Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A Day at the Spa

A few years back, to mark our first major milestone of five years of being married, Kumar presented to me along with a bouquet of flowers and some delectable Godiva's, a curious rectangular-shaped gift box. I must admit that I was quite surprised at how light the box was, after all, I had been giving him not so subtle hints for about at least six months leading up to the occasion of the simple, understated diamond stud earrings (lol) that I've been wanting for quite sometime. Kumar obviously hadn't caught my drift!!! No, he had something else in mind which as I was just about to find out, would bar none, hands down exceed my expectations and totally eclipse the girl's bestfriend's ear adornment I had my heart set upon. I untied the ribbon & opened the box to reveal an ecruwhite envelope - in it was a gift certicate written out to me in gold cursive font beneath the recognizable Spa Diva letterhead on thick and crisp matching stationery. Yes, a day at the popular downtown Montreal spa voted to be the best for five consecutive years now! I profusely thanked my sweetheart and giddy with excitement, planted a kiss on his cheek and did my happy-dance - needless to say, I was flying high! Anyone who would have witnessed my ecstatic outburst, could've sworn that I had won the lottery instead of a trip to the spa and while no man could ever understand this, that was exactly how it felt to me - like someone had given me a million big ones! You don't understand, Maya was a little bit over a year at the time and eversince her birth, my life pretty much revolved around her. I felt that I was losing my sense of self with the endless days of Baby Einstein and countless diaper changes and was mortified at how I was beginning to morph into a typical frumpy mom, perpetually in sweats and sneakers. This opportunity was gold! But as the initial elation began to dissipitate, this feeling was slowly replaced with apprehension. "Wait a minute", I thought, "but I've never been to the spa before!" - I had absolutely no prior experience of this kind, and thus had no frame of reference to draw from and compare the notion with. I had no clue what to expect! Sure, I used to get my once very long hair done at Avanti Le Spa which has since been relocated to along Decarie, where I would leave the place set back by at least $350.00 after each half-day affair appointment that left my Saturday afternoon completely shot. But I never went in for a seaweed wrap nor a hot stone massage, so that didn't count, I guess. Of course, I had since "downsized" too after Maya and had found myself a Filipina hairdresser/aesthetician named Raquel in Cote-de-Neiges (sorry, she has no website :P) who runs a more mom & pop operation if you will. Raquel turned out to be just as good at dyeing and putting highlights in my hair and equally effective at keeping my frightening hairy facial renaissances at bay for a fraction of the cost I was paying at Avanti. So really, the idea of "a day at the spa," was almost foreign to me. And yet, despite some of the misgivings I had, I eagerly anticipated the following Sunday....


....to be continued....

No comments:

Post a Comment