Saturday, December 8, 2007

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

I had the best day yesterday. About a million years ago (seriously, I hate to admit it, but it was last year...as in 2006) my sister and brother gave me a gift certificate to get a massage at the spa at the Four Seasons. But I just never got around to using it. In the spring, the Four Seasons nearest me was undergoing renovations so the spa wasn't open. In the summer, I was living in a place that doesn't have a Four Seasons. Then I moved here and got busy and just sort of forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago when I suddenly remembered it and thought, "Yes! I'll use it just before finals!" I figured this weekend would be the perfect time. It's early enough in the finals process that I'm not completely bogged down in work yet (at which point taking hours off to go get a massage would just stress me out more than relax me because I'd be thinking about all the work waiting for me at home). At the same time, it's late enough in the semester that I definitely need someone to help me relax.
And oh my gosh, the massage was amaaaaaaaazing. The guy worked out so much tension, it was crazy. I had no idea how tense my back and legs were until I woke up this morning realizing I feel much, much better. He also did a lot of scalp and face stuff, and I absolutely love scalp massages but nobody ever knows how to do it right, so this was awesome. The masseuse kept expressing amazement over just how tight and tense my body was, and I felt like telling him, "You move across the country to a place where you don't know anybody and then start teaching college classes and working towards a PhD and try to make the best possible first impression on every single person you encounter for months and try not to carry any stress in YOUR shoulders, buddy." It's obviously really good for all of those kinks to get worked out, though. And if I could afford to, I would definitely be doing it twice a month as recommended. But as is, even if I go somewhere not as ritzy as the Four Seasons, massages still aren't exactly in my budget. I usually get massages only if someone else is paying for it as a gift. So it's a splurge, not part of my health routine. Wouldn't that be awesome if it could be, though? Anyway, the massage was great, and then I hung out in the steam room and the hot tub for a while. It made for a really relaxing afternoon.
As an added bonus, the hotel was decorated for Christmas and it was beautiful. There were about a dozen full size Christmas trees in the lobby, each one decorated by a different interior designer or art gallery. I could have sat there forever just enjoying the glow from all of the trees.
On the way home I drove a way I'd never been before, taking a bridge across the river and then driving along a parkway that cruised high up along the side of a hill. As I drove I was looking down on the valley with its gray, cold-looking river surrounded by bare, snow-covered trees, and the sun had just gone down so the whole world was sort of bluish gray and the snow was glowing somehow and on the ridge across the river were all of these huge, fancy houses, many of which had Christmas lights shining...It was like a children's book illustration of winter. It was perfect.
I love real seasons!

Anyway, all the relaxation yesterday combined with all the festivities on Thursday night (a friend just defended her thesis so about ten of us went bar-hopping around the college town to celebrate), I am so not in the mood to work. At all. Why is it always so, so difficult to get motivated at the end of the semester?

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