Jessie gave me the gift of a massage yesterday at the spa at Grove Park Inn which is, well, to be quite frank, one of the most incredibly impressive places I have personally ever seen and the spa was so over the top that I am embarrassed to even post a picture, it's like well, okay, here's one picture of one of the pools there.
No, I'm serious. It really looks like that.
So I went in the early afternoon and got a massage and it was, of course, heaven, and then Lis and Jessie picked me up and we had lunch and then I took a nap and then Jessie and Vergil picked me up and they bought Twilight Passes to the spa, which is a thing where you can go and enjoy all of the different pools and the steam room and the sauna and the hot tub and the plunging pool and the neck towels on ice with peppermint and there's a waterfall you can sit under and it was the most child-like of perfect pleasures I've ever experienced and you go from steam room to outdoor pool back to the waterfall and then the floaty pool where there is music being played UNDERWATER and fuck me, I looked around and thought, "So this is what rich people do."
I had an incredibly funny talk with a naked young girl in the sauna whom I couldn't really see because I didn't have my glasses on and it would have been rude to stare anyway and I breathed in the Eucalyptus and Rosemary and the sharp, firey breath of the sauna and after about an hour of all of this, I was too relaxed to do anything but sit by the outside pool in my robe that was as comfy and huge as a mother walrus's skin and read.
By the time we'd finished up there and had some supper and come back to the apartment, I was ready for more and more sleep and it was so delicious.
Lis had driven up to Black Mountain for some music event that Liz Sparks joined her for and she met us back here and it was hard to quit talking but Jessie had to be at work this morning at seven and we do have to get on the road for that long drive back so we did, finally, get to bed.
A perfect ending to the best birthday of my life.
It has been sheer joy to get a text from Jessie every morning- "Are you up?"- and to sit on the porch and wait to see her shining, smiling face appear above the sea of herbs and flowers and to spend such long, good hours with her and Lis. We have shopped and laughed and eaten the best foods and had the most beautiful drinks and laughed and talked and eaten some more and Lis and I apologize to our girl for being such bad influences but she doesn't seem to mind and poor Vergil has put up with us in the most gracious and loving of ways and it's been perfect.
But. I am so ready to get home to my sweetheart, to see my critters and of course my grandsons, those silly, happy, loving, wonderful boys of my heart and their mama and their daddy and May and Hank and my backyard and my funky, wonderful home. It will not be so pleasant to go back to the sweltering heat and let me just say that I sat in that sauna for ten minutes before I broke a sweat.
So. I have taken far fewer pictures than you'd think I would but it's been a time for seeing from my eyes and not necessarily through a lens, just directly is so much better sometimes and even then, I know I miss so much even if I use my other senses as well to feel and taste it all, to take it all in. It's too much, it's just enough, it's wonderful and we've seen goldfinches on the sunflowers in our little front yard here and mockingbirds and it's been a full-delight-to-the-senses in every way and it's not even possible to describe.
Lis is up now and we need to pack it up and drive on out of here through the mountains and back to the flatlands and so we shall.
I have missed all of you and my simple joy of sitting and tapping away and will be coming home to all that as well.
See you in Lloyd. Happy Friday.
Love...Ms. Moon
It seems like you had the best birthday ever. It made me so happy to read about it all, the spa, the friends, food and family. Asheville is one of my favorite places, it's full of surprises.
ReplyDeleteSafe travels back to your little piece of heaven in Lloyd. xo
That spa, seriously? Peppermint towels? Underwater music? And then she heard a strange ringing in her ears. It was the sound of the alarm clock, and she woke up. It was time to feed the chickens.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy for you! Safe travels home, Mary!
ReplyDeleteOh the spa... like heaven. How the other half lives, indeed! Glad you got a day there, behind the curtain :)
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that you had such a great time. Jessie & Vergil are clearly dolls.
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Sher
So glad you had such a Happy Birthday trip, Mary Moon, with Lis and Liz and Jessie and Vergil. Have a great year. Love to you and yours. N2
ReplyDeleteoh my! this is simply the best birthday ever. for real. that pool! what an amazing and perfect gift.
ReplyDeleteturning 60 don't seem so bad if done this well.
love,
yo
Welcome home, darling Mary. I've missed you but knew you were happy and well loved. So this is what rich people do? You're funny, woman!
ReplyDeleteThe Grove Park is pretty swanky. We stayed there and at the Greenbriar. The latter was over the top and actually I have to say that I would prefer a log cabin or lodge. Too many frills make me feel fake and not authentic. I am a jeans and tee shirt kind of fellow. But occasionally I do clean up okay.
ReplyDelete