My World is Blue......Part 2

It was my brave attempt to be contemporary that created the problem.  I wanted to be au courant alongside younger, prettier, and fancier women than I for a formal dinner party.  It seemed like a terrific idea at the time.  I did not have the time nor the inclination to get my hair done and to arrange a manicure.  That having been said, it does not mean that I did not want to look lovely.  In a move that I later regretted, I opted to go BLUE.  My daughter gave me a nail polish manufactured for Sephora.  It was the blue of the Adriatic Ocean(as I imagine it, at least).  

I did my whole nail routine -- shape, file, remove cuticles etc.. Then, with the small brush that came with the bottle, I applied not one, but two coats of blue.  It looked smashing, I was told.  In fact, at dinner we joked that I was a virgin to blue nails and what a memorable night it was for me.  

It was memorable.  The nail polish had staying power, I can say that.  It hardly chipped and after one week, I decided to take it off because I was tired of it, more than it no longer looking fresh.  I used an acetone-free nail polish remover to do the job.  Almost immediately, I recognized that there was going to be a problem.  After removing the blue nail polish, my nails remained blue. It was as if they absorbed the pigment.  Think back to seventh grade science when you may have put celery in a cup of water colored with blue food dye.  When you returned the next day, TA DA, the celery was blue. My nails were the color of a cadaver’s nails that I saw once.  No worries, I tried alcohol, Goo-gone, and yet more nail polish remover. All to no effect.  Then, I thought I must need an abrasive, so I went for a good quality foot scrub.  Maybe something was happening?  Maybe. By then, my fingers and nails were so dried out from the chemicals, I applied nail oil.  Now my nails glistened in blue.  Then a light went off in my head. I dug through my drawer to locate a special emery board I recently purchased.  It is designed to buff and polish fingernails. My rationale was that I might achieve success if I could remove the top layer of the nails.  Success!  It was a slow-moving process.  It took about twenty minutes of sanding and buffing to lift off the blue.  When I removed 95% of the blue, I stopped.  I didn’t want to weaken my nails by abrading too many layers.  

Pink...at last.

It was as I was looking at the slight pink hue of my fingernails returning to normal that I flashed back on the incident when Scooter, our dog, ran under a rain of blue clothing dye.  http://dawnings-anewdawn.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-world-is-blue-part-1.html   All of our best efforts were not successful in returning him to his pristine white color.  It was when I was giving him his third bath in a week that I discovered that his skin has actually been dyed blue as well.  Apparently, there are some things that only time can cure.  

My World is Blue -- part 1

Frank Sinatra performed

Blue, blue, my world is blue

Blue is my world since I'm without you

Gray, gray, my life is gray

Cold is my heart since you went away

 authored by Popp and Cour

In February, 2006, my dog, a white Labradoodle puppy, was doused in blue dye; you can recreate the exact color by using #450 Blue on the Rit Color guide.  My daughter intended to tie-dye ten pairs of sports socks for her middle-school basketball team.  Unfortunately, one of her friends chose to toss out the water containing the dye at precisely the instant my husband let the dog outside.  The two doors that my husband and my daughter’s friend used are separated by forty feet and a hill, but the dog covered that distance lickety-split.  I can replay the moment in slow-motion.  The blue dye liquid soared about six feet into the air, appearing in deep contrast to the white snow.  Simultaneously, my exuberant, white, dog bounded downhill.  The Labradoodle puppy passed under the fountain of blue.  Gravity doing its work, pulled the blue dye toward the ground.  The dog simply interrupted the dye’s trajectory. At the ensuing sounds of dismay and distress, the puppy became more excited.  He was ill-behaved as if he had never been trained.  He ran leapt and jumped in circles around everyone, leaving a blue trail in his wake. Two washings did little to alter his new blue coat.  However, the dye finally “set” and didn’t rub off on walls, furniture and clothing.  For about two months, the dog glowed -- in a nearly electric blue.    There were tears and recriminations and emotional distress in the hours immediately after.   It took a couple of days for the brouhaha to settle down.  It took a couple of years for us all to laugh at the blue dye debacle.   

Part 2 of The World is Blue will follow tomorrow.