Angie's 31st birthday

For Angie's 30th, the two of us celebrated in a most endulgant way by having a romantic overnight say at an adult resort (for lack of a better description.) This time, I thought it would be nice if she could spend her special day being endulged and pampered in a more personal and private way.

After some searching, I came upon the perfect gift and the perfect place for such pampering.

Facial and Body by Rodica® offer a number of different services and products for both women and men, including all day spa sessions! The one that attracted me the most included an "Exquisite 1 1/2 hour Personalized Facial, Sea Weed from France, 1 hour Massage, Manicure and Pedicure." The whole thing lasted over 5 hours!! This was exactly what I had in mind.

Now keep in mind that by the time I had found what I was looking for, it was Wednesday, February 7th and Angie's birthday is on the 10th! I called Rodica's and the staff was very helpful and accommodating with my last minute request. After some schedule juggling, they set up an appointment for Angie starting at 11AM on Saturday. I took her to their location in Water Tower Place, went up with her to make sure everything was OK, and then wished her a Happy Birthday. I kissed her goodbye and left her in their most capable hands.

After that I have only second hand descriptions of what happened and how it felt. So, I'll let Angie tell the rest of the story.

My morning started out like any other Saturday. I got up, I ate a bowl of cereal, I took a shower and got dressed. By 10:30am, I was ready for my excursion. I was a little nervous about the planned day ahead of me, but I tried to keep my fear to myself. I decided to approach the next 6 hours as a learning experience, and following the adage of "if you pretend like you belong, then people think you belong." Therefore, I was going to approach this spa thing as if I do this every other day.

Phil insisted on going upstairs with me, which was a good thing. I probably would have gotten lost and been late. I hung up my coat and was directed to the first of five different treatments for the day. It must be duly noted that I'm not comfortable with people touching my skin, let alone my completely naked body. But as I mentioned before, I acted like I belonged, so they just assumed I had been through this before. The first thing I had to do was get undressed. I was in this very small room, with a very small changing room and very small shower. Since I was getting the seaweed wrap done first, I knew the shower was going to come in handy later on. I undressed, lay down on the "bed" on my belly, and had a towel laid over my bum. My masseuse (she's from Eastern Europe and I don't know how to spell her name, but the first part of it was Marge, so I'll just call her that from here on out), Marge then entered the room and started the beginnings of the wrap. It is this thick green paste that gets applied to every creek and crevice on your body, from the neck down. After she had applied it to my backside, she then held the towel as I rolled over onto my back. Let it be noted that I was lying on a thick sheet of cellophane/wax paper which comes in handy after the pasting process. Once Marge was finished applying the seaweed paste, she then took the cellophane and wrapped it around my body, so it was nice and snug. There's also a body length heating pad underneath of me, and she wraps that up around your body. She then placed a couple of blankets around me and left me to lay there for 30 min. It was sort of like being on a tanning bed, except I couldn't move at all. After my half hour, Marge came in and removed all the blankets and the heating pad and then we slowly removed the cellophane. Once I could get my back to agree to move, I sat up and headed straight to the shower. Let me just say, the shower on the cruise ship was bigger than this one! After about 15 minutes, as far as I could tell, I had gotten all of the seaweed off my body. I dried off and went back out into the room where Marge had prepared the bed with a nice warm sheet and blanket for me to cover my bum with. She came in a couple minutes later and began the massage part. Again, I started out on my belly and had my head placed on one of those round things, just like in the movies. She proceeded to give me a full body massage for the next half an hour or more. (I don't really know how long, because I didn't have my watch on and the clock was not within my viewpoint). It felt great, though!

For my third and fourth treatment, I had an oriental woman named Jeannie, do my manicure and pedicure. Again, anybody that knows me well, knows you just don't touch my feet. Phil is the first person who's ever been able to rub my toes without sending me bonkers and he knows my feet are ticklish. But I persevered and sat through the pedicure with a minimal amount of squirming on my part. She commented on my small toenails, which is part of the reason why I don't wear open toed shoes, that and because my little toes are so chubby. Jeannie didn't seem to mind though. I spent all day Sunday starring at my feet, commenting that the painted toes before me, did not belong to me. The manicure was the easy part, since I have had acrylic nails in the past and I had a manicure before we got married, so I knew what to expect with that.

After they were done with my feet and hands, it was time for a break. Since the staff had to squeeze me in, I had a lapse of about an hour between the first four treatments and the last, the facial. Thankfully I had brought a book with me, so I just relaxed and read until it was my turn. The entire facial process takes approximately an hour and a half, again, the time sped by since I had no form of timekeeper in front of me. The process started out with a cleanser followed by some sort of peel, to remove all the dead cells. That was followed by 5 masks, the first being the most penetrating. Cucumbers were placed on my eyes and the mask was spread around my entire face. Then cellophane was placed in an awkward horseshoe shape around my face, with a hot washcloth placed on top of that, and then a towel to hold in the heat. Unfortunately, I did not get the name of the lady who gave me my facial, so we'll call her Ursula. After the initial mask, Ursula then wiped the mask off and proceeded to massage my face with some sort of aromatherapy stuff. Then she applied another mask. This went on repeatedly until the very last set. After the last mask, she then put some moisturizers on my face, since we had depleted everything from my skin. I've never had my face feel so smooth. In fact, my whole body was soft and smooth like a baby's bottom. It was very refreshing. As Ursula was finishing up, Phil arrived to take me away from this little paradise called Rodica and onward to the rest of the evenings treats. All in all, it was a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

We then headed to my favourite retreat, Outback Steakhouse, for dinner. Coincidentally enough, Wal-mart is right across the street, so we went over there afterwards to walk off dinner and pick up some stuff. We then went home, watched The Green Mile with Tom Hanks (a must-see) and then to bed. It was a tiring but fulfilling birthday!!