If I was an inventor, I would create a pair of invisible, form-fitting things that women would be able to wear on their hands while they went about their business. Working. Entertaining. Shopping. Whatever.
The idea for this invention - which, admittedly, I am not likely to create any time soon - came about after my last visit to a spa.
I had a manicure. It lasted an hour. It cost $65.
When I was done, I had the prettiest little nails. The colour was pink. The polish was shiny. It was called Hello Baby.
"Aren't they lovely?" I asked, waving my fingers in my husband's face.
"Wow," he said. "Hello, baby!"
"How did you know?" I asked.
After I finished waving my fingers, I went about my business, simply because I'm not the kind of person who can sit in a chair with my hands on my lap for 24 hours a day.
I have things to do. There are potatoes to peel. There are weeds to yank. There is a computer to operate.
"Darn!" I said, less than a day after I'd returned from the spa. The polish on the right ring finger was chipped, as was the polish on the thumb on the left.
Two days later, I was doing something else that was risky for the pinkies. Like brushing my hair, say. Or drinking coffee. Or reading a book.
"No!" I hollered.
Again. Chips. On pretty much every finger.
The polish was starting to say Goodbye Baby.
That's when I began to ponder my invention.
Women, I decided, need manicure protection. Women, most of whom I reckon also peel potatoes and yank weeds and work on computers and brush their hair and drink coffee - and therefore suffer from nail polish mishaps - could well do with some invisible, formfitting items to put on their hands.
Call them Handy Hands. Or Love Gloves. Or Nail Savers.
Whatever. They'd be perfect, I decided. Post-manicure, women would slip on these things, which would look very much like skin, but act as a buffer between the hand and the workaday world.
As I say, though, I'm not an inventor. I just put this out to all the folks in the world who want to create something brilliant.
To them, I would say just a few simple words: A manicure matters to women like me. And baby, it doesn't come cheap.
