Who knew?

I started piano lessons yesterday and was informed that I would have to remove my nails. That's okay with me, I was thinking about it anyway. Now, the problem was this...how on earth do I do that? With acrylic nails it's easy enough to soak your hands in acetone and peel them off but unfortunately mine were gel. Naturally I thought that they would come off like acrylic but I was wrong! I started by soaking my fingers in acetone for like 30 minutes, by then most of my fingers had been burned off from the chemicals...not good. Next, we thought maybe we'll just chisel away at them with sharp things, that was a no deal. Next thought "ah who cares, they'll come off at some point". Today I went down to the ATC hoping they could help me. It turns out that all you have to do is file them for 2 HOURS and they come right off. Who knew? There was a girl at each of my hands sawing away with their nail files. O-U-C-H. The girl on the right hand went fairly quickly, the girl doing the left hand was a different story. By the time righty got all finished lefty was on nail numero 2. Righty then said to lefty "why don't you go get some lunch and I'll finish this hand". Thank goodness! My fingers hurt and my nails are bendy and gross but apparently that won't last forever. Now I can comfortably play the piano with the pads of my dainty little fingers.