I painted my fingernails blue

Never Done: I painted my fingernails blue

Why on earth am I so conservative sometimes? It truly baffles me. I look at a punk with yellow or green or blue or black fingernails, and I completely appreciate the aesthetic. I think about painting my own nails something other than clear or pinkish, and I balk. But this whole summer, whenever I saw a certain shade of light blue nails, I perked up. I like it. I wanted it. And then I didn't do it. I did paint my toenails a fabulous metallic silver, to compliment my silver hair (and to remind me that I rock -- as the only silver-haired triathlete on my team of hundreds) and I loved that. Maybe metallic silver is the gateway color, because I finally examined my resistance to blue enough that I realized it's ridiculous. It's just a color. There is really no reason why one color is any more "appropriate" on a fingernail than any other color. And if I think one is more appropriate, then I don't respect myself and my own leanings towards homogeny. So I chose a blue -- the blue I'd actually love for my glasses frames, because I think it's an excellent compliment to my silver hair -- and I painted it on my fingernails.

I'm a little self-conscious, but not really because they are somehow transgressive, but because I think my fingers look excellent and I like to look at them. Here, maybe you will too.