feeling tall

Took the day off today to deliver a belated ending in "0" birthday gift, which was a day at the spa. We went to a new day spa on Piedmont Ave in Oakland Meditrina Spa. They had a Queen of the Day package that included facial, body treatment, foot treatment, lunch, and a massage. The gift ended up being a big packaged reward for various things in both our lives (mine being that this month marks my 10th year working at UCB.

Meditrina Spa just opened last November. It's my second time to a day spa, the first being just before the wedding. If there is one girly thing I don't mind doing, it's a spa.

I actually didn't know that the body treatment was part of the package. I had had the facial first while my friend had the body treatment. Fortunately I got some of my mom's good skin genes with only some dryness (because I don't exfoliate once a week). But, man, cleaning out of the pores is painful, though my nose came out very smooth and shiny afterwards. Since I couldn't see anything as far as i can figure the facial was like a dozen layers of goopy nice smelling stuff followed by a hot towel to wipe it off. Plus there was a moisturizing of the hands then wrapped in plastic then in a hot towel mitts.

After the treatment we met up again in the lounge in our comfy waffle textured robes, chitchatted, drank water. My friend was gushing about a shower with the big rain water shower head at the top and jets from all sides. I had thought she had had the massage. When I went in for my body treatment (what I thought had been the massage) the table was covered in plastic. ok. But then I got giddy when the woman doing the treatment mentioned there would be mud all over the place. Ooh, never done that before! The body treatment was like a facial for the body with exfoliation, mud wrap, and moisturizing again. The mud wrap was interesting and smooth, sticky, slippery. Once the mud was on, she wrapped the plastic around you, then the blanket, then a big heat shield thing that looked like it belonged on a car's dashboard window. She turned on the shower, then informed me that whenever I was ready to find my way out of the plastic burrito wrap and wash up in the shower.

The shower was like being in a dishwasher with water coming from all directions. You could cut your morning shower time to like a minute, though you'd also need a ton of water pressure to keep the jets going.

When we got back to the lounge, three hours had already passed! Lunch arrived. After lunch, we had the foot treatment and the full body massage. These folks are thorough in their massage. When we came out, my friend said I looked taller. Well, getting rolled out on a table for an hour will add a few inches to your height with all the ligaments all nicely elongated and such.

Though there wasn't any pedicure or manicure as in the first day spa we went to, which was more of a hair salon with spa stuff, this place was quite enjoyable. No complaints here, plus they were giving a discount to new people, which made it all even sweeter.

During one of the treatments, one of the staff people asked, what are you going to do afterwards? Oh I don't know, nothing, anything, does it really matter? I do have a list of things to do this evening, and I'll probably get through it. But it does feel like I'm just gliding through the room, focused and relaxed. It was a mighty fine gift.