I know that this might sound boring, and in fairness when I got ready to sit down and write this blog I thought "wow, this is going to be a boring one", so I will try to make it exciting.
With my back still hurting and the knowledge that I still had 12 more days of this challenge I had to continue to keep it easy, but coming up with "easy" ideas for the challenge was turning out to be really difficult. Get a facial, it wasn't on my list previously but I have wanted to try it out. I haven't ever gotten a facial before because I don't really like to be touched, in any way, with of course the exception of close friends and family but even then I have my limits. I especially do not like strangers to touch me.
When I was pregnant one of my worst fears, one that would send me into an anxiety attack with every visit to the grocery store, was the thought of a stranger walking up and putting their hand on my stomach - let me just go on the record to say I would have cut someone in the face!!! CUT THEM IN THE DAMN FACE!!! I think maybe I gave off that vibe so thankfully I was one of the lucky pregnant ladies that was not rubbed like a Buddha by any strangers. That and the array of maternity shirts I had made saying things like "rub my tummy and die!" and I was constantly glaring at anyone I thought looked like they might even be thinking about reaching their slimy paws out in my direction.
Back to the point - I hate being touched. I don't like massages because the touching creeps me out and when I am touched I don't want to be roughed up by some hairy muscle wrangler (in my mind all masseuses have hairy upper lips for some reason, even though none I have met actually do). So the thought of a stranger going deep tissue on my face was a little nauseating to think of, but my best friend Melissa gets one at least once a month. She loves them and loves they way the feel and the way they make her skin feel. Melissa goes to the Avada Institute downtown, the facials - and any other services offered - are preformed by students at a discounted rate. Melissa recently told me that she has never had a new student, always a senior student, perform her facials and that she gets just as good if not better results for 1/2 the price.
I live about 45 minutes from downtown, which I do not mind driving at all, but it was 5 o'clock on a Wednesday. I think its an urban legend that Friday has the worst traffic because people are rushing to get home for the weekend, people rush everyday to get home not just Fridays! But lots of people take Fridays off work, same with Mondays and with people take a 4 day weekend they take Thursday/Friday or Monday/Tuesday, the only people taking Wednesdays off are those taking extended vacations which is far less then the long weekend goers, so obviously Wednesday has the worst traffic because almost everyone is actually working! Test it out next week when your sitting in traffic on Wed and Friday and tell me which you found to be longer/worse.
I decided to pay more to go somewhere local. I decided to go with the Ruby Spa at McMenamins Edgefield in Gresham. $35 for 30 minutes seemed comparable to the Aveda deal and did not include traffic. I arrived at the spa and checked in, I was directed to a locker room to store my belongings in a secure locker and was instructed to robe up. My skivvies for a facial? That didn't make a lot of sense but I did it. I went into the room and met the facialist, a nice lady whose name I have completely forgotten, and laid on the tilted table.
I was fasting for the day, not new but just performing a 24 hour cleanse to right my body's balance. If you know anything about me you probably know that I drink on average 4-6 cups of coffee a day. I LOVE coffee, I hate big name coffee places that put soo much syrup and sugar and milk in the drink that you can no longer taste the coffee - I like all those things but just in small doses as the point of drinking the coffee to me is to taste the coffee! I could easily own a coffee plantation, if anyone knows of a wine tour type thing but with coffee I will go everyday!! I will spend $3 on a bottle of wine but $50 on a good bag of coffee! I also hoard my good coffees, I have coffee in my freezer that my mom brought me home from Cuba, too precious to actually drink! Perhaps that is the thing I will do in the up coming days - drink cuban coffee! YUM!!! With the fast came no other food or beverage, including coffee, for 24 hours! After just a few hours of the fast I got the worst, almost debilitating headache. It raged on no matter how much water I drank. Getting on a tilted table where the blood all rushed to my head had me spinning and it was really hard to focus on anything other than the pain in my brain.
I laid down and the lady, lets call her Molly since I am so sorry I cannot remember her name, came in and immediately started chit chatting with me as she got ready to start the facial. But the chatter did not stop when the facial started. I was confused, I am a stickler for etiquette and my impression of a facial or any spa treatment was that proper etiquette included silence and relaxation. I am also polite and did not want to tell Molly to shut her face. She asked me question after question that inevitably resulted in her asking what brought me in, I am not a liar and even though I knew it would only prolong this interrogation I told her of my challenge. The conversation went on and on all while rubbing amazing smelling lotions, oils, and other various elixirs on my face. Don't get me wrong, she was very nice and the facial was great but my head was throbbing and part of me (most of me) wanted to just sit there in silence.
Here is my only real complaint. I am not sure what it is about me that people want to instantly tell me all about their weed consumption after having only met me for a quick second. It blows my mind at how stupid people can be, why would you tell someone you do not know all about your illegal habits? I have a rule - I will not go back to a person/place that talks about their drug consumption and this is why: if your judgment is so bad that you think it acceptable to tell a complete stranger your drug conquests you cannot be trusted to provide me with the quality service I am paying for.
I went to a nail salon here in town and not but a few minutes after telling the lady that my husband was going out for the Sandy Police force did she start telling me about the weed currently stashed in her freezer! WTF is wrong with you?!? While getting my facial chatting about my adventures I mentioned that I made butter from scratch and Molly said asked if it was hard and I said no and it was really good and she said "Humm, maybe weed butter" I responded with an uncomfortable "uh, I guess" then she went on about weed butter and I think she was talking more to herself than to me. I really wanted to lie and say something about being a cop or in AA or something but I just sat there faking an interest in what she was saying all while thinking that I will never return to Ruby Spa.
In the end I actually paid $45 because I misread the prices on the website and because I was previously in a tipping industry I gave a $5 tip - $50 in total, I should have suffered through horrible Wednesday traffic and gone to Aveda.
A few minutes before the facial was over we had a bit of relaxing silence. I still do not like to be touched but a facial is much better than a massage and I think I will get another one in the future, but will go with Melissa to Aveda. After leaving my skin felt great and smelled amazing, so that part I really liked. So, if you are looking for a way to treat yourself to something special, give a facial a try - but save a buck and go to Aveda or if you're more into chatting while getting a spa treatment call Ruby today to book an appointment.
I'm not sure I made this blog exciting but I definitely went in a couple different directions! Its still early and I have only had 2 cups of coffee so far. LOL
CLICK HERE TO GO TO DAY 19
1 comment:
You have to expect most McMenamins employees will be eager to tell you about their weed habit or their DUI lol
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