Treat Yo' Self Day

Sal and I have accidentally been collecting gift cards for a few years now. Some were half used, some were for places we just haven't managed to get to, some were misplaced when we sold our old car and got our kitchen remodeled. 

It's been an incredibly stressful few months. Work has been insane for both of us. Our weekends are full and spilling into our weekdays. (I will only see Sal one weeknight this week) Living full throttle doesn't exactly give you much time to deal with unexpected items like health or losing a cat. 

We decided to take a day off work to do a "Treat Yo' Self" day. 

For those of you who haven't watched Parks and Recreation, Treat Yo' Self day is when you and your hypeman/woman go to all of your favorite stores and if you start thinking, "Ohhh. I shouldn't spend money on this." Hypeman jumps in and says "Treat Yo' Self." This isn't a day for logical or fiscal responsibility. This is a day for pampering and feeling good. 

We did a little bit of a pre-Treat on Thursday night. There's this restaurant that is extremely hard to get reservations at called the Mainlander. They only seat 40 people at a max per night. You basically pay up front, no tip, and you have no idea what you're going to get served. Every course is paired with a fun Tiki Drink. 

Sal secured a reservation for the two of us. Below were the menus for the night, something you don't find out about until you arrive.

We started the Treat Yo' Self day proper by getting new running shoes for me. Not exactly the most glamorous of treating, but something my feet have been screaming about for weeks now. 

We had planned on going to Russel's for lunch, as we had a gift card there. We wandered into the place, it was dark, we stood there for a minute and didn't see anyone. Finally, we turned around and looked at the door, learning they don't open until 5 on Fridays. They have a bakery, so my guess is someone unlocked the door to get work done. 

So a pivot. The weather was perfect. Like 78 degrees with a nice breeze and the sun was out. We went and got Mexican at one of the best patios we know of, El Milagro Azteca. As an added bonus, they have Birria tacos which you don't find often because of the type of meat and the process to make it can be labor intensive. It's one of Sal's favorites. So TREAT Yo' SELF!

Also had a lunch time margarita which is a nice little treat. 

I had master plans of renewing my library card and hitting Target, but the late lunch pivot ate into much of the time we had. So we dropped a few things off at a friends house and immediately went to Soulard to get a massage at Morganford Massage. 

This is only the second massage I've ever had. I told the masseuse that I had injured my right leg a while back and the muscles probably could use some work, but I probably wouldn't feel most of it. Basically giving her permission to not spend a ton of time on my right leg. 

She apparently took that as a challenge. I could feel her moving my good leg around, seeing how far it could move and bend. Then she did the same to my bad leg and went to work on some deep tissue rubs.

I felt parts of my leg that I haven't felt in over a decade. For this brief moment I remembered what it was like to have a fully functional leg. It about brought me to tears. It's like having forbidden knowledge. I didn't want to return to normal life now that I remembered what those sensations of muscles firing felt like. 

When the massage was finished and we were wrapping up, she simply said, "Your leg is asleep. We need to work on it more."

Understatement of the century. 

We dropped some jewelry off to be resized and got to see the Jeweler's dogs running around the store. A double treat.  

Then we hit the mall, REI, Container Store, and Nordstrom Rack. Basically went to the Brentwood area while people were at work.

We've had a lot of mall trips lately that have ended in failure. They don't carry clothes that fit me because I'm not a size 32 22 year old. A lot of places have closed thanks to Amazon killing everything. And the few stores I used to like, like Gamestop, no longer carry the things that I originally liked. 

We hit it out of the park this time. 

• Sal got some perfume and some lip stuff from Sephora. 
• I scored a new backpack for our Paris trip this year. 
• Sal found some killer shoes at Nordstrom rack. 
• So many new containers from the container store. 
• Got sick Creature from the Black Lagoon and Smokey the Bear hats
• I got some video games

It was a blast. So much fun. So relaxing. First time I've felt true relaxation all summer. Best part was, we barely spent any of our own money all day. 

We went for a late dinner at Onesto one of our favorite Italian places, had some pasta and wine, and then just sunk into the couch until we went to bed early. 

TREAT Yo' SELF