laughing...crying...drooling...

a life-changing experience occurred yesterday.

Lawrence Health Center is on El Camino Real, just south of Lawrence Expressway in Santa Clara...disturbingly close to the site of the terrible long-ago roommate-who-sold-my-furniture situation (Nathan, you wre amazing) and my first food service job. And yet...simply another lifetime away. The Health Center is a Korean bathhouse style setup, which is a trip in and of itself, gender-split with one side of the building just for females and the other side just for males. I'm assured that the male side just has more big-screen televisions or something. An $18 cover charge admits you for the day into a world of unlimited wet or dry saunas, warm, cool, or hot baths, and showers and showers and more showers, followed closely by relaxing flops onto heated marble platforms for sleeping or louging. It's a sincere total celebration of water, and the Aquarian in me swoons.

For an additional fee, you can have black lingere-clad attendants scrub the ever-lovin' crap out of you for an hour...removing every last dead skin cell from your every reachable place, then slather you with oils and massage you from head to toe. You can't have your eyes open because when they're not covered you're still concerned some errant oil or mystery product could fly in at any moment, because these women AREN'T KIDDING AROUND. They are very firm; this is no delicate little Napa experience we're talking about. It ends with a delicious shampoo, scalp massage, and conditioning treament. They earn every cent, and I'm not kidding when I say that I laughed, cried and drooled. And I can't wait to go back.