Great Escape: A Trip to the Spa at Winghaven

I needed a break.

Three trips to the pediatrician within a two-week span, too many snow days, and a few teacher’s planning days thrown in for good measure and I was about to lose my mind. The wild look in my eyes as I explained my fragile state to my husband MJ was convincing enough. He suggested I call the Spa at Winghaven.

I wouldn’t call myself a prude, but the thought of getting undressed and letting a stranger rub me down is enough to crank my anxiety up to another level. The soft, new-age nature sounds did little to put me at ease. Instead, my mind wandered: had I ever heard an electric flute, orca whale, and crashing waves at the same time? Maybe this was working. I was certainly not thinking about the kids trying to strangle each other or the fact that I was stretched out on a table with only a thin layer of cotton between my vitals and the world.

Then Corey walked in. She asked about the massage I had requested: a deep tissue massage. A deep tissue massage can be pretty intense, so if you’re new to massages, my suggestion is to go with their Swedish Massage which uses moderate pressure. But the kind of stress and tension I was carrying between my shoulder blades was only going to be relieved by Corey putting her muscles to work.

She slowly turned my balled up muscles into gelatinous masses of warm jelly— the only time I don’t mind comparing my body parts to something jiggly. I love how as she finished with each body part she was working on, she would recover it and give it a squeeze as if to say, “It’s going to be all better now.” I knew that after such a deep tissue massage I would be sore tomorrow, but the knots would be gone.

It was just what I needed after being stuck inside for weeks due to the “snowpacalypse” and sick children. A little light-headed, and a lot relaxed after my massage, I walked back into my house ready to go a few more rounds with the caged monkeys.