Brill-O Pads, Pink Uniforms, and Kimchee
Today…a new adventure!
When my friend Anita texted me a while back and told me she wanted to take me to an interesting spa experience, I was all in, though I’d never really heard of a spa experience being “interesting.” Then she said, “We can even go late. They’re open until 11 pm.” Hmmm.
The first thing they said after we checked in and went to the locker room was, “Why do you still have your clothes on?”
Apparently, the attire for this spa once you get past the front door is none. Calm down…women and men are completely separate. They did issue us some mighty cute pink elastic waist bermuda shorts and roomy pink t-shirts for later.
First, the body scrub. I think my lady may have used an entire box of Brill-O pads on me. She scrubbed places I didn’t even know were scrub-worthy. Surprisingly, it was so relaxing, I almost fell asleep, even with my appendages regularly being reconfigured during the entire scrub down. After the scrub, she poured buckets of water over me to rinse me off on the soft rubbery waterproof table. Then she slathered me up again with something and told me to go rinse off in the shower. Mind you….no pink spa uniform, no robe, and the towels were roughly the size of a dinner napkin. You had to pick which part you were most desperate to cover.
Next came my massage in the same room as the scrub. I use the word “room” loosely. With just half-walls and no doors between all the service spaces, it’s easy to say hello and make new friends as you walk past.
Following our scrubs and massages, Anita and I put on our spa-issued Pepto-Bismol colored uniforms and strolled over to the quiet relaxation area to check out the forest room that smelled of bark, the Himalayan salt room where you could lounge on salt rocks (we licked them to confirm), the fire room (it was just really hot), and the ice room. It was literally like sitting inside the refrigerator section, complete with frosted freezer coils surrounding it. I lasted a few minutes then ran back to the hot sea salt room where Anita and I tried to squelch our laughter at the grunting woman who kept changing positions.
We ended our time at the spa with mouth-watering Korean food – beef short ribs and some kind of spicy soup served with several types of kimchee. During lunch, I found out that while my masseuse straddled me at one point, not unlike a cowboy riding a rodeo bull, Anita’s did no such thing. I don’t think I paid extra for that.
As I get ready to slide into bed tonight with my freshly exfoliated skin and my relaxed muscles, I’m grateful for another day -- for smiles and laughter, for my adventurous friend, for Brill-O pads, for delicious food, and for the ability to enjoy them all.
