Saef - I have trouble with pedicures for the same reasons. I also feel guilty about my calloused feet from running shoes.

The woman who used to do my nails came here in her mid 30s, she was a vet in Laos before moving here. Now she does nails, says she's happy. I always wonder.

The nail salon I go to are all Vietnamese. Some of them are immigrants and some born here--but all are fluent in Vietnamese and somewhat so in English. The younger ones are in school--we have a college here that is pretty inexpensive. One is studying to be an engineer and one's husband is studying math.

Saef-- I'm guessing yours are Vietnamese but I could be wrong. Everywhere I've lived, the nail people have always been Vietnamese. I am also an over tipper and I wonder many of the same things. At the salon I have gone to for several years, one of the daughters (I'm assuming US born) went to college (UC Davis in Biomedical Sciences or something similar and smart!) and graduated. She was trying to get into nursing school and was working part-time at the nail salon until she got into a nursing school. I always felt bad for her because I felt like she was working there because her family expected it but that she should do more. She just left about a month ago to start nursing school. I'm thrilled for her. I've talked to some of the other techs that have better English and they often sound like their lives are so hard-- some commute from far away and work multiple jobs-- but they all have said it is so much better than their home country. Makes me really appreciate being an American.

I had students (1st grade) give me apology letters for their crummy behavior in the library yesterday. I always get a huge chuckle from these. One of them drew a picture of me reading to the class. There is a speech bubble that says "Everyone is so quiet today-- all of you must want books?". The other cute one says (in his spelling): I am sorry for the way I behaved during library. Next time I will... behave and be cwait. And not intapt you when you are reding a book to us. We well respect you. and we will pa a intensen when you are taking ta us.

So cute!

Hi all,

I had to come to my city office for work today. Mostly boring stuff, but I did at least get one productive thing done and said hello to people. My goal is to get home before 7:00ish/have time to take the dog for a walk. Usually my city days are really long days and I'm tired and stressed by the time I get home. BF ordered a starter and planned to put it on my car today. Hopefully that's the problem (He mentioned something about a clutch safety switch...? being a remote possibility). Luckily I have the work car to bring to the city today for, well, work.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a friend's 40th birthday celebration and Sunday I come back to the city with friends for our last set of theatre tickets for the season. Should be fun.

My fingernails get wrecked by my work. When I was a teenager I had nice, long nails with whitish tips naturally that I would just put clear polish on, and sometimes I marvel at how I ever managed to keep them that way. Since I've started learning guitar I keep them trimmed very short on my left hand. I paint my toenails myself and try to keep them looking nice because I stare at them during yoga, but how long they'll stay nice is always a gamble. I try to pumice my worst calluses, but I do have pretty bad ones from walking etc so much. The one time I did get a pedicure I got the impression my pedicurist was really horrified by my feet. :o

Michele, sorry your DD is having such a stressful time. Job searches can be so stressful and perplexing with their requirements.

Jen, don't remind me about the cheddar biscuits. They are so good. I'm glad my red lobster trips are very rare.

Alison, I've learned to always pay attention to that low air indicator! I hope your new tire comes in today.

Shannon, it's ok. Blame XW. We will back you up. ;)

Have a good weekend everyone.

saef, California is knee deep in nail salons and they ar 99% Vietnamese. I have had some interesting conversations with the owners of these shops. One that I went to was owned by a Vietnamese lady, her husband also works there after he finishes his morning paper route., in Vietnam he was a building contractor with 200 people working for him. He was doing my nails one day and a friend of his came in and they were speaking in Vietnamese together, after he left Tony (his American name ) said that man was a High School Principal in Vietnam , he is washing dishes in a restaurant, he can't get a better job because he doesn't speak English, not well anyway.It was near the fourth of July and Tony told me he was going to close the shop for the fourth, he and his wife are now citizens he went on to explain. He said, if you don't like your job you can quit and get another one, if you don't like your house you can move. You can't do that in my country. Many of these people had to just walk away from their country, leaving homes, businesses and friends and other family members. They have worked very hard to get where they are today and they make sure their children are well educated, that is why a businessman will have a paper route and do nails in his wifes shop.
I have had Korean neighbors, also, they are entirely different than the Vietnamese.

