Thanks for the Tabasco sauce mhttp://https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/journey/om: I love biting my nails

I wear pink, high heels and ponytails. But I do not do manicures. No point to such an act as I have no nails to speak of. I bite and chew them. To many, my nails are a disgrace. I used to get asked all the time as to why I don’t stop biting my nails. People rarely ask me that now. I am squarely into adulthood and I just do not care to stop. In psychological, addiction parlance, I am in a state of pre-contemplation. Meaning, I am nowhere ready to even start thinking about quitting. And I am totally fine with that.

A few years back I stopped biting my nails for two months. My best friend was getting married and as maid of honor I thought I would cease nail biting for a while. She was impressed that I had gone through that process. Day came and day after I was biting my nails again.

Thing is, my nail biting obviously doesn’t bother me the way it does others. I find many perks to nail biting.

1. I don’t spend money getting manicures. And have you heard of the latest findings around manicures?  It can be a bad business to support.

2. It provides me with a way to not mouth off at silly people. Instead of getting a brain aneurysm when some people say totally ridiculous things, I just bite my nails and refocus.

3. While biting my nails I expose myself to tons of germs. As a result, I have perfect annual physicals year after year, including perfect blood pressure. Seriously!

4. I love spicy food. I am open to new foods and love exploring new cultures. All resulting from my early childhood onset of nail biting.

Ok. Yes. I will explain. The truth is my mom was exacerbated by my nail biting. My mom always had nicely self-manicured nails. We were too poor for her to ever get her nails done. But she was proud of her nails and general grooming. We were poor but could still be presentable. I heard that phrase throughout my childhood.

My mom did what any Puerto Rican mom would do. She went, bought tabasco sauce and put it on my fingernails. My first set of nail polish was tobasco sauce. Yum. And for that I am grateful to my mom. The tobasco sauce did not deter me. I developed a taste for spice very much unlike that of my family. Puerto Ricans prefer garlic to any type of hot spice. I became a family anomaly. The spicier the food, the more I liked it. My palette was opened up to a new world. Ironically enough I don’t like tobasco sauce as a spice. I find it a tad synthetic and non-spicy. Nonetheless, I bow down to it as it got me started on multi-cultural exploration path.

My mom never went on to like or really try spicy food or any new type, really. I was the odd one that are crazy things. Even so, she didn’t judge me. It was who I was. But I always laughed and pointed out because of her hard work, sacrifice and tabasco sauce I was who I was.

Thanks mom