Something I neglected to mention about injuries sustained during Mind Over Matt was that I skinned up my knee a little bit when rolling off the couch, a maneuver which isn’t really conducive to keeping your balance and staying upright. That in itself isn’t a big deal, though if the director had let me wear shorts like I had originally planned during that scene, it would have been significantly messier.
The reason that came to mind was because I finally picked off the scab yesterday. Yeah, I know, it’s a bad habit, but it’s just so tempting to take off the edges, then get a little further in until you pull the whole thing off and expose an artery. Good times. But I waited for a week and a half before giving into the temptation, so it had more time to heal—I’m giving myself a little bit of credit for that.
I had another bad habit when I was younger that I managed to stop doing over time: tearing off my fingernails. When they would start to get long, I wouldn’t pull out a nail clipper, I’d just make a little divot in the side and then tug it across until all of that extra length was gone. But then sometimes I’d tear at it, get a little further in until I’d pull the whole thing off and expose an artery. Not so good times.
Okay, it never got that bad, but sometimes it would get down far enough to hurt and start bleeding. Not enough to scab up, mind you, so no fun for either bad habit. Eventually, that bleeding was enough motivation for me to stop. Now I just let my nails grow until they turn into giant claws like Florence Griffith Joyner’s. (Pretty hot, huh?)
As it turns out, a few other people in the play have a bad habit: biting their fingernails. And I’m not talking just nibbling at them once in a while—I’m talking like water dripping on a rock to the point where it erodes the ends of their front teeth. Not wanting to do it, putting Tabasco or other stuff on the nails to make them taste bad… nothing has worked. Wanna know what I recommended to them?
Well, you’ve read this far, so I might as well tell you. I recommended using those big plastic nail savers that you put on your fingers after applying nail polish. Sure, you might have to file the ends down to points so you can push the buttons on a phone or type on a keyboard, but if it helps break the habit, wouldn’t that be worth the occasional puncture wound if you absentmindedly poke at a scab that had been there for a week or two? Unless you stab it until the whole thing comes off and you expose an artery, of course.
