My office is located in Arlington Heights, IL. We share a lovely one level office complex with some of today's finest corporations. To our left we are flanked by the prestigious Great Clips Training Center, and to our diagonal left we have a straight shot view of the Nail Technicians Academy. I often find it hard to go into work because I feel so inferior to the massive intellect surrounding our little office.
The back parking lot is full today, it only means one thing. Training Day. A Great Clips training day is a day like no other. The parking lot is filled with countless Mitsubishi Eclipses and Pontiac Sunfires, each one sporting a different variation of the classy, "I'm a Princess" license plate cover or even worse, a vanity plate spelling it out..."PRNCSS88". Sheer royalty. The princesses themselves flaunt large nails, tan skin and bleached hair, and talk in an elegant "this is just like college, right?" dialect. It really is priceless. I'd recommend the people watching to anyone.
The best part of a training day is when I get to walk past a training session in progress. They all gather round the overhead projector and I guess the head "clipper" explains to them what it really means to give someone a "Great Clip." After the overhead session, they spread out along the perimeter of the room and each trainee gets one creepy mannequin head to practice on. These mannequin heads don a nice wig of flowing hair and the trainees get their clip on. I often wonder where the hair comes from, and if it is actually real. Doubtful, but creepy nonetheless. They style and gel and clip away until their creation is complete, all while the head clipper walks around and comments on their technique. Most of the heads sit on a shelf spanning the outer wall of the room, but a few select candidates get to use the tripod heads and cut near the center of the classroom. Oh how I'd love to sit in on one of these sessions. "Great use of the finger hold there Sheila...Excellent bangs Becky..." I can only imagine.
We often enjoy opening the windows to our office, especially on a nice day, to get a good breeze flowing and enjoy some fresh air. This is not the case on a training day. Within seconds of opening any window it immediately smells like we're 2 hours deep into the plant tour at Philip Morris. These ladies (and the occasional man) smoke their little princess lungs out. Quite gross.
And now, onto our neighbors to the north. The Nail Technicians Academy. What a place. I am not exaggerating when I say that at any given point during normal business hours, if you look out our front window there will be at least two people taking a smoke break from the Academy. At least two, often many more, smock and all, fresh out of French manicure class I'm sure. They're out there, toting their caboodles on wheels and discussing the latest and greatest in "I barely graduated high-school" culture. I wish I could set up a web-cam to show you.
Please kids, stay in school.
schrags