THE COUNTDOWN

Today is my last official day at NBU. I visited financial aid yesterday asked how many hours I had left. The fin aid lady smiled and said, "9 hours to go! Congratulations!" I felt a lump in my throat. I clock out at 9PM tonight and my hours are complete. I can hardly believe it. I’m reflecting, but refusing to get weepy-eyed.

I keep thinking back over the past 10 months and wondering where all the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I sat in the lobby of NBU and marveled at what a sexy place it seemed to be - -everyone all in black, tattoos and piercings proudly accepted, fun music blaring. Now I’ve seen a little behind the curtain and understand a lot more about the beauty industry - - good and bad.

 I still love it.

 Last night I looked around at my classmates and thought about the amazing time we’ve had. Something reminded me of the HBO series Band of Brothers. Ok, so this is hardly a war - - even I realize that. But there is something magical about accomplishing what we’ve accomplished together. We’re all working  a day job, paying for class ourselves, managing relationships and families. It was apparent to me - - there’s  something special that develops when you trust someone to put peroxide chemicals on your eyelashes. You begin to break it down and talk about a family member’s cancer diagnosis, alcoholism, or a spouse's unfaithfulness. There’s something about the beautification process that’s way more significant than the actual “improvement” to the outside appearance.

I’ve heard people talk about how this industry gets in your blood. I get that now. Despite the long hours and the weekend work, I can’t imagine not working in it in some capacity. This brings me to my new beauty venture, which makes me smile. I call it TANtaleyes. Without going into too much detail here, I’ll give you the website – www.thetanartist.com.

I’m excited and I've been singing a line from the only song I know by Semisonic. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Yeah...” –Closing Time (Circa 1999)

Gettin’ Beauty Schooled,

Rita

For your enjoyment - a few more pics from my beauty school memoirs that didn't make the cut to a blog... 

The first man wax in our class. It was only arms, but we were still excited.

Clearly I was excited about receiving my Smashbox Pro card. Not sure  I've even used it more than one or twice!

The night I broke my purple leopard print phone case. What's beauty school without some kind of animal print?

When the temp got below 60 degrees, we resorted to spa robes to keep warm. 

I meant to do a blog on these things - - the new Kiss lashes with application strings. I wasn't a fan, but I've already adopted my technique. If you've had trouble with applying lashes in the past - - you might want to try them. They are super cheap and at the drug store. 

One of my fave pics of school. My teacher had just had a Jessner's chemical peel. Her skin was coming off in sheets! 

My final state board exam kit. Complete with sheets, a tunic, paper towels, sanitizer, tweezers, mock wax, the list could go on and on.... 

Everything has to be labeled in the state board kit. 

The six "smaller" kits I have to use for state board to test out for things like, steaming someone's face, using a face vac, brushes, waxing eyebrows, etc.