<p>Remember my <a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/2010/10/10-on-101010.html" target="_self">10/10/10 project</a>? It&#39;s time for me to update you on my progress on the ten things I wanted to achieve before New Year&#39;s Eve. If you are a regular reader, you already know that I haven&#39;t been able to complete every single item perfectly -- life threw me under the bus the very day after I committed to work on these items, and I&#39;ve had to let some things go, but in the grand scheme of things I&#39;ve learned that life is short and it&#39;s important to try even if you can&#39;t be perfect. Because life has a way of not going the way you plan.</p>
<p>I&#39;ve obviously learned a lot in the last few months, but since I&#39;ve chosen not to explore my grief on this blog I&#39;ll keep it to the light things I wanted to work on -- the things on my list.</p>
<p>Today, I want to talk about items #5 an #6 -- both were complete successes!</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>#5 paint my nails black (8)</strong></em></p>
<p><em>The point of this is to learn to give myself a decent enough manicure  that I&#39;ll be able to paint my own nails in a deep color. Anyone can  paint their nails in a nude pink, but black? That takes real skill.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Did I do it? Many times! Here&#39;s the photographic evidence:<em><br /></em></p>
<p>&#0160;  <a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef0147e10484cd970b-pi.jpg" style="display: inline;"><img alt="DSC_0164" class="asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341db04e53ef0147e10484cd970b" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef0147e10484cd970b-500wi.jpg" title="DSC_0164" /></a></p>
<p>(I apologize for the slightly terrifying photo of my hands, but black polish has a way of looking Elvira-ish and posing with your hands is harder than it looks. What can I say? I can&#39;t &quot;emote with my limbs&quot; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z49jQ9Qiyso" target="_self">like Ellen Sirot the creepy hand model</a> or even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxX3-rJoNI" target="_self">George Constanza</a> so that&#39;s the best pose I could come up with. Sorry, hand fetishists -- go get your kicks elsewhere!)</p>
<p>Anyways, the polish I used wasn&#39;t technically black. (Does that make me a cheater?) It&#39;s called Little Brown Dress, and it&#39;s part of the <a href="http://www.essie.com/shop/index.php?cPath=102" target="_self">Essie Fall 2010 </a>collection. (I got a sample at the <a href="http://www.mightysummit.com/" target="_self">Mighty Summit</a>. Thanks, Essie!)</p>
<p>So what did I learn about giving yourself a dark manicure? <a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/2010/11/battle-of-the-cuticle-creams.html" target="_self">Cuticles are crucial</a>. A clear base coat will keep your nails from yellowing (but <a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/2010/11/how-to-lighten-yellow-discolored-nails.html" target="_self">toothpaste will help with that</a>!). I bought some <a href="http://www.sallyhansen.com/product.cfm?product=109" target="_self">Sally Hansen Miracle Cure</a> because my nails crack and are brittle -- I don&#39;t think it&#39;s exactly the miracle they promised, but it&#39;s fine as a base coat. I also used <a href="http://www.essie.com/products/details.php?products_id=399" target="_self">a quick drying coat to speed things up.</a> But the secret is to apply the polish with a light touch -- too much takes forever to dry and guarantees a messy finish. Other than that, I&#39;ve found that painting with my non-dominant hand first helps as well. Doing your own nails is not as fun as getting a manicure, but it&#39;s strangely liberating to know that you don&#39;t have to go to the nail salon every time you want to change your polish. It&#39;s also more fun to experiment with new colors when you don&#39;t have to feel bad about making someone else start over if the new color you&#39;re trying is crappy. So there&#39;s that!</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>#6 finish c25K (14)</strong></p>
<p>I&#39;m on week 6 despite spraining my ankle so I&#39;m almost there. This is really happening, you guys.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This one is <span style="text-decoration: underline;">so</span> done -- and while I&#39;m no athlete I am not as afraid of running as I used to be. I highly recommend the C25K app if you have an iPhone -- it makes it easy. the C25K program has taught me that I&#39;m a runner and it&#39;s taken four inches off my waist. If you want to change your body, running&#39;s a great way to do it.</p>
<p>However, winter in Boston isn&#39;t very conducive to outdoor running, so I&#39;ve joind a gym basically so I can use the treadmill. I hate treadmills. I much prefer running outside where I can see gardens and people -- there&#39;s something so depressing about running on a machine. I also don&#39;t like gyms -- what with the skeevy personal trainers and other sweaty people. I am most definitely not a gym rat. But I have to go if I want to run. And I do. I just haven&#39;t been in two weeks. Oops!</p>
