spa musings
yes, this is a fluff piece. ;)
about 20 months ago, i treated myself to my first (okay, not technically my first, but my first in 10 years or more) manicure. prior to that, i always did my own nails. i'd take literally about 3 hours and make an afternoon of it. but around christmas in 2008, i simply didn't have time to do them and they desperately needed to be done. so i took an hour one saturday and got them done. the manicure was so good that i did the same things for the holidays last year.
since then, i admit, i'm a bit addicted. i found someone who does them way better than i ever could, i don't do it very often, and i honestly feel like by getting my nails done every now and then, i'm not being completely frivolous.... i'm helping to keep someone (a nursing student, btw) employed in these economic times. (can't you just hear the justification in there? hehehe) but enough of the background and on to my point.
i go to an aveda spa to get my nails done. i used to think that the place wasn't very nice b/c it's very small and it's a bit loud. but like i said, i really like gina (the nursing student) and she does a fantastic job every time, so i keep going back.
today, i went to a fancy schmancy spa in greensboro for a quicky express manicure. when i walked in, i was super impressed. the place was big and very spa-like, had a quiet relaxation room with a huge water feature, and was quiet in general. then the woman who was going to do my manicure came to get me and brought me into a private room. it was shortly thereafter that i realized different spas are good for different things.
see, the noisy aveda spa is perfect for a manicure. (1) i get to sit in a really comfy, recliner-like chair. (2) the nail section has 2 chairs and 2 manicurists, so 2 friends can easily go together. (3) the hair washing station for the salon is just outside of the nail section, so you get to overhear a bunch of conversations and advice from the hairdressers. all of this takes the pressure off of making conversation with the person doing your nails. gina and i talk a little and we've gotten to know a bit about each other over the past 20 months, but there's no pressure. she gets to think about whatever she thinks about (or focus on the job she's doing) and i get to think about whatever i'm thinking about (or listen to other people's conversations about their mothers-in-law, friends, etc.). what the aveda spa is not so good for is massages. the massage rooms are nice enough and the music being piped in is certainly spa music, but the spa is so small and noisy, that in the massage rooms you can hear a lot of ambient noise from the salon section.
the fancy spa today, with the quiet room and water feature, is perfect for massages; not so much for manicures. i went into a private room with a woman i don't know and the door is closed. so now we're sitting in a small room with lovely spa music being piped in and it's quiet. so now we're making small talk. where are you from? how did you get to DC? etc. b/c it's so quiet and we're the only 2 people in a small room, we feel compelled to make some kind of conversation. simply put, it's awkward. plus, the chair was a straight-back chair and uncomfortable and every time someone flushed a toilet, you could hear the rush of water through the pipes b/c it was so quiet. i had a hard time not giggling after the first two times. hehehe
so as of today, i'm no longer embarrassed by the noisy "spa" i go to for my manicures. i now see how perfect it is. and to top it off, today's experience confirmed how good gina is. the woman i went to today wasn't very good at doing rounded nails, despite me telling her that i wear them rounded and not squared off. when i got home, i had to fix the sharp corners of all my nails and round them out. that being said, this manicure was less expensive than what i pay for up in the DC area and i was frankly just happy to have had someone deal with my cuticles. and yes, i did just say that. :)
anyway..., that pretty much sums up the fluff piece. for some reason i just felt compelled to document my realization that different spas are good for different things.
now, it's 2:00 a.m. and i really should go to sleep. at some point i should post about other, more meaningful things like how my job is going, what i've been doing this summer (sweating, visiting with friends near and far, sweating, playing at great adventure, gardening, drinking metric f**ktons of powerade, sweating, visiting with family, pondering new opportunities, watching great reality tv, and sweating), the progress/changes in my yard, and things to come.
about 20 months ago, i treated myself to my first (okay, not technically my first, but my first in 10 years or more) manicure. prior to that, i always did my own nails. i'd take literally about 3 hours and make an afternoon of it. but around christmas in 2008, i simply didn't have time to do them and they desperately needed to be done. so i took an hour one saturday and got them done. the manicure was so good that i did the same things for the holidays last year.
since then, i admit, i'm a bit addicted. i found someone who does them way better than i ever could, i don't do it very often, and i honestly feel like by getting my nails done every now and then, i'm not being completely frivolous.... i'm helping to keep someone (a nursing student, btw) employed in these economic times. (can't you just hear the justification in there? hehehe) but enough of the background and on to my point.
i go to an aveda spa to get my nails done. i used to think that the place wasn't very nice b/c it's very small and it's a bit loud. but like i said, i really like gina (the nursing student) and she does a fantastic job every time, so i keep going back.
today, i went to a fancy schmancy spa in greensboro for a quicky express manicure. when i walked in, i was super impressed. the place was big and very spa-like, had a quiet relaxation room with a huge water feature, and was quiet in general. then the woman who was going to do my manicure came to get me and brought me into a private room. it was shortly thereafter that i realized different spas are good for different things.
see, the noisy aveda spa is perfect for a manicure. (1) i get to sit in a really comfy, recliner-like chair. (2) the nail section has 2 chairs and 2 manicurists, so 2 friends can easily go together. (3) the hair washing station for the salon is just outside of the nail section, so you get to overhear a bunch of conversations and advice from the hairdressers. all of this takes the pressure off of making conversation with the person doing your nails. gina and i talk a little and we've gotten to know a bit about each other over the past 20 months, but there's no pressure. she gets to think about whatever she thinks about (or focus on the job she's doing) and i get to think about whatever i'm thinking about (or listen to other people's conversations about their mothers-in-law, friends, etc.). what the aveda spa is not so good for is massages. the massage rooms are nice enough and the music being piped in is certainly spa music, but the spa is so small and noisy, that in the massage rooms you can hear a lot of ambient noise from the salon section.
the fancy spa today, with the quiet room and water feature, is perfect for massages; not so much for manicures. i went into a private room with a woman i don't know and the door is closed. so now we're sitting in a small room with lovely spa music being piped in and it's quiet. so now we're making small talk. where are you from? how did you get to DC? etc. b/c it's so quiet and we're the only 2 people in a small room, we feel compelled to make some kind of conversation. simply put, it's awkward. plus, the chair was a straight-back chair and uncomfortable and every time someone flushed a toilet, you could hear the rush of water through the pipes b/c it was so quiet. i had a hard time not giggling after the first two times. hehehe
so as of today, i'm no longer embarrassed by the noisy "spa" i go to for my manicures. i now see how perfect it is. and to top it off, today's experience confirmed how good gina is. the woman i went to today wasn't very good at doing rounded nails, despite me telling her that i wear them rounded and not squared off. when i got home, i had to fix the sharp corners of all my nails and round them out. that being said, this manicure was less expensive than what i pay for up in the DC area and i was frankly just happy to have had someone deal with my cuticles. and yes, i did just say that. :)
anyway..., that pretty much sums up the fluff piece. for some reason i just felt compelled to document my realization that different spas are good for different things.
now, it's 2:00 a.m. and i really should go to sleep. at some point i should post about other, more meaningful things like how my job is going, what i've been doing this summer (sweating, visiting with friends near and far, sweating, playing at great adventure, gardening, drinking metric f**ktons of powerade, sweating, visiting with family, pondering new opportunities, watching great reality tv, and sweating), the progress/changes in my yard, and things to come.