Not my nails, obvs.
Some (beginner-focused) tips for painting your nails:
Lighter colors and solid colors are easier to work with. Pick a good color or few, you don't need to start too fancy.
Don't shake nail polish, that can mess it up. Roll it slowly if you ever need to mix.
Don't just do the coloration and call it a day, put clear nail polish on first, and put it over the color. That will protect your nails.
Consider getting nail polish remover when you get your nail polish, mistakes are easy.
Put your nails down on a flat surface, clean your nails (maybe with that nail polish remover?), and apply the clear base coat (doesn't need to be perfect). Stroke from the base of the nail to the top, until the nail is covered. It might get on your skin, that's normal, anything on your skin can be dealt with at the end. Let it dry, like you would any other kind of base coat.
Now that it's dry, do like what you did with your clear polish for colors. Base to tip, going from the center outwards. If you can still see through after it's covered, wait for it to dry a little, then do another layer.
Then apply your top coat to make smooth, shiny, and somewhat protected painted nails. Wait for it all to dry (very important), which could as long as normal working hours + commute. Don't mess it up. If you do, you might have to restart on some nails.
Now that it's dry the polish on your skin should act sorta like glue, where you can just peel it off, but if it's stubborn you could use a cotton swab with nail polish remover to carefully remove it (don't let it touch your nails!).
Now you should have nice smooth nails.
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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.
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False alarm on the mood disorder, or at least not as bad as I thought. We had a good talk this morning. According to them, they're at a loss for how to care for my anxiety without getting overwhelmed. I brought up that maybe pulling back as far as they did was a gross overreaction that only made things worse, which they agreed with. They specifically mentioned that they were afraid of a relationship escalation situation where I just want more and more until we're married, which is not at all how I mean to come across. I've asked them vaguely about the future before, just to check in on how I can continue to show up in the most comfortable way possible but they seemed to take this as fishing for a long-term commitment, starting them on the path to overwhelm.For my part, I have been spending more and more time with them but always with their consent. When we started dating I had a fairly busy social life outside of the relationship, which I've receded from over time to spend more time with them. Earlier in the relationship there was serious longing for each other when we couldn't be together due to work or other reasons and I did what I could to make more time for us. In doing so, I inadvertently deleted my social life and spent nearly all my free time with them, which was fine during the new relationship energy period. As that began to wane they started expressing a desire for more time apart and that activated my anxiety. I was still in the throes of love and passion but their perspective on where we were in the relationship was very different. For reference, their longest relationship was ~4 years while mine was over 15 years so 6 months seemed like a decent amount of time to them while it went by in the blink of an eye to me. I realize now that I was doing some self-harm by putting all of my social energy into one person, no matter how much I love them, and committed to getting out more on my own.
During our talk, I let them know about my weekend plans to see friends I haven't seen in a long time and get out of the house instead of wallowing in despair, overanalyzing everything. I still fear for the future of our relationship but they seem to be genuinely working on their end (they reached out to me this morning, for example) so I feel the need to reciprocate in good faith.
Thanks for all of your advice and comforting words, by the way. I wish opsec wasn't necessary so we could be friends IRL
::: spoiler spoiler
Im so glad things are moving in a more communicative direction for you two! Im sorry the response to all of this was withdrawl instead of communication but it sounds like thats getting resolved and you two are reaching a better point of understanding with each other.
Big fuckin mood. Ive had that with people where my longest relationship was 8 years and all of theirs were much shorter so the perception of time spend in a relationship was really different between us, it can be a bit difficult to navigate. Im glad you two are talking about it.
Of course! I also wish opsec wasnt a concern, i would love to be your irl friend
but im happy to be an online friend and my inbox is open if you ever want to shoot a message and chat ^^