I just learned something from a NY Times article about nail salon workers exposure to hazardous chemicals on the job:

I don't know about all the employees in the two salons near me, but I'm fairly certain that Calvin, who manages the salon that I go to, is Korean.

According to the 2010 census San Jose , Ca has more Vietnamese than any city outside of Vietnam, of course there are a lot of Koreans, Hmong. and other Asians as well.I have , until recently lived in San Jose most of my life.In San Jose, they have their own, churches, newspapers, chamber of commerce, etc.
In the shops I went to they kept all the tools they were going to use on me separate, I had my own little bag of tools that they would bring out when I came in.

This has been an interesting conversation leading to some good Google searches. I've turned up a book that I want to read now: "The Managed Hand: Race, Gender and the Body in Beauty Service Work" by Miliann Kang. Here's a good review of it:

http://www.wcwonline.org/WRB-Nov-Dec...nd-nail-polish

One interesting observation that speaks to some of my discomfort

That said, I'll get a manicure and spa pedicure tomorrow, as I promised this to myself if I drafted two PowerPoint presentations this past week, one for my manager to pass to another manager and the other for one of my direct reports.

I think a well groomed hand with trimmed nails always looks so neat and professional. Nail polish is a preference but clean nails are a must and anybody can do it.

Why oh why is there an animated ad for Snickers peanut butter squares along the side of the 3FC Maintainer's Forum? And, for the record, it is right below an ad to "ask your doctor" about a new medication for type II diabetes. Yikes.

Maybe because whatever marketing apps are out there scans our text for what we **actually** talk about -- very often, it's food, temptations resisted or succumbed to, and what we're cooking -- rather than our good intentions?

But of course we all don't see the same ads. They're tailored for us. I'm seeing stuff for Vein Clinics of America, Proactiv, and something called "Bikesdirect.com" with the slogan: "Love cute bikes."

I have all "Toronto centric" ads, as well as the perfect belly Weightwatchers thingee. Last time I linked up to "Banana Republic" I then got ads for them for a week. Pretty scary, isn't it? :yikes:

Re the mani/pedi I don't get them because my work just destroys them 2 days after they are done. I did go once to a salon run by Asians and a woman who barely spoke English did my mani. They charged me $15 cash for it and I wound up tipping her directly with $5. I felt guilty and ashamed :o and embarrassed by the whole thing, like I was condoning slavery :( or something.

Then I took my niece once for her birthday and we had manis done by "cakes" (as DH refers to himself and others of a WASP background.) I paid over twice as much as in the other salon, by credit card and wrote in a tip (as suggested by the woman who was going to do my mani). I felt a whole lot more comfortable :coffee: in this scenario as I chatted with her about neighbourhood happenings and such. It was less being served and serving.

I work in a service industry and find that a lot of my clients are not really sure how to relate to me. They DO treat their housecleaners, nannies, and yard people like "the help". I get a bit of a different vibe. No idea why but I find it kinda amusing, considering I'm picking up poop :lol: and stopping their dogs from eating dead things.

Dagmar :shrug:

My ads are for travel and suitcases and yoga. It really is scary how your Googling history follows you. And speaking of that, my phone recently updated to jelly bean and I have this nifty thing called Google Now. So I'll google a place on my computer and Google Now on my phone then tells me, from my current position, how long it will take to drive there. Big brother is here, my friends.

I am the least observant person on earth and never noticed any ads. So I had to check and mine is for Insanity and plastic surgery!

I'm insanity and Jump Start MD. Hmmmm....

Big Brother is definitely here to stay.

How many of you remember reading 1984 (before 1984)? I read it in high school (right around 1984) and remember chuckling about Big Brother and hoping/thinking we would never live to see the day that someone knew where we were going/ what we were doing.