January 20,2008 Coming Home

I didn’t sleep quite so well last night, as I kept waking up and realizing I was clenching my teeth, and then making a concerted effort NOT to do so! But I did wake to the alarm at 7, and was up, dressed and ready to go (and partly packed!) by 7:30. At that point, I had to wait for Deb, who was online buying Turkish keyboard stickers for her laptop. (Only $1.80 per set, in your choice of colors!!)

We headed down for another breakfast lecture—“Taking It Home”. Which was really a misnomer, as it was more about goal setting, but they did have us write a letter to ourselves outlining what our goals were for the next 3 months, and what we planned to do to reach those goals. They will mail them to us in April—it will be cool to see how far we’ve come by then! Once again I chose the oatmeal (this time with Peanut Butter!!), egg, fruit and OJ. Not exciting, but good.

After that, we headed to the spa. I had an Anti-Aging Body Treatment at 9. It was pretty good, and the girl doing it was very nice and quite friendly. It involved another round of sandblasting off the dead skin (I didn’t ask the recipe this time!), followed by “icing the cake”. I was then wrapped partly in plastic for a few minutes, and when the plastic came off, so did the frosting (and, I assume, my dead skin!). Then I got in the shower and washed it all off. Back on the table, she rubbed in something that smelled like a disinfectant (but wasn’t), and then a nicer, creamy thing. And then I was done! I felt a little sticky at first, but within about 30 minutes it was better. And my skin is VERY soft and smooth.

Like the good girl that I am (sometimes!!) I went down to the gym to put in my 15 minutes on the elliptical. It was snowing out, and such a beautiful view out the window! My time passed fairly quickly. On the way out, I stopped to talk to one of the trainers. I explained my goal of walking 2 miles at a clip so I’d be ok in Scotland, and asked if the treadmill or elliptical was better. She said the treadmill will be good for the walking, but the elliptical works the muscles that are involved in walking, so that’s good too. We talked awhile and she finally said that I should do a 3 day rotation of workouts. Day One I will get on the treadmill for X minutes (I’ll start at 30 and work up) at a comfortable speed, and not worry about distance, which will increase with the amount of time and the speed. Day Two I will do interval training on the treadmill, alternating comfortable walking with a more challenging walk (faster, higher incline), every 2-4 minutes back and forth. The time will depend on my stamina, and should increase over time. Day Three I will do the interval training on the elliptical. So that is what I will start with on Tuesday. (Tomorrow is my MUCH deserved day off!)

I went up to the room to find Deb sitting there. I had thought she was going to the pool, but apparently she had a bad experience during her treatment and got hot and dizzy, so she very wisely skipped the pool today. I did as much packing as I could, and got a bigger box for shipping stuff home, and then went to officially check out, even though I wasn’t leaving yet, and we still had the room since Deb is staying 2 more days.

We had been trying to decide whether to go to lunch in the Dining Room, or to Sunday Brunch in the Demo Kitchen. The brunch menu was limited, but more appealing, but lacked the wonderful salad bar of the main lunch menu. It was a tough choice, but we opted for the brunch. (You’ll see why in a little while!) Deb had a nice omelet, but I opted for the salmon, since I’m supposed to eat a lot of it. It was tasty, but a bit dry, as things on a steam table tend to be. I skipped the fruit salsa accompaniment since it had red onions (YUCK!!), but did take a bit of the roasted new potatoes (which didn’t look all that new to me...). The salad was just greens and (ugh) roasted red peppers. I picked around the peppers and just took the green stuff, and then went up to the omelet station and added RAW red peppers and some broccoli. Not the best salad, but it was OK. I also got to chat with Chef Jeremy (who remembered not only my name, but that I was leaving today!).

And then, the reason we chose the brunch. A tiny, maybe ¼ cup, 125 calorie cup of Chocolate Mousse! It was sooooo good! It was the first dessert, the first chocolate I’ve had in 2.5 weeks, and I savored every delicious bite! Ahhh, sweet indulgence! It felt decadent, but at 125 calories, it was barely sinful at all!

After that we had a little time, so we went down to the boutique. I figured since I’d spent all this money, and 5 days, in paradise, the least I could do was bring home t-shirts for the kids! Plus, I wanted to get the Ultraprevention book. Finding a shirt for Laura was challenging. The kids sizes were too small, at least the ones I liked for a girl. So I originally chose a ladies small, which turned out to be HUGE! So Deb looked in the Mediums and found one I liked that was considerably smaller than the small I had picked. Who knew choosing a T-shirt could be so difficult? Fortunately, Danny’s was easy…

At 1:00 I was back to the spa for my final treatment. (BooHooHoo!) It was a repeat of the lymphatic massage. She spent most of the hour on my left shin, where I’d had cellulites years ago. She was able to soften it up considerably, and get things flowing. I’m amazed at how it looks and feels! At that point, we were pretty much out of time, so she checked to see if she was booked for 2:00. She wasn’t, so she kept me an extra /12 hour. She worked on my right leg a bit, and then wanted to see the crater in my gut. So I unwrapped it and she said it was not her area of expertise, but that if I have the skin graft, lymphatic massage should help the graft “take”. Cool! So I have to find someone at home who has experience in lymphatic massage in wound care. It was a very educational experience! (and it felt good too!!)

