Part 2: Rain and Mysterious Bottles of Goo
A couple of friends and I have made a goal to go on a hike every Saturday morning this summer. We were on a roll. We hiked Ensign Peak over Memorial Day weekend, and then we hiked the Mineral Fork trail the following weekend. Both hikes were awesome, and I have to admit I have become quite a fan. We were all set for another hike last weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. It was cold, rainy, wet, and gross here all weekend. Boo!! When I woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window, the mountains were engulfed in a cloud, which usually means that it’s snowing up there. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty bummed. When life hands you rain and no hiking, go get a pedicure instead, right!?! That seemed like the logical choice to me. If I’m not going to be using my feet to traverse a large mountainside, I might as well get them all pretty-ified! I immediately started calling every nail salon in the neighborhood.
Some things in life are just too funny to not write about, and this is one of them. I don’t get pedicures too often, but I do love them! After calling a few places, I started to notice a trend. If the person who answered the phone spoke clear English, the pedicures were anywhere from $50-75 (Excuse me? They are feet! They will hopefully be jammed into tennis shoes next weekend and helping me hike my next mountain!). If the person on the other end of the line had a very clear Asian accent, the pedicures were $20-25. That is much more up my alley! Three chairs were booked for a 10:30am appointment for my girlfriends and me. Needless to say, I have never gotten a pedicure from someone who speaks English, and I probably never will! I have yet to be disappointed.
For everyone who has gotten a pedicure of the Asian variety before, this will be a familiar scene. You walk in, and a little Asian woman hops up from the couch where she was casually perusing an issue of People magazine, looks at you, says “pedicure?” in her thick accent, and quickly starts filling the tubs on three of the chairs. She puts in a mystery substance that turns the water blue, and tells you to pick your nail polish color. So you pick your color, sit down, and the little Asian woman tries to make a little bit of small talk with you. You understand about 3% of the words she is saying and ask her to repeat every single thing she says, and she doesn’t understand a word that you are saying in return. You both quickly find out that conversation will not be happening. Then all the workers there start talking in their own native language to each other, and you are positive they are talking about you and your mangy feet. Despite the lack of conversation, the massage chair is amazing and heavenly, and it feels so good to get all that dead skin off your feet. They really do a fabulous job! The little Asian (I say Asian because I’m not quite sure where they are from, Vietnam, Cambodia, somewhere in Southeast Asia. How do these people end up in Salt Lake…another mystery!) woman proceeds to put all sorts of different lotions, potions, sauces, and goo on your feet and toes all from unmarked bottles. These bottles always look the same, no matter what nail salon you go to. What are in these bottles? Where do they come from? Could these substances kill me or give me some sort of flesh-eating disease? No one knows! It is a mystery. Is there an Asian nail salon supply store somewhere that mass produces these shady unmarked bottles of who knows what? These are the questions that run through my mind. And by the time your pedicure has ended, the other mysterious substance that turned the water in your tub blue to begin with has now turned green. Does green mean your feet are officially disgusting? No one knows! When all is said and done, I could care less what is in those mysterious bottles of goo because my feet look fabulous!! No flesh-eating disease to date!
So even though my toes have been purple for 3+ months now, I have my little Asian woman re-apply purple toe nail polish because I am convinced that if I change the color of my toe nails during the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers will lose. We may just find out tonight that my toe nail color has nothing to do with Laker victories, but just in case they do, my toes are purple! GO LAKERS! And thank you to all the little Asian women who so faithfully perform affordable and amazing pedicures on my mangy feet! If anyone out there has ever gotten a high-end pedicure before, please report if their bottles are clearly marked and identifiable. Thanks! And if you have a hike planned and it's raining, go get an affordable pedicure from a sweet Asian woman instead!
I had to update my t-shirt from last year! Sixteen championships, baby!!
These next pictures are from a ward FHE when we hiked to Donut Falls. Apparently the waterfall goes through a rock that looks like a donut. I’ve never gotten close enough to see the donut, so who really knows!
Then when my parents were here a few weeks ago, I made them hike up to the Y with me. Ryan joined along on the hike again too. I love Provo!
Finally, our hike last weekend was to the Brighton Lakes. All the beautiful scenic pictures are of Lake Mary. We eventually were hiking over large snow mounds and lost the trail, so we never made it to Lake Katherine. We were bummed, so we decided to blaze our own trail around Lake Mary. It probably wasn’t the safest thing we’ve ever done, but we’re still alive! We scaled large boulders and shimmied our way down really steep terrain. Quite the adventure, but so beautiful!! 
