Friday, July 1, 2011

Are you Sponge Worthy??

All of my close friends know that there are two things that I'm really particular about... That is my coffee & my nails. Yes in the BIG picture they are the a little frivolous & materialistic. Yes I have bigger issues but I choose to focus on these two pet peeves- I am not naive or have a mixed up priority list. So anyways back to my story... So I do have a rather complicated coffee order but it's taken me years to perfect it & now that $5 cup of coffee has become vital to my day. You know how Paris Hilton always has her chihuahua? For me minus the chihuahua & replace it with my Starbucks coffee. Addict? Maybe. If my order is not done to a tee I have no problem going back & insisting on them remake my order. I really try and be nice about it but I have gotten a little rude in the past & I'm not proud of that. My poor husband hates ordering my drink because of it's complexity. I can remember one of my husband & mines biggest & only big fights right when we started dating. In the heat of the argument I stormed out of the apartment & went to the closest Starbucks to gather my thoughts & settle my emotions. I didn't even take a sip of my coffee before I left & drove back to the apartment. So as I entered back into war zone and we started to hash it out again I needed a sip of my coffee. Well to my utter disbelief my order was screwed up & this now took precedent over whatever we were fighting about. Again this was in the very early stages in our relationship so when my now husband offered to go back to Starbucks to have them fix my drink & probably thought this would score him some major brownie points in the fight we were having & maybe this was his way of putting up the white flag in our fight. So of course I took him up on this offer because I wasn't about to go back. Well I think as soon as I recited my correct drink order he looked at me like I was speaking a different language. He did pull through in the end and get me my correct drink but I was still mad at him & made him sleep on the couch. While that didn't break us it did break one thing- he won't ever order my drink for me again.
Now my nails is my second biggest pet peeve- I like them done a certain way: short & square. Not very difficult. I have no problem telling the nail girl what to fix or repaint to meet my standard. I had found a place very close to my house & formed a relationship with this one nail tech. I ended up patronizing this business for 7 years. I mean recession depression whatever was happening out there I always budgeted to get my nails done every 2 weeks & toes every month. I trusted my nail girl so much that when I went to the salon I felt like I could actually relax & not micro manage the process. When my nail girl told me she was pregnant my first thought was shit how long is she taking for maternity leave & who will do my nails in the interim?!?! Then I thought wait this isn't about me and told her congratulations. Don't worry when she finally had her adorable little girl I gave a beautiful baby gift & ensured I was her last appt before maternity leave & her first when she got back. Years passed with her doing my nails marking key events in my life: college graduation, first dates, girls nights, when I got in engaged, and I had no doubt she would do a fabulous job for my big wedding day. Well one day in the middle of winter we got hit with a BIG snow storm that was going to shut down the suburbs & city. I was off work the day before the storm so I thought heck if I'm going to be stuck inside for a whole 24 hours with no access to the outside world I needed to be prepared. This meant a quick trip to Whole Foods & getting my nails done...duh. So I had the nail salon on speed dial and thought it would be no problem for me to just slip in for a quick appt before the storm but little did I know that I was about to be hit with my own storm. The owner answered and I addressed her by name and asked her if my nail girl could slip me in for a quick fill. She instructed me my nail girl no longer worked there. Excuse me?!? I was just there 2 weeks ago and she NOTHING to me about her non-existent future at that salon. I was utterly speechless- I then asked if the owner could possibly slip me in I mean I am still a good customer, she denied me it wasn't that she was booked she just didn't want to take me. I ended up going to another salon in town but I was just bewildered at what just transpired. While I was stuck in my phone for 24 hours because the storm took out the city of Chicago I thought ah-ha I can simply call the nail salon and ask the woman who worked next to my ex-nail girl and see if she could do my nails. Genius!! This worked for a couple of weeks- she did my nails twice and I was sure to be extra nice and tip extra well because I had to almost court her in order to secure her as my new nail girl. Well I must not have been a good courter because she dumped me. How does a chop-shop dump a customer whose been going to them for 7 years?! I was beside myself. I felt like Elaine on Seinfeld when they were discontinuing her sponge brand and she was being very selective on the men she slept with if they were sponge worthy or not. Was I not sponge worthy??? Why not?? I now felt like I was that person that was trying to get on the list. I was asking everyone if they knew of a good nail salon and had someone they trusted. Finally after countless hours & days I finally got a tip from a good friend on a nail salon and she even got me in to get on the owners client list. After sweating it out and having my heart broken I have now upgraded to a great new nail salon and finally all is good. My nails are short & square just they way I like them. I guess I was sponge worthy for this salon :) 

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