memories of the spa

When I was in high school, my Mom decided we should spend Christmas at a famous spa in Mexico. Normally you had to be 18, but they made an exception over the holidays. It was the first time either of us had really been to a spa, and at times it felt like we were in an episode of I Love Lucy.

Our package included a body wrap. We weren't really sure what that was, but figured we could try it. We walked into a room that had a row of tables. The floors were dark wood, and there was a large wooden light fixture (think wagon wheel) hanging in the middle. There were already several women on the tables, completely draped in white linens. The room was silent. It looked like a morgue. A morgue in the wild wild West.

We were told to disrobe, and lie on the table. We were then covered in seaweed soaked towels. I felt like a mummy.

Two of the women next to us had the same feeling, and started cracking jokes. A few of the other women didn't appreciate them, and told them to hush. It was hard not to giggle. It went on like that for the rest of our session. It was a very long half hour.

Later that day we went to an aerobics class. We knew we were novices. We thought we were doing the smart thing - standing in the back. Of course the instructors were like magnets to us. Suddenly we each had an instructor moving our bodies into the correct pose. Ouch!

That's when I realized that maybe I was better off hanging out with the "older" ladies. There was a water aerobics class they seemed to be signing up for, so I decided to join them.

The instructor started us out a ball exercise. The idea was to sit on the ball and balance yourself in the water. Within a few seconds there were several whooshes as the balls popped out from under us, and out of the pool. This was followed by uproarious laughter. The teacher ran around the pool, tossing the balls back in the water. We each tried again, with similar results. The instructor got miffed and made us give back the balls. She really thought our laughter was out of line.

We managed to get through the class without further incident, although the laughter continued. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. After the class we decided to use the sauna. First though a couple of the ladies had to run an errand. That left me and another woman to figure things out.

I had been in a sauna before, but it had been a while. We found a temperature control on the wall and set it. Then we sat down on the wooden bench.

It didn't feel as hot as I had remembered. I noted this to the other woman, and she agreed. I also said I recalled there being hot rocks that you poured water on to release steam. After a bit though we convinced each other that it was indeed getting warmer.

That was about the time the other three women returned. They wanted to know why we weren't in the sauna. Thankfully this was a coed sauna, so we weren't sitting in the area outside what we thought was the sauna naked -now that would have been truly embarrassing.

The sauna was behind the door. In our defense the door was mirrored, and the handle was not obvious. One of the other women opened the door and we laughed. It was hot in there and there were rocks. Part of me hoped I would just melt away.

Of course at dinner my new water aerobic chums decided to sit with my mother and me, and tell her of our adventures. My Mom always found it entertaining to learn how "smart" I really was.



on the night stand :: Such a Pretty Fat