Live Your Life Be Free!

My sister and I went to a spa called the Pillar and Post in Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate New Years. Normally for this holiday I go out to an overpriced bar, dress in something tight with matching uncomfortable shoes, get drunk then feel like shit the next day. This time we hung out for 24 hours in soft white robes, were massaged by two handsome men and felt replenished and revived the next day.

We have been stressed lately – she works as a school psychologist up in Barrie and has three kids ages 5,7 and 9. I am a Marketing Manager in Toronto with my own worries – such as a break-up from a two-year relationship and a recent job-change. My sister showed up at my place late, and we argued about whether or not we should pick up tea and coffee and we argued about directions. But somehow, we got to the spa on time for our first massage appointment and even got to check in to our rooms first.

We went to the spa past the pool, changed into our clean, white robes and went into a kind of lounge where about ten other people were sitting and sipping tea in their robes as well. They were all lolling around on the comfortable pillow-filled couches as if it was their own bedrooms. It was a bit disconcerting to know that they were all naked under the robes (especially since seeing some of them naked would not be a pretty sight) but we tried not to think of it.

My masseuse was a handsome, red-haired ex-welder. Being "good with his hands" he preferred to use his skill on the human body rather than on metal parts. I tugged on my robe and said fleetingly "okay – I guess I will take this off then" with a laugh and he said "it’s not like that!" in a bit of a panicked way. He walked out the door and instructed me to take off the robe and cover myself with a blanket. I’ve never had a massage like that before – but I felt so wonderful after that it was difficult for me to walk. My friend says that having a massage therapeutic, and is as healthy as eating a piece of broccoli (and much more pleasurable).

Afterwards, my sister and I went to the room and caught up on each other’s lives for a few hours until our manicures. I’ve never had a manicure before in my life since it seemed like a high-maintenance-woman thing to do – but hey – we were in the spa so why not try. The two manicurists seemed like best friends, and my sister and I are as well. All four of us talked, shared crazy stories from our lives laughed a lot and voila… an hour and a half later my sister and I had gorgeous French-Manicured nails .

For dinner we got room-service so we could continue being in our robes, ate it by the fireplace in our room and ordered a movie. By 10:00 pm I looked over at my sister and she was sleeping with her glasses clutched in her hand. The next morning she said that she had never fallen asleep in a movie before – so she was just that incredibly relaxed! Neither of us really cares about the midnight-counting down thing – so we were fine with both being asleep at midnight.

The next day we went to the outdoor hot springs and I did some laps in the pool until it was time to go. We both had small scratches on our French Manicures by the time we left – but who wants perfection. We were relaxed, happy and ready to take on all of the stress that was surely soon coming back at us upon our return home. That night I went to The Drake with a friend and saw all of the hung-over New Years day people scuttling around with their heads turned down denoting that they feel like shit – I remember so many of those for me. Right now it feels much better to de-stress and strengthen instead.