Black Paper Underwear

"Body Wrap Special"
Revitalize your winter-weary skin!

I think I passed winter-weary at Valentine's Day, so I set up an appointment a few weeks ago to try my first "body wrap." Both of the kids have had birthdays this month and afterall, who really did the work that day? Why not treat myself?

Here's the thing. This all seemed like such indulgent luxury. I'd have to take off work a couple of hours early because this whole body wrap deal is rather involved and I left there two hours after I arrived. I do treat myself to a massage a few times a year, but this was an entirely different thing. I actually woke up on Saturday night wracked with guilt that I just should not be taking time off of work to do such a crazy and extravagant thing as this.

What I was really telling myself - work is more important than taking care of me. Fortunately, I haven't heard that voice for a while and now that I have, it was loud and obnoxious. The thing is, for ever that voice was just normal, my soundtrack. Everyone else's needs were always more important than my own.

I'm a parent, a single parent, and before you worry that I am neglecting my children, know that I am certainly not. When you fly on an airplane, the flight attendant goes through the safety drill about the oxygen mask. They also tell us that if we are flying with someone who needs assistance, such as a child, we are to put our mask on first and then help them. If we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take care of anyone else. I always thought that I did this part well. But when my guilt wakes me up in the night, then I realize just how I used to treat myself.

In the changing room, I had a plush turquoise blue robe and a tiny little rolled up thing. I really wasn't sure what this was. Whatever it was, I needed to do something with it. I unwrapped the clear cellophane from the little roll and opened it up to find that it was a thong. A black paper thong that I swear was cut from the reusable bags we take to the grocery store. Ohhhkaaay... the light bulb began to shine.  "Right."

Once settled under the sheets on the table, the mega heating pad on my back, the bolster under my ankles, my face in the donut, she took a stiff brush and whisked the dead cells from my skin. The Swede in me wondered if they did this in early spring in the Motherland with pine boughs...

Painted with French green clay mud, wrapped in an entire month's worth of sheets, blankets, and towels, she massaged my face, my neck, my scalp... and apparently my feet, because somehow I don't recall her moving down there. The last thing I heard was Enya and then what was probably a snore.

After a 45 minute massage and a shower, I was "CSI clean." Without a trace.

Heavy and light all at the same time, my body got all the attention. I'm trying a lot of new things to find out what I like to do to take care of me. The "Body Wrap Special" is definitely staying on the list.