Stress Relief

What a horrendous couple of months I just had. Work has been insane and after the nightly chaos of dinner, cleanup and bedtime, I just never have it in me to gather my thoughts for a blog. Blech.

But so much has happened. School is rolling along and the positive difference I see every day in Kieran is quite gratifying. The school still has some policies that I think are odd and sometimes downright ridiculous (ie - they refuse to administer Kieran's asthma inhaler, if he requires it during school hours we are supposed to drive to the school and do it ourselves. Which will be fantastic considering that both Eric and I work about 45 minutes away...without traffic.I suspect I will have more to say about this in the future.)

Eric pointed out not long ago that when I do blog I have been neglecting our little Papaya. Certainly, this is not intentional. Kaya is a doll and we love her to death. Generally sweet and good-natured (except of course, when she's not), she is currently fascinated...obsessed even...with changing her clothes. When I say you will never see her in the same outfit twice, I mean, even if you were with her for 1 hour at our house, you would likely see her in several different outfits...sometimes all at once. I do remember Kieran going through this phase, but Kaya's is far worse. Of course, that may be because girl clothes can go so disastrously wrong. Kieran had an array of jeans and neutral pants and pretty much all shirts go with all pants. Girl clothes...not so much. She's gone to daycare with some pretty fantastic ensembles lately. I don't care that much though...it might be general fatigue or simple ambivalence on my part, but mostly, I let her wear what she wants because, hey, it's not like I have to look at her all day.

In other news, I have had the past two days off work. Since work has calmed somewhat, I seized the opportunity to take a couple days off to do some Christmas shopping, get a much need haircut, etc. For my 40th, a group of friends had gotten together and given me a spa day, so I figured that I would spend the first day of my mini-vacation pampering myself. They had given me some WaySpa certificates, which means there are a lot of places to choose from, but I picked one that is quite close to my house. I'd driven by it but never gone in, I know someone who had been there for a pedicure, and the reviews online were fine. So I booked the Stress Relief package which was a 30 min massage, facial, manicure and pedicure. Nothing fancy, but covering all the basics.

I arrive a bit late (I thought I was early, but turns out I had the apt time wrong) and the first thing the woman says to me was "did you remember your flip flops?" They hadn't mentioned this on the phone, but I assumed that meant that they don't provide any at the salon. No big deal I said, but the woman seemed shocked, so I offered to go home and get them. She looked at the time and said no, that we would "figure it out". Then she said she would go get the room ready. OK, I think, here is another yellow flag..I mean, I was 15 minutes late...really, instead of sitting at the reception desk waiting for me, why wouldn't they be getting the room ready? But whatever, I will be soon be getting my Stress Relief package so I decided not to be annoyed.

Once in the massage room, the therapist(Maria) asks the standard questions, and wants to know if I had any areas that needed to be worked on. Now, I hold all my tension in my neck and shoulders, so show her my tense spots and with that, we get underway. I'm lying on the table and she starts what is the second-worst massage I have ever had in my life. (The absolute worst was the day after my wedding, when the masseuse (and I use that word soooo loosely) basically tickled me for an hour, but that is yet another story for another post, I guess).

Anyway, there was no massage aspect to what she did. She basically rubbed lotion on me for the entire time. I'm not sure why she bothered asking if I had any areas I wanted her to work on since she clearly had no intention of doing any sort of massage. But then it was over (bad sign that while I was getting my "massage" I was thinking about where else I could go to get a real massage?)  Then, facial began. I've only ever had one other facial in my entire life, but it seemed standard. It's just applying and removing lotion from your face for an hour. But a few times she leaves the room for an extended period while some unguent that has been applied dries, and while the therapist is gone you relax on the warm table and listen to the spa music. Except within minutes of her leaving the room, the spa music system craps out and the hallway is filled with commotion as the 4 women who are employed there (I was the only client there at that time) try to fix the sound system. Four late middle age ladies trying to fix a sound system is just as painful as you might imagine and I can hear every word. It was like listening to my mother try to fix something technical, which is to say, it just made me want to stand up and storm out of the room and try it myself) For the love of God ladies, has no one ever told you that your rooms are not soundproofed? Anyway, the music never did come back on but I got to hear the women chat about what they ate for lunch and the fact that they were running out of toilet paper.

On to the pedicure...fine, standard, nothing fancy but the toes look nice. Since I am woefully sans flip flops Maria takes what is essentially a thin piece of foam that connects at the top to make a totally low rent paper sandal, and we move onto the manicure. 
We settle in for the manicure which is set up near the front of the spa. The spa owner was on the phone with Rogers trying to consolidate her services on her bill. Call centres are annoying, I know, I've been there. But I can hear things escalating out of control:  she starts getting exasperated, then irate and finally angry at the poor customer service she is receiving (oh, the irony). While the owner is otherwise occupied, one of the other employees comes up to Maria to go over the purchase of light bulbs, wax strips, toilet paper and Kleenex. They take the opportunity to bitch about the spa owner who is now yelling at Rogers. ("Do NOT transfer me again! I would like to speak to a manager!").

Then, the third therapist comes over and can't figure out how to access Line 2 on the phone. Maria shows her. She comes back two minutes later because she can't figure out how to hang up. Gah. Who ARE these people?

Then, of course, my cell phone rings. I can hear it in my jacket pocket, but I'm mid-manicure so I let it go. Then it rings again. And again. I tell the woman to stop and go get my phone. It's Eric and he needs me to pick up the kids because he's running late. I tell the woman that I'm going to have skip the nail polish because I have to go, so we wrap it up.

I bend down to put my shoes on the woman is horrified. I tell her the polish is dry - the pedicure was at least a half hour ago, probably longer. But she tells me that I have leave the spa wearing the paper on my feet. I sort of snap...I had already told her that I had leave to pick up my kids from daycare and unless the massage room doubles as her bedroom, she must be well aware that it is now winter outside. There is NO WAY I am leaving wearing paper shoes in December. Maria rushes off and comes back with kitchen plastic wrap which she wraps around my completely totally dry toes before she lets me put my shoes on. Finally, I toss the certificates at them and fly out the door.

I cannot get out of there fast enough.