I walked over to the mall today to deposit some money (yeah, about that - thanks to Ken at Wells Fargo for letting complete that little transaction without the wallet with ID that I forgot to bring with me) and decided to walk around.

I noticed something a little weird. As I was walking past a prom dress store, I saw a manequin at the entrance wearing a dress with spaghetti straps. On the manequin's upper arm was a tattoo. I found that quite bizarre.

Anyway, sometimes when traipsing about the mall, I am accosted by the kiosk-keepers in the middle of the aisle. Usually these are cell phone kiosks and they back off easily enough. It's almost without thinking now that I automatically say, "No thanks" to anyone that approaches me from these little Pavilions o' Commerce.

So walking along today, I was approached by someone holding lotion. I couldn't care less about lotion, didn't want to buy lotion, and was not about to stop mid-stride for lotion. I mindlessly rattled off "no thanks" as she loomed towards me with her bottle and she said, "Okay." I was no more than 2 steps away when I hear behind me,

"Are those your real nails?"

Argh! She got me!! She got me with the Statement That Sounds Like it Might be a Compliment. I don't do anything to my fingernails. I very very rarely paint them, and I never file them. But neither do I gnaw on them and they look halfway decent. Not great, not bad. Regardless, I was caught completely off-guard and before I knew it, she had my left thumb!! She proceeded to sand it or something with this little ... sander doo-dad and kept turning the little sander around to different sides and when she was done, I actually had a pretty nail. Another (sales)gal came up and started going on and on about how shiny my nail was and how much stronger it was (didn't we just buff off a few layers though?) and how it would stay this way for 2 weeks! Accoster #1 showed me the package of Nail Stuff and told me how much it was. The cost wasn't too bad, but wouldn't ya know it... I had forgotten my wallet. Bummer. Maybe if it's still shiny in 2 weeks I'll go back.

I have noticed that my left index finger has started showing an affinity for my newly shinysmooth left thumb now.