Category: Self Care

SPA Adventure

Going to the spa is always a blissful experience, but I discovered this week that it’s even more blissful when shared with a group of friends. One of our managers at work took her team to the spa and she had a couple of extra openings and invited me along. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I’d never gone to a spa with a coed group before, but it far exceeded my expectations.

I arrived at the spa to find the party already in progress with a wonderful spread of light appetizers (veggies, fruit, sushi, cheese, and the like) to nosh on between treatments and a selection of juices to keep us hydrated. The team was already in various stages of bliss as some folks were enjoying manis, others had their tootsies deep in the soothing baths of the pedi, and others were cloistered away getting their aching muscles massaged. I was welcomed immediately and escorted to the appetizer buffet. Then I mingled with my friends as they received their treatments. We especially enjoyed teasing the spa virgins (i.e. some of the guys) who were getting their very first manis or pedis.

One of my good friends was getting his very first mani and he was enjoying it more than he’d expected. The funny thing is that one of my other friends and I had invited him to come along the last time we went to the day spa and he turned us down as he thought it was too girly. He was definitely regretting it and promised to at least check his schedule the next time we invited him. As I waited for my treatments, I took time to converse with my coworkers and it was great to get to know them outside of a work setting.

Finally, it was my turn to dip my tootsies in the pedi bath and although I thought it would be awkward getting a pedi in front of some of the guys from work, it wasn’t awkward at all and I turned on the massage chair, leaned back, and let the nail technician do her thing. Even though I’d just had a pedi two weeks before, it felt incredibly good to get my feet massaged and pampered.

When my pedi ended, I was whisked away for a massage. I undressed and laid down under the toasty warm blankets and then the masseuse came in and asked if I wanted a full body massage or just wanted him to work on my back. Since I only had 30 minutes, I asked him to focus on my back and pretty soon the rhythmic strokes calmed my body and spirit and I found myself in a blissful twilight zone where my mind was floating as if on a cloud.

My thirty minutes ended all too soon and it was time to go back to my real life. I got dressed, thanked my masseuse and headed out to say goodbye to my friends. All our hearts and bodies felt a little bit lighter as we hugged and vowed that we’d head to the spa again another day to get rejuvenated to fight the battle that is our daily jobs.

Pedi-Bliss

I’m not a girly girl and I’m always a lot more comfortable in jeans, bare feet, and no makeup than I am dressed to the nines. There’ve been times in my life when I’ve experimented with makeup, but usually that lasts for a few days and then I start sleeping late again and forgetting to put my makeup on before I rush out the door. Manicures and pedicures have always been lumped in with makeup as some frou frou thing that I didn’t really have time for.

That lasted until the time I experienced my first pedicure and realized that I really had been missing out on something. Hubby treated me to a spa day downtown and I had a shea butter wrap, a hot stone massage, a facial, and a pedicure. The hot stone massage was definitely a repeatable experience, the shea butter wrap was an exercise in wasted money, and I was ambivalent on the facial. It was the pedicure that really surprised me. I thought I’d be weirded out by the thought of someone messing with my feet, but it was the best experience of the entire day.

For those of you who haven’t experienced the bliss of a pedicure, let me give you the highlights. The first step is shoes off and feet in a sweet scented massaging foot bath. Now I do have a massaging foot bath at home, but it isn’t quite the same because I know that when I’m done with it, I have to dump it out and put it away. Once you’ve soaked your tired tootsies for a few minutes, the pedicurist will pull one foot out of its nice warm bath and begin using the the pumice stone to smooth away the dead skin and calluses. Once she’s done, she’ll ask you to switch feet and she’ll work on the other one. The next step in the pedicure, is to clean your nails of any old nail polish and to trim your cuticles. Once that’s done, it’s a mini foot massage and a new coat of polish.

The advantage that pedicures have over manicures is that you don’t have to pick nice safe colors that will go with your work clothes. You can play it safe with sweet pinks and subtle lavenders or you can let out your inner bad girl and go for dark reds, blues, greens or even black. Pedicures are like sexy lingerie in that you can choose to share your pedicure by wearing sandals or choose to keep it a secret by wearing closed toed shoes. Pedicures are empowering because every time you look down at your sexy painted toes, you know you care about yourself and that you took the time to do something just for you.

My daughter’s prom was this week and I took her for her first mani–pedi. We went to a nice little salon close to our house and although there’s no sign on the door that says “Girls Only–Boys Keep out,” walking in is definitely walking into the Girl’s club. We were enveloped in the scent of nice perfume and nail polish when we walked in and by the chatter of feminine voices talking about men, kids, jobs, and anything else that was on their minds.

When it was our turn to bliss out, we climbed into the pedicure chairs, which had been recently enhanced as massage chairs and sunk our feet into the warm water. We let ourselves be pampered for the next hour as the skilled technicians transformed our nails into glorious symbols of femininity. I went for a hardcore pinkish red and my daughter went for the palest of lavenders to match her prom dress.

My daughter wasn’t so sure she liked her experience as she felt uncomfortable with people touching her fingers and toes, but my bet is that she’ll sign up to go the next time. As for me, I left Sunshine Nails in pure bliss feeling comfortable, confident, cared for, and of course blissed out.