Day at the Spa
(Pictures of the Spa here)
Second...wow. I had the best Monday ever. Back two-and-a-half months ago - May 16th - it was my birthday. Well, my Love had gotten me a half-day package at the Spa as my present. For several years now I had really wanted to go. A friend went a couple years back and I had even been there for a company meeting as well, but I'd never actually been a guest. In fact, I had never had a facial or a massage or anything like that in my life. Plus, my Love knew how I've been battling with depression and he thought that the aptly named "Stress Away" package would help. Because of problems with the registration expiring and needing to get insurance before it was legal to renew the registration (and well, drive the car), I put off making the appointment. We finally did get everything taken care of in June and I made the appointment the beginning of July for July 28th.
My day started off really early. I had to get up, take my Love into work (he has to be there at 8am) and then get to the Spa for my check-in at 9am. First up was an herbal wrap. You strip down to your birthday suit and lay on a table. Then they take these damp, unbleached linen sheets that are steamed and wrap them around you, in successive layers. On top of all of it, they put down an insulated blanket that traps the heat in and put an iced washcloth over your eyes. Simmer for 20 minutes. hee hee Actually, it was really nice. A warm, damp, pressure (all those layers weigh slightly on you; especially if you take a deep breath), but in a really comfortable way. After that, they suggested ten minutes or so in the dry sauna, so off I went. Seemed odd to sit in a small room that's heated in July in Florida, but it actually did feel pretty nice.
My next treatment was my facial. I had never had a facial before and I didn't know what to expect. But it was really nice. They lay you down and the technician cleans and moisturizes your face and does a deep cleaning mask. She was so good at it though and it felt wonderful to basically have a massage on your cheeks and temples and such. Very soothing. And my skin felt really fresh and clean afterwards. She also told me that I had perfect skin tone (great elasticity) and "you just can't buy that." lol She also complemented me on my beauty mark above my lip. She said I wouldn't believe the number of people who she sees that has them tattooed on. I told her I've alternately gone through periods in my life where I've loved and hated it. She laughed and said she could understand that, but that it is rare and I was very lucky. She was a real sweetie. Even got me some samples of some exfoliating cleanser they sell (that's really expensive).
After that I had my 25 minute massage. At first I was thinking that the female masseuse wouldn't have that strong of hands. I'm used to my Love rubbing my neck/back and he really can go to town. I thought that she'd probably do it lighter then I was used to, but I wasn't going to complain. I mean, it was my first professional massage and I was looking forward to it. But HOLY CRAP that woman had some STRONG hands! While she was doing it, I thought it was at the line where just a touch more and it'd hurt, but when I went to stand up, oh my god....my shoulders were actually sore. They were sore all night. lol From what I gather though, that's normal. It's because they work things all out and (especially at first), your body's not used to it. It still felt great though and I can't wait to get more! (Actually, I'd love to go for one of their 60 minute reiki massages that not only is supposed to work out your muscles, but balance your energy and such. Sounds neat.)
That completed my scheduled spa treatments, but my Love had added a hair cut because the last time I got my hair cut was in March of 2002. It was all split ends and needed a trim badly. (It also grew like four inches in the past year-and-a-half, so there was a lot of trimming to do). So I had that scheduled next. Even a hair cut they don't skimp. The lady - who was so nice also - spent like ten minutes massaging my scalp while she shampooed/conditioned my hair. Man, that felt nice. She cut a little less then an inch off; evening it all out and removing the split ends. Looks a lot better, even though it's a subtle change. She also complimented me and said how nice my naturally curly hair was. *grins* I felt so cool.
By this point, it was like 12:30pm. I was done with my scheduled things for the day, but as a guest, I had access to the entire facilities for the remander of the day. I went out to the pool to swim, but it started pouring and horrible black clouds came in and produced some really nasty lightning. Considering it's a pool right on the water, it was not where I wanted to be, so I high-tailed it back inside. I hit the Turkish Steam Bath (woah it's hot and steamy in one of those things!) and then the plunge pool (holy cow it was cold!). Then I wandered around, took some pictures and since it was still kinda with the nasty outside, I got dressed and checked out for the day. It was about 2pm at this point and I had spent about five hours there, so I thought I did pretty well. There were a couple classes I was interested in (classes are another thing that's included in the "you have free access to everything" package) but the one was at 4:15 and the other was at 7pm. Didn't want to stay that long. (The first was a stretch/relaxation/energy balance kinda thing and the second was a yoga meditation/guided meditation thingy)
I had to run to the bank and the post office afterwards and then I came home and dozed off. I was so relaxed. I went to bed early - with my shoulders still really sore! - and slept really well. All-in-all it was a totally cool day. And a totally great birthday present. I love my Love. :)
Back to Today
I need to get going. I've got to clean up the apartment and take a shower this afternoon since today is my friend Rand's birthday. We're going out to eat dinner with him, his family and another friend who's meeting us here at our place. (Hence the need to clean up the place). I woke up really sick to my stomach for no reason and started dry heaving (there was nothing in my stomach; I had just gotten up), so I spent some time sitting on the couch, sipping some Sprite before I started in on the things I need to get done, hoping it would pass. Then I decided to write this up, since I've been meaning to for two days now (though last night when I went to upload the pics, it turned out that my entire webhost was down for most of last night and so I couldn't access anything - not even their status page to find out what the heck was going on). So, that's about it for the time being. TTFN.
Note: Of course, now I can't get it to publish. some java fatal exception something or another. for fuck's sake: "000 java.net.UnknownHostException: ftp.giveneyestosee.com" ARG!!!
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 7/30/2003 01:20:56 PM ~
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