Treat Yourself

thrifted blouse and cardigan // AA shorts // vintage flats via LadyLikeADove

I found these photos while cleaning up my hard drive - I'm sure I was in some weird mood and wasn't happy with them at the time, but when I found them the other day I thought lookit me, I'm such a cutie pie. I deserve a treat.

School is just around the corner, which means student loans rain down upon me with furious swagger and deceptive visions of doing baller-ass shit. My financial aid always looks generous, but then I remember that it has to last until the end of the year, do some quick calculations, and try my damnedest to stick to a modest budget. When I was living in Los Angeles, working full time and still and struggling to make ends meet, my Dad gave me a bit of really good advice to keep from getting down; he told me that no matter what, on payday I should treat myself, however modestly, to something I couldn't afford to have or do the day before. This indulgence usually takes one of two forms: sitting by myself at a diner with a burger, fries, tall fizzy glass of Coke, and big stack of fashion magazines (not too fancy or otherwise it's not quite unwinding. I usually go for upper-echelon mass market rags from Walgreens like Elle and Teen Vogue. Marie Claire works in a pinch, but never ever, ever Cosmopolitan), or getting a pedicure from a strip mall joint while eating an ice cream cone and reading a book.

I had to settle for a mere "polish-change" the other day because I couldn't quite swing the full pedicure, nor the ice cream. I picked a bright flat blue, the color of those PaperMate pens every medical office seems to have. I settled into my chair and opened my Borges book when the woman doing my nails—who hardly ever addresses clients directly—looked up and said "This color look so pretty on your skin!" I said thank you and turned the bottle over so I could remember to ask for it next time. In tiny letters on a peeling label, it read

"Blue Collar".