I don't often find myself needing to go to a massage place like Relaxation Garden, which I would place as "everything is wrong in my life and I need total body care." I usually find myself going to get massages to pamper myself or to go to a specialist to get a more knowledgeable, targeted care.
But I went through a stressful few weeks, and no matter the amount of sleep I was getting, it was not restful and I could feel my entire body was tense. In a last minute decision, I decided to try Relaxation Garden because I've walked by this place for years, and there's a reason they're still in business, right? Messaged the business on Yelp to see if they had a 2 hour opening that night, and the owner, Ben, responded in less than 10 minutes, I was in!
When my appointment came, the manager handling customers was very straight to the point (and I've a feeling walkins are always welcome) and directed me into a room in less than a minute. I've had very awkward experiences with whether or not to leave clothes on (I like to go down to underwear, but you know, some masseuse don't), so I kept my clothes on. Jenny came in, asked me how many hours and then told me to take my clothes off (sweet!) and get under the sheet and then left me alone to do so.
She came back quickly and started off really gently. Slightly too gently. I was getting worried. I've been to fancy places where I swear it feels like the masseuses worry about hurting their glass clientele or something. Also...I don't know, there's a way some masseues touch you that I just love - like their touches are getting to know your body rather than going through the rote "massage schedule" motions they have, and Jenny very much had the latter touch. At first.
But then she started working me a bit harder, finding specific knots here and there and while not at the pressure I like, I figured I was in here to have my entire body relax and not to work on anything specific, so I didn't say anything. I felt I was on my stomach for for 3/5 of the time, and the other 2/5 on my tummy. And the two hours, she really worked my entire body - head to toe (though head and feet were near the end of the massage and I wished they were longer), and it was glorious. I fell asleep for maybe 10 minutes of it.
At the end, I my body was entirely relaxed and since then, have been able to get more restful sleep. She's a very kind lady with ridiculously soft hands (when she was massaging my hands, I felt like I had sandpaper hands compared to hers). It was $90 for 120 minutes and I've been holding myself back from going back to her too quickly, because while the prices are really great, I can't be burning through cash like that. read more