I was tweeting with @christinerose (author of Rowan of the Wood ) about the brand "Claw Polish" earlier today and thought to google the company who makes it to see what I could dig up. They are from a company called "Fright Nights" that you usually find only around Halloween in drug stores/Hellmart.

Last year I waited and stocked up on black and purple nail polishes because they were around 75 cents per bottle on clearance. And by far, they have some really good coverage and the stuff dries QUICK. I mean, lightening fast in terms of polish. I have two little kids and I just don't have time to sit and blow on nails anymore.

I did find a small (yet cute) website for the company but they only had hair dying tips and false eyelashes listed. So, I sent an email from their contact info to the company asking if they were going to sell the polish around Halloween. Assuming I would just receive a generic response in a few days that said yes or no, I was very surprised when I came back to check my email a few minutes later.

I received this response in record time:

Dear Beth,
Thanks so much for your inquiry. We will be shipping Claw Polish again,
however we have limited distribution this year. Because of the
mass-appeal that Wet n Wild has, retailers choose to carry their polish
instead.

It's always nice to hear when someone loves your product, so send me
your address and I will send you out a couple of bottles of polish. I
don't know if you happened to also pick up our VooDoo (red glitter) top
coat, but it looks awesome over the black... I'll throw in a bottle of
that to just to try out.

Have a great day!

Awesome Sauce.
Sad they have to limit distribution due to Wet n' Wild, but I'll take my freebies.

What great customer service. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for them later on in the season.

New White Lies music review is up at

Hybrid Magazine

When exactly do birthdays morph from being the happiest day of your life to the day of fear and loathing? I haven't quite figured it out but I'm pretty sure it was around my 30th birthday. Birthdays have, up to that general point, have been happy. I don't know what prompted the change but now I actually dislike my birthday. They're full of disappointment and failed expectations. They're full of mortality and 'have not's."

Of course, I'm not as emo as all; I'm happy to be here, happy to have decent health, happiness, loving children, wonderful husband... but dammit. I'm another year older. "Over the hill." haha. It's not fucking funny. I don't believe it ever was, and I sincerely apologize to all who I've ever uttered that despicable phrase.

And on the subject of presents: At some point it turned from beautifully wrapped presents thought ahead of time while surrounded by loving family and friends, to a gift bagged present still thought of ahead of time (even if it was the day of) and where do you want to go out to eat, to a gift card and now... to an email, a phone call, and "Hey what do you want for your birthday?"

Fuck you, birthday.