It was one of those days. It all started at Starbucks this morning when they gave me the wrong sized coffee. It was a grande when I had ordered a venti, but I figured it was only the second cup of many for the day, so I took the coffee and left, not giving it a second thought.

Then I went to the grocery store where I found they discontinued one of my favorite lunch items from the store and switched the brand of several other items I buy on a regular basis. I am not terribly brand specific, but the switch was made in favor of more expensive items. Well, I figured it was only a few extra dollars, so not a big deal. I bought what I needed and left.

Then I went to get a manicure and decided to try this new place that just opened. The only reason I am even getting manicures on a semi regular basis now has to do with my crazy schedule that no longer allows me to do my own nails during the week. If I do them on Sunday night, by Wednesday they are already chipped, and I most certainly am not coming home on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. or later to reapply nail polish. Yet I think chipped nail polish is one of the tackiest things a woman could wear, leaving me little choice. Recently I started doing the Gel polish where after it gets applied it will last until your nails grow out, which for me means roughly three weeks. It is expensive, but worth not having to worry about them.

The lady started removing the previous polish (which with Gel is a process onto itself), and when she got to the reapplication part I realized she had not yet asked me what color I wanted (and I had anticipated getting a nice midnight blue). Typically in any nail salon that is the first question they ask as soon as you walk through the door. I found out that that is because this new place only had three colors – magenta, orange, and peachish. Considering the alternatives, I now have peachish nails, a far cry from the midnight blue I had wanted. Well, they are only nails, this is not permanent, so I let it go.

If you are unfamiliar with how Gel works, it is an acrylic based nail polish that is cured with UV light and alcohol. With each coat you stick your hand in this little UV light machine for thirty seconds, and once the top coat is applied you pour alcohol on your hands to set it permanently. After the hour long process she realized she didn’t have any alcohol. How can a salon not have alcohol? How do they sterilize things? You know what, nevermind, I don’t want to know. The polish didn’t set (Gel does not “dry” like regular polish, so without setting it remains indefinitely tacky). She sent her assistant to the store to buy alcohol while we waited. By the time she came back and we finished the process I had been there for two hours, and needless to say, running late for everything else. She only charged me half price, so I decided to regard the whole experience as a discount manicure. Worse things have happened.

It was already one in the afternoon, I was hungry but had no time, so I skipped lunch and drove across town to my next appointment at the spa. I had scheduled a facial with one of the girls everyone has been telling me is fantastic, but the spa switched their schedule around and when I got there they told me she was no longer available. They did have me down for an appointment but they had no one ready. Luckily one of the estheticians who was off today lived close by, they called her and she was there within the hour. She had worked on me last time and I remember she had done an excellent job, so all was not lost, and my face feels wonderful.

I know the above can hardly be considered great hardships. I am well aware of how trivial it all is, hence my not making a big fuss at any point, and any one of these things going wrong would not even warrant a blog post. But still, when they add sequentially, it is all the little things.