This is my tribute to Chrissie...an amazing sister in law who has always laughed at my jokes, been patient with my stupidity, joined in my craziness and seemed to always forgive me for being part of the Pimentel family. Thank you Chrissie from my heart and let's toast to 50 more adventures together!
It all began about ten years ago....
Planning logistics from Fresno and San Luis Obispo was erratic at best. It had to be done between car pools, grocery shopping, homework monitoring, laundry, part time jobs and trying to remember if we brushed our teeth that morning. The plan had been forged in a moment of "mother overload" and money didn't seem to matter anymore because we were looking at driving into a tree as a means for a vacation from our families! We booked the spa weekend, convinced our husbands we would come back as raging sex starved toned women and bribed other mothers with brownies, cookies, casseroles, foot rubs to cover the school pickups and car pools.
Giggling almost maniacally, we set off together for Ojai and our sacred time away from our other life! We chatted nonstop about the beautiful low calorie food, the classes that would unbend arms and legs that had been frozen in picking up clothes off the floor and bent in the sitting position from the hours and hours of driving children around the world, or so it seemed. Our voices raised in happy anticipation of the long soaks in the sauna, tub, pool or any big hole filled with scented healing water. We politely considered each person's phobia about sleeping by the window or door and assigned the beds accordingly....one big queen bed for each of us!
As we entered Ojai, we anxiously scanned the landmarks for our spa. Nirvana was only moments away! We kept looking and rechecking the address for our spa. We passed a huge parking lot with multiple buildings off the main road but instantly scratched it off our search because it was a fat farm for older women. We were looking for that spa that screamed "We Will Rejuvenate, Reawaken and Replenish You Spa"in a gorgeous setting that man designed and nature added the color. I rechecked our address again and turning to Chrissie with my mouth hanging open, gasped,
"OHMYGOD! We made reservations at the fat farm. They are going to give us carrots and water all weekend and make us wear polyester sweatsuits to sweat off more calories. How could we screw this up?"
My voice ended in a big screech.
"We can't do this. We didn't come all this way for a fat farm weekend. What are we going to do Lisa?" replied Chrissie in total panic mode.
"We are not going in there. We booked the wrong spa. Let's find that other spa and see if we can even get in there," and reversing the car, we sped away to see up ahead the place we were meant to be checking into.
It was acres and acres of green lawn; lush, colorful, sculptured flower beds; mighty Californian oaks surrounded by multi-toned grey river rocks; birds chirped happily in their soft little nests and virile, young valet boys bounced around cars, guests and luggage with ease. This was it...The Ojai Spa and they even had a triple AAA discount which we used. In order to get out of the other reservation, I made a phone call telling a big fat lie with lots of choked up fake tears. I felt the flames of hell licking at my feet when I did that and if I was going to die soon, my body was going to be cleansed, buffed and glowing when I met God.
We checked into our room, bounced on the beds, scoped out the freebie toiletries, grabbed a towel and set off for the classes in the Yoga Sanctuary. Chrissie and I were like sugar addicts in a candy store...we crammed so many classes into our days, rode the free bikes in the evening and limped to bed each night determined to tone harder the next day. We did a Chumash mud treatment that will be our secret girl pact...it really is too embarrassing to write about anyways! We ate with an eye for cost and at the end of the weekend we had an aha moment.
Next time we are at a spa, we are going to relax, do nothing if we want, eat whatever-we-want-to-heck-with-the-cost, do massages, facials, waxing, and everything that is fun. No sweating is aloud unless we are in a sauna or whirlpool. We are going to toast each other for surviving life's zingers and hope for lots more laughter in our daily lives.
Chrissie, let's not wait too long.........!!!!
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