It started out with fun chatting and the normal routine, then off to the gym, then home to chat some more and get ready for the day! Talked to Ash a bit, and my family, Dad was officially in the air to come and see me – YEA – so the morning was awesome!
Then I got ready and headed over to an area down off the lake to meet Lisa for lunch at this place called “Dream Herb.” It was a nice day and pretty looking out over the water, and they have a really decently priced set lunch with a choice of an appetizer, vegetable, rice, meal, and then served with your choice of dessert drink (tea or coffee) and dessert to top it off. We ordered in sharing style (different things so we could just try more stuff) and the meal was *delicious* and I was excited because it was definitely a more Asian meal!
And had another interesting China/Music moment at the restaurant – we’re eating, talking, and all of a sudden my subconscious recognizes the song playing and yet somehow that it’s not quite right, so I hone in on it and realize a Chinese woman singer is singing in a very slow, soft voice a Cajun song I grew up with that is really upbeat and typically performed by a man “Down on the Bayou,” it was crazy and it made me laugh… what was even BETTER is the next song, again by the same lady, was “Almost Heaven (West Virginia),” again done much differently than the original… it cracked me up! Also warmed my heart a bit because I knew Pap was with me, even so far away from home!
Then we headed over to the spa where I got a manicure, and Lisa got a pedi/mani combo… the manicure was nice, and about the same as what you would get at home, and relaxing listening to Jack Johnson and drinking tea in between. I went ahead and went really bold with my nail choice color – they are bright yellow with subtle shiny sparkles. Lisa usually gets the really dark blues and blacks so was shocked at my color choice, but she said she likes it and may venture to get it on her toes next time! Haha… sometimes with manicures, because they don’t last that long, I go a little bolder with my color choice, just to shake things up a bit, you know? Go big or go home, right?
So that was great – I hung out there and waited for Lisa to finish up, enjoyed my tea, and then she had her driver drop me off at the hair washing place… and yes, that’s what I said, hair washing place! Lisa had told me about it a week or so ago (as a places you must see type of thing) and I decided since it was pamper day I might as well go treat myself. So I got in there and told them I wanted a wash and blow dry, so they sat me in the barber’s chair and started off with by getting some shampoo (I have no idea really what is was? It was sudsy and yet kind of like a mousse because it didn’t drip) and starting to rub it in the crown of my head, and then squirting warm water with a small squirter to get it more lathered up! All the while rubbing and massaging the scalp, and bringing in more hair, so that after about 15 minutes or so my head was a ball of soap! The lady in the chair next to me was Chinese and she closed her eyes, so I felt it was safe to do the same, haha!
Then my girl woke me up (practically) and it was time to go wash it out. So then we spent maybe another 15 minutes in the hair washing sink, where she washed out the suds, did some more massaging, rinsing, washing, and then put a couple of other things in and did the same thing (rinse, lather, repeat)! That was equally as nice, and again, eyes closed and Tasha in la-la land. THEN it was time to go back to the chair, and it was time for the official massage part, where it was time to massage my head, neck, shoulders, upper back, and each arm for about 15 minutes. Heaven, once again… and then it was time for the blow dry, and for this part the master stylist guy took over for the girl – I guess he does the hair styling part. So he also took his time lavishing all of his attention (truly undivided, it was such a different service experience!) and for about 20 minutes sectioned off and blew dry the smallest strands of all of my hair separately.
This is what was kind of fun about this experience, but this guy was kind of a younger guy, and you could tell he loved his job. I mean he was not into ME at all, but OMG he was obsessed with my hair – I could just tell by the way he was touching it and running his fingers through it, he was 100% focused (and I’m being totally honest, a girl knows when it’s about her and when it’s not, it wasn’t like that, I *swear*) and it was just kind of funny (and fun as well) to witness. No one there knew a ton of English, but at the end he said to me, “very long, very beautiful hair” which made me smile and of course I said thank you in Chinese… sigh… I’ll be going there once a week, at LEAST, since considering the best part is, is that it’s only about $5 USD!!!! What?! Oh yes, like I said, HEAVEN!
After all of that, my day was pretty much made, but still more fun to come! When I got home, I figured I should earn my keep somewhat and did the dishes, laundry, picked up for Dad to come, made his bed, etc. then Curt got home and we hit the road to the airport!
The trip to Shanghai can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours, depending on traffic, construction, and who knows what else… so this trip took 2.5 hours which was a bummer. Also a bummer, along the way we had it on the international radio station, and I promise in a one hour time block, they only played two English-speaking songs, and 1 Chinese song, and the rest was two Chinese guys talking… annoying. THEN I got even more annoyed because finally one of my current favorite songs that I discovered here (Veronicas, “Untouched”) came on, and not kidding, in the FIRST VERSE they faded it out and started talking again – I was livid. I know it seems small, but after traffic, waiting for good music, and everything else, it was just too much.
Needless to say by the time we got to the airport, I was a tad grumpy because we were late… Dad had landed, and I had Curt make a sign for him to meet him, but I didn’t get to use it – we were minutes from catching him out of the customs gate… sigh… and when we got to the parking garage, there were Chinese men saving spaces out of their cars, and causing a true *cluster* if you catch my drift. By this point I was tired, grumpy, so I told Curt that I would just go get Dad and would call him to find out where he and Han were. I got out quickly, slammed the door apparently (which Curt told me took Han by surprise – he looked back at Curt with big eyes, he said, haha and Curt joked that I was Italian – hot heads, I guess?). Then the men that were causing the cluster were standing there, and a van was backing into the space that they had been trying to maneuver in for the last 5 minutes, and there was nowhere for me to go but right behind it, and he just kept backing up, so I slapped the butt of the car really hard (and they could tell I was pissed) and all of them made “O’s” with their mouths and muttered in Chinese – if I hadn’t been so mad I would have laughed, but geez, they were being ridiculous!
Long story short, I ran up to the terminal, Curt caught up with me, we found Dad which made me instantly SO happy, and got on the long journey back home… on the way since we had Han we stopped at the plant so Curt could show Dad around and give him the tour, and at about 11:30 p.m. we rolled into home… gave him a quick tour of the house, then bed for a fun day Saturday!
All in all, despite the crazy airport part, it was a great day full of fun pampering, and ended awesome with me getting to see my Dad…
I do love Fridays!
Love,
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