When you're still so remarkably pissed off at an insurance company...

When you're worried that someone is trying too hard to be upbeat and brave...

When it feels like there are some things in life you will never be ready for...

When you're tired of hearing "lie-berry" for library and "stay-puh-luh" for stapler...

When you listen to a student talk about visiting her boyfriend in prison, and her and her friend's tone indicates that there isn't anything strange about this to them; it's just how life is...

When it seems like spring will never come...

When your face is tired and feels like you've been crying for days, maybe because you have cried, at least a little, every day for two weeks...

When it feels like you simply can't go on because you just can't do all of this, you're only one person...

When all this happens...

You pull up to an intersection in Harlem, in the midst of a light hail storm, just as the light is turning from green to yellow and a middle-aged man loses control of his wheelchair on the small balls of ice landing everywhere on the sidewalk and street.  He and his chair tip over in the middle of the intersection, as the light turns red.  Just as you are putting your car in park, about to get out and help him, two men from opposite sides of the street, strangers to each other, come running, upright the wheelchair, and together they lift the man back into it and make sure he gets back onto the sidewalk safely.  As the ice continues to fall and the traffic light turns green, no cars at the intersection move.  Instead they all wait to be sure the man is safely back on the sidewalk, and then they drive on.

Just when you want to give up, the kindness of strangers can really provide a moment of renewal.

Today is the first Friday I've had to work in two months.  It doesn't feel good.  At least I get out at 1pm.

When I get out at 1pm, I am going to get my hair done!  I realized yesterday that my hair's current state is a rare example of when I put other people ahead of myself: for my own birthday, I did not do anything to my hair.  I have been in need of a hair cut and color for a while but have just been like, eh, there are other bills (which, of course, are important).  This weekend I am going out for a birthday party and to my best friend's daughter's Simchat Bat (Hebrew naming ceremony for girls).  So today?  I'm getting my hair done.  Can't be out and about with this mop, hells no.  Oh, but my birthday?  Eh, it's just me.

I don't know what I'm getting done to my hair, but I want something a bit darker and kind of funky, wash-and-wear.  I broke up with my long time stylist at the beginning of this year and have not yet had the success with my new hairstylist that I had with him, but I'm still holding out hope.

And totally off topic, I can't wait to have kids so I can live vicariously through their school supplies.  It takes all of my will power not to get a kickin' Trapper Keeper and Monster Pencil Topper for grad school.

photo courtesy of Sweet Figments

Lori at I Can Grow People went to a spa for the first time today and asked about tipping, which made me remember my spa experiences; it's been years since I've gone and I realized - a ha! - I miss spa treatments!  The massages, ah.  The steam shower, ah.  The tipping of everyone who says hi to you.

So, okay, spa visits add up in cost, but they are so worth it.  To this day, I can remember the relaxation and tranquility I felt as I left my first spa trip.  But detailing that would be remarkably boring (like describing a fluffy cloud) so instead, here are my top three spa memories that make me chuckle to myself when I randomly remember them:

3.
For one Valentine's Day, I booked a couple's day at the spa for me and my then-boyfriend.  It starts with separate steam showers and then you meet in a private room for a rose petal filled jacuzzi session.

My (now) ex-boyfriend: "I'm supposed to get in there?  With the roses?  Do I sit on them?  Are they going to stick to me?"
Me: "Just get in the damn jacuzzi already."
Ex: "Feels weird.  It's like a super hot bath with stuff floating in it.  What do we do now?"
Me: *puts on robe and knocks on door* "We're done in here.  We're ready to move on to the massages now."

2.
My sister and I did a day together at a spa years ago.  My sister is really ticklish, especially on the bottom of her feet, so the pedicure portion of the day was a struggle.  She squirmed and white knuckled the chair as they prepped her feet for the pedicure. . . until they hit that particular, unbearable spot on the bottom of her foot . . .

And she kicked the pedicurist across the room!

No lie!  They sat on little stools with wheels on the bottom and as the woman working on my sister's pedicure hit that super ticklish spot, my sister couldn't control herself anymore, shrieked, and jerked her leg back and then kicked it back out, propelling the poor woman across the room and off her stool.  Yes, we all laughed hysterically.

1.
The number one moment comes from the same trip with my sister (it was an eventful day, as is usually any day spent with my sister).  We were having a delicious lunch salad in the Tranquility Room (i.e. a mostly white cafeteria room with Enya playing), practically drooling on ourselves due to how relaxed we felt.  All of a sudden my sister whispers, "OHMYGOD!" and turns sharply to her side.  I ask, "What? WHAT?"

"Don't - Don't! - turn around . . . but that guy's junk is totally hanging out!  AUGH!"

So of course I turned around.  Who gives up a free look?  Well, Mr. Junk must have been just as relaxed as we were because he clearly did not realize that the Tranquility Room tables had glass tops and that while he sat there reading the newspaper in his robe, feeling even more relaxed than he probably does on a Sunday morning at home, his robe had drifted apart, leaving his relaxed junk for all to see.

There's nothing like sharing an afternoon of massages, punting pedicurists, and peen peeking to bring sisters together.

Three cheers for the spa!