September 8, 2008

  • Adventures in Housekeeping: Hand Vanity Be Damned

    If you've been around long enough, you may (or may not) recall that, while I tend not to be terribly vain about much, I am vain about my hands. I have a thing about hands anyway, and I really think mine are attractive. My fingers are long without looking freakishly so, my nails are a good shape, and overall, I just like them and try to take care of them.

    Well, I knew when I started the housekeeping job that the nails would have to go, which was fine. I had managed to break two of them just hauling my backpack off and on the bus when I left Christchurch, so they were going to have to get cut down anyway. But oh, little did I know...

    Even though they're short, my nails are still suffering. I haven't had them peel in ages, ever since I discovered that a bit of petroleum jelly on the cuticles each night does wonders. But they're peeling now, and looking all kinds of scuffed. My cuticles have gotten ridiculously dry, even with said petroleum jelly each night and using hand cream like it's going out of style. But starting last week, we changed how we wash the bathtubs - and the scrub brushes came out.

    You see, we would just spray on and wipe off the cleaner before - I'd still ding myself every once in a while, but not too badly. And while I know the scrub brushes do a much better job cleaning, I have no managed to seriously bang up my knuckles. Like, all of them are now missing at least a little skin. Both the ones at the middles of the fingers and at the bases of the hands. And because if I can get a bruise, I will, the dings all have their own bruising around them, too. So not only are they red, they're also blueish-purple, too. I've actually had to start knocking on doors using the small knuckles at the tops of my fingers, because it hurts when I knock normally.

    At least we've gotten some new brushes in that have longer handles, with which I don't do myself quite so much damage, but my hand vanity is still suffering like you wouldn't believe. Only three and a half more weeks to go or so, and then this will all be over. At least until I get home and have to seriously clean my house that hasn't been cleaned in, oh, five months and a bit right now...