Now, Deb and I had planned to meet at 2 for a class on “How Healthy is Your Heart. But by the time I got out of the spa, made a pit stop, and picked up my yogurt and granola snack, it was 2:45. So I went up to finish packing and wait for her. It’s amazing how much lighter my suitcase is now that I took out all the heavy things to ship home. We called the bellman to get my bags, and he took the box downstairs too. They will ship it out tomorrow (hopefully by UPS…) and I’ll have it in a few days.

Finally, the moment I’d been dreading arrived. It was time to go. My bags were loaded into the van, and I had to say goodbye to my dear sister. I miss her already! I waved goodbye to paradise, knowing that I will be back, hopefully SOON.

The trip to the train station was fine—the driver was very friendly and we had a nice chat. Daddy had told me my train was running late, but as soon as I arrived at the station, I saw that it said “On Time”. About 2 minutes later, they called for boarding! So I got on, stowed my big bag, and got comfy. Conveniently, they have an outlet to plug in the computer, and even WiFi at the station (which unfortunately did not seem to be working…) I managed to keep my seat a solo all the way to NY. I went down to the Café Car to see if they had anything marginally healthy to eat for dinner, since I wasn’t getting in to NYC until 7:30. Who would have thought that Amtrak would have healthy choices, along with the junk food?!? I got a reasonably decent chicken Caesar salad. I just dipped my fork in the dressing, eliminating most of the fat and at least ½ the calories! That and a bottle of water did me just fine. Before I knew it, we were at Penn Station.

I went up the escalator, stopped to buy a bottle of water, and looked around for NJ Transit, which was fortunately easy to find. The waiting area actually had a decent bathroom (thank God!!!). I had about 10 minutes left to wait before they posted the track for the train. I was standing there wondering what the awful smell was, when I realized it was the person sitting next to me! He (she?) was asleep, bundled up. Probably a homeless person. But DEFINITELY in dire need of a bath! Fortunately, they called my train and I escaped to the elevator. I asked where I needed to be for Hamilton, and the conductor told me to go “towards the front”. I went several cars up, and asked if that was ok, and was told it was. I got on, got a seat with a place to keep my suitcase, and off we went. At Newark, the train suddenly filled up with noisy NJ Devils fans. They didn’t seem particularly jovial, so I suspect the Devils didn’t do too well. As we traveled south, we seemed to be making longer and longer stops, and I noticed we were behind schedule. When we left New Brunswick, they suddenly made an announcement that everyone for Princeton Junction had to move to the back of the train because Amtrak construction was diverting the train to a “low platform”. So hoardes of people started moving to the front. Then, before we even got to PJ, they announced the same for Hamilton. So I get up, grab the luggage, and start moving forward. Now, I had NO idea how long the train was, but I was about to find out. I believe I walked back 8 cars before we got to Princeton Junction. Trust me when I say that dragging a suitcase across 8 train car connections is not a pleasant experience. I found a place in the very front car just as we hit PJ. The time was about 5 minutes after the time we were supposed to arrive in Hamilton. After a longer-than-usual stop, we finally headed for Hamilton, arriving at least 15 minutes late. I was so glad to finally be there. Little did I know that the worst was still to come…

As we’d been told, we were diverted to a “low platform”. I had no clue what that meant. Here’s the answer: usually you get off the train and the platform is level with where you are standing inside the train. There’s a gap (sometimes a big one), but no step up or down. A “low platform’ is just what it says—a platform 3 or 4 feel BELOW the level of the train! I had to climb down 4 VERY high steps. With a suitcase. And a carryon. Thankfully, a kind young man lifted the suitcase down, I never could have done it myself. So I was off the train, and it was COLD. Probably below 20 degrees, but it felt like -5. We walked a short way, and then had to go UP about 8 steps. Thank God for the kindness of strangers—my suitcase was nicely hoisted to the top. And then we walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. I had no idea this train station was so huge, but it seemed like about ½ mile before we actually came to the escalator to go up and over the track. So all that long walk was OUTSIDE!! I was frozen solid, my face actually hurt. And never would I have guessed how grateful I would be for all the walking I did at Canyon Ranch! Without that “training” I would never have made it to the station!

Tracey was waiting with a toasty warm car to bring me to her house where the kids and Uncle Bob were assembled watching the Packers/Giants game. My kids were alternating crying and cheering, depending on who was doing well. In the end, Danny was the only happy person in that house—the rest of us are all Packers fans! The game over, we bundled up and got in the car for the 40 minute ride home. I was so tired, I forgot all about having my snack, and just went to bed. I loved Canyon Ranch. I can’t wait to go back. It was great to get away and be pampered and cared for. But like they always say, “be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home”.