The Valentine's tape I made sure to run over and over in my head was "Hot Stuff." I saw this tiny cheesecake treat at Whole Foods and of course had to buy it. Like my day, the cake was dee-lish, and I hope that all of you had yourselves some scrumptous times on V-Day.
Yesterday, I had one of the best day's ever. Really, I was so happy the whole day and it was primarily because I told myself that I would consciously only chose joy. I can get back to the realities of life tomorrow, but for one day, I get to practice full happiness. It was my V-Day present to myself. I got to the Burke Williams Spa exactly on time for my 10am appt, and when I walked in the place, there were rose petals, flowers, and candy everywhere. It was like walking into a living romance novel. I was waiting for a shirtless Gerard Butler to come greet me for my massage. I would have swooned. But instead, of a shirtless @poolboy, I got champagne instead. Here's me sneaking a pic on my cell phone with my bubbly.
So, let me tell you more about my massage...
I had a 50 minute Pure Relaxation massage, and the masseuse I had
was this tiny, smiley, cute young woman who had the strength of a big
guy. I love lots of pressure in massages, and I was shocked yet
pleasantly estatic that this tiny woman was packed with a wallop of a
grip. I told her to dig in, and man, could she ever. Goes to show that
you can not always estimate someone's strength by their physical size.
I had some serious knots in my back and shoulders because of all the
bad posture from blogging all day long, and from all the stress of the
last 6 months, but she got most of those suckers out. Gone!
...I felt like I was on a cloud when I walked out of that massage room ...
I felt like I was on a cloud when I walked out of that massage room. The best part of the massage was that I was reminded of what it feels like to be physically touched by another human being. It is not anything sexual, it is just the warmth and joy of human contact. It reminded me of when my nieces were preemies in the hospital and the nurses encouraged all of us to keep touching the girls because the touch helps the babies strengthen and feel loved. Touch is very important for a sense of well being for anyone.
In that massage room, I decided with firm yet calm resolution that I need to start dating, and that dating now will be okay. I really miss the comforting touch from a loving partner. And the kind of miss I was feeling wasn't one of desperation or sadness, it was a feeling of desire and joy. I want joyful experiences in my life, and physical contact from a wonderful loving man is something that brings me joy, and is joy I can mutually give to him (when we find each other ;-)
I lingered in the spa for about another hour. They were passing out tiny little heart popsicles made from cherry juice, and they were so tasty. I had a banana and drank cups & cups of the orange/cucumber infused water. They also had this fresh strawberry water, and I embellished that too. I washed up in this shower that was the size of my whole bathroom, and used their beauty products on my hair and skin. I smelled like fresh lilacs, and felt like a million bucks. Reader Bella was so right, the folks at Burke Williams treat you like a V.I.P. (Very Impressive Princess), and it was a great feeling to have people focused on my pleasure. I'm so used to doing the people pleasing, and for this day, it was my turn to get serviced. I so loved seeing all the rose petals all over the spa. Here's what the front room coffee table looked like with my glass of champagne sitting on it.
After the spa, it was time to eat. I have been craving French fries for the past week, but I told myself to hold out for V-Day because at Santana Row is this awesome burger joint called The Counter and they have this thing called a 50/50 where you can get a 50% combo of either potato French fries, sweet potato French fries, or onion rings. I got the potato/sweet potato combo seen here. I was in fried potato heaven.
I went to Anthropologie and they did not have that red dress. I was bummed, but they did have other cute things. Nothing caught my fancy though. I went to the mall, and went on a "hot dress" safari. I must have went into 10 different stores, and nothing caught my attention. I did however see some cute tops, and ventured into the dressing rooms. I went into Bebe first and was thrilled to discover that I can now wear a size Medium in their tops. Woo-hoo! In fact, it was weird and thrilling at the same time to be able to seek out Medium shirts. I have always had to go for Large and XLs, and so I really had to consciously stop reaching for those and instead look for the mediums.
...The joyful dressing room experiences was like another gift for the day ...
After all that shopping, I only ended up getting a couple of long sleeved t-shirts at The Gap that were on sale for $9 each. But they were mediums. Can I get another woo-hoo! It was so exciting actually to walk into a dressing room, try some clothes on, and not get the clothes because I did not like them, not because they didn't fit or I look lumpy in them. It was also great to walk out of the dressing room feeling happy instead of depressed. The joyful dressing room experiences was like another gift for the day.
I spent the rest of the time at the mall going to the Apple store to check out the new MacBookAir. Yes, it is really thin& light, but it comes with no CD/DVD drive, ethernet port, video out, or Firewire port. You have to buy like all these additional accessories to get all that stuff. So essentially, the MacBook Air is skinny yet high maintance. Their was some ironic symbolism there for me for a moment. I also went to Sur La Table, The Container Store, Crate & Barrel, Borders, and some Bath & Body Works type store. I did a great deal of walking. No red dress today, but I burned some serious calories trying to find it.
For dinner, I met up with my friend Suzann, and we ate at Zibibbo in Palo Alto. We had glasses of champagne with strawberries, a combo appetizer that had hummus, calamari, and this pork pate, and we split a Paella for a main course, and topped off the meal with a small chocolate lava cake which was about 5 bites each for dessert. All the food was so yummy, AND there were plenty of handsome men for me to gawk at. Suzann has a sweetie but he was out of town.
Oh I forgot, one thing. I did tell myself for the day that I had to consciously make an effort to look cute men in the eye and smile at them. I have this tendency to look at the sidewalk when attractive men walk by, and I know I have to work on changing that. I did make eye contact with a few men yesterday, and remembered that a fabulous day and a warm smile is enough to make any cute man smile back at you ;-) Valentine's Day 2008 was one of the best day's I've had in ages.
