Pedicure

I have never undertipped in my life. There is something inside me that feels bad for people even when they don't meet expectations. So no matter how horrible the service, I always pay up, and usually more than expected. I like to give people the benefit of a doubt. After all, the waitress might just be having a bad night while dealing with being a single mom with three mouths to feed. But I guess even I have my limits, because a couple days ago I didn't tip the girl who did my toenails a single penny! Here's how it happened:

Gone are the days for me when a monthly french manicure and pedicure wasn't a big deal for my wallet (but hey, having my own place in Seattle is TOTALLY worth it!). But after two incredible but very difficult on my poor feet nights of Salsa in addition to skipping out on my monthly ritual for the past three months to save up for my apartment, I decided to indulge myself in just a pedicure. Not french. Just color. (sigh.)

Although I've always known that Myano nails on third and pike aren't that great with color, I'm a sucker for the foot massage they give, including a sugar scrub, lotion, and hot towels. Since it was for the relaxation that I was going, and not a good color (who cares, it'll be off the next Salsa night anyways...), I happily trotted into the spa after work, all in anticipation of the wonderful experience awaiting me. Or so I thought.

It all began when they didn't have my favorite lotion. But oh well, not a big deal, I will live. But it only got worse from there. Ok, I realize my feet weren't exactly in stellar condition, and they might have been extra sensitive from dancing... but the girl seriously should've considered that.

I settled down into the massage chair, set up the settings the way I wanted, and closed my eyes.... POKE. Ouch. I jerked. She was using a sharp object on my cuticles, and not too carefully either. But I let it go the first time. One mistake - no big deal. So once again I closed my eyes. POKE. POKE. POKE. Still giving her the benefit of a doubt, and blaming my dancer feet for the trouble causing her to be not-so-gentle, I decided to just keep my eyes open and stay alert. Well, she poked every single toe that she touched! And it was painful. And the worst thing was that it didn't end there!

After finally being done with my cuticles, the woman buffered my nails. Normal procedure, but she proceeded to buffer my SKIN along with the nail. On the little toes. So now, in addition to poke wounds, I had a burn from buffering on the knuckles of my toes. It kept going. While working on my soles, she tickled me. Once again I jerked, and explained to her that I'm ticklish. But since once again it's normal procedure, I let her finish the sole in any way she wanted.

It was finally time for a massage. Before it she generously poured some oil on my feet. She let one go back in the water, but when I asked if I can wash the other one real quick she insisted to grab onto it and said no. I hate oil. It doesn't feel soothing or relaxing to me. It feels greasy and dirty. So there went the good experience of the first leg. In addition, she insisted on massaging my sole. Wouldn't you catch on to stay away from that area when a person is ticklish on their feet?

The second leg/foot started out a little better, it being clean and all. But then another customer came in and caused a commotion, so my pedicurist stopped paying attention and started massaging JUST my sole! So for my massage I pretty much got about five minutes worth of non-stop tickling. You'd think that was finally it? Time it came for the color.

And the pretty pink that I picked out ended up being more of a pearly-ultraviolet blue. Now the norm for the worker would be to ask if I like the color. Did she do that? NOOUUU. So I had to interrupt and ask if I can change my polish choice. She let me, but her face expressed such annoyance that it felt at least uncomfortable to go pick a different color.

Needless to say that by the end of this session I was mad. I didn't complain. I just didn't tip. And the guys over there know my style of tipping well. So I guess that will be punishment enough for her for inflicting all this pain on me. My toes are still throbbing from all the buffering and poking. The color has bled into the sides of my toes (fixed at home.) And if you ever decide to visit Myano nails, please ask that your nails aren't done by Linda.