in five weeks.  It's just not possible when Monday is the only day I can stay over due to Keith's schedule.  Crap!  It looks like I won't be graduating on schedule.  So I have a new goal - May 29th.  Two weeks late, but still not too bad.  Though 7 weeks still isn't a lot of time to get everything done.

But that's only part of my panic.  Making up the hours is going to be tight, but the credits are the biggest issue.  I think I mentioned it in the past, but GA has higher requirements than most states for Nail Technology training.  We have to get 620 hours (clock hours), but we also have to get a slew of credits.  The credits are stressing me beyond belief right now.  I've missed so much time throughout my journey and I've managed to keep from getting too awful far behind by making up hours along the way, but credits are a different story.  Some credits require live clients instead of the mannequin hand, and we don't take clients on Mondays - my only makeup day.  So, how dire is the situation?

Eh, it's not too bad...as long as you don't count those mani and pedi credits.  Yeah, my gut takes a dive every time I look at those numbers.  The acrylic sets don't bother me since I can knock those out on the hand.  Same with the fill-ins and wraps.  Advanced will happen between now and then (gel polish is considered advanced...as is nail art).  It's those mani and pedi credits!  Let's do the math...there are 28 client days between now and my new graduation goal.  I need 67 manicure credits and 41 pedicure credits.  Each mani counts for 1 credit.  Each pedi counts for 1 credit.  I'll need to average 2.5 pedicures and 1.5 manicures each day in order to make my credits by my goal.  Plus have time to finish up the rest of the credits too.  And clients are assigned by rotation through the seniors, so I might get two clients a day on average...yeah, I need a freaking miracle.  :(

And to add to my stress, we have completely reached the end of our budget.  I'm staying the course, but we're robbing Peter to pay Paul and Peter is starting to catch on.  Dang it, I WILL finish this.  I'm just not sure how I'll pull it off without having my car repossessed and an eviction notice from the mortgage company.  We should be hearing from Keith's attorney today about the settlement from his accident.  If you're the praying type, please pray that the insurance company came back with an offer we can work with.  I don't think we can make it another 30 days and it will take at least that if we have to counter. It's killing me to be this close to finished and so close to not making it at the same time.  I'm sorry to problem dump on everyone, but it's really stressing me out and taking a major toll on my health.  I know I haven't posted the link in a few weeks, but my GoFundMe is still active.  I was hoping the settlement stuff would work out in time so that I wouldn't have to share the link anymore, but yeah...let's just say things haven't gone according to plan so far.

So let's move on to happier topics, shall we?  How about "What's on Michelle's Nails Today" for $500?  I'm super loving my current mani.  Want to see it?
Precious Kitties with Messy Mansion MM50 and RevelNail Acrylic Dip System

Ok, so I'm testing out RevelNail's New Acrylic Dip System (press sample).  It's similar to SNS nails and they launched with 65 color choices.  Pretty cool.  This is the first time I've used a dip system on my own nails, but I'm really liking it so far.  The pink is called "Michelle" and the mint green is "Clara".  I'll have a full review for you in a few weeks.  The kitties and paws are from the new Messy Mansion Kitty Plate (MM50) (press sample).  I freaking love this plate!  I completely spaced and forgot to snap a photo of the plate, so here's the preview image from Messy Mansion's site.  So many adorable kittens to choose from!  If you love cats, you NEED this plate.  Heck, even if you're a dog person like me, you still NEED this plate!  lol
The Messy Mansion Kitty Plate - MM50
Image Credit: www.messymansion.com.au

The kitties from MM50 also gave me the perfect mani for my adorable little kitty charms I picked up on Ebay.  Here's a cell phone shot that I snagged earlier today.  It shows the kitty charm a little better, I think.  Quality and color are off, though.
Precious Kitties with Messy Mansion MM50 and RevelNail Acrylic Dip System

That's all for today.  Check back later in the week for some major swatch love!  I swatched just under 20 gel polishes this past weekend!

~Michelle

*The Acrylic Dip System featured in this post was provided by Revel Nail for my honest review.  A full review will be published at a later date.  Messy Mansion MM50 was provided by Messy Mansion for my honest review.  All product links within this post are courtesy links and do not benefit ManicTalons.com. 

6 comments:

  1. Yikes. Ok, try not to get too down, one day at a time. You have made it this far!!

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  2. The kitty charm is super cute and the whole mani adorable.
    My polish french manicures suck too, I need a lot of practice!

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  3. You've made it so far now Michelle I'm so pleased for you! Love the mani

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  4. Will you be doing a 2nd round of your de-stash soon? I'll happily support you and have been waiting to buy!

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    Replies
    1. I hope to have it up soon, but time seems to be an issue these days. I have them pulled down and in a pile to list, but getting them listed in an issue. :(

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  5. Thanks for these Michelle! So nice

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