The Long and Short of It

I guess I was a nervous little kid, because I used to bite my fingernails. Disgusting, I know. I do remember being nervous quite a bit. I don't know where that comes from, but my grandmother used to bite her nails, too, up until adulthood. She was so proud when she quit, she showed me how long her nails had grown since she stopped. I broke myself of that habit when I was about 12 or so. Not that I stopped worrying, I just started worrying how ugly my fingers looked, so I guess that neurosis topped the other one. One of my 2 best friends, Laura, had awesome fingernails. She could have been a hand model. It seemed her nails never broke. The first day I met her she hopped off the bus and came over to me while I was sitting on this low wall waiting for school to start. She was carrying an apple and sat down next to me. Then she did the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. She took her long thumb nail and stuck it in the apple, turned the apple in a circle and pulled out a perfectly round core, which she then ate. That's what fingernails are for! I remember buying some press-on fingernails, hoping to hide my nails while they grew out. Instead, I had a smelly bottle of industrial strength "nail glue", which was really superglue in a cuter bottle, I had to carry around in my purse and that eventually leaked and glued its own lid shut. The nails popped off continually, so I had hands that were half wickedly long fingernails and the other half stubby, clumpy glue-covered nails. I eventually gave up and popped all the nails off. Then I discovered something even more horrible. Once you got the nails and the glue off the nails you had underneath became paper thin. So, I was in even worse shape than before. Since then I have been able to grow my nails out, but never for very long. They always seen to tear, break, bend, or snag when the start to show the least bit of promise. Not too long ago I bought some Sally Hansen product that is supposed to make nails stronger. It worked for a little while and my nails grew out a bit, but they soon went back to breaking off. I'd love to have lovely fingernails for the wedding, nothing fancy, just even and not broken. Maybe I'll read up on taking gelatin; I can't remember if that is supposed to help or if that's just an old wives tale. If anything works I'll be sure to post an update. If not, I guess I'll just keep my hands hidden with my bouquet because I'm certainly not gluing on any fake nails ever again.