two worlds colliding

I know I've referred to "the foot massage place" more than once around my blog, but it's hard to get it out of your head.  It's like a little slice of heaven that gets all rubbed into your feet.  

When I first moved to this city, my fab friend rachel took me out for a foot massage and unknowingly set a precedent for all female life forms in our city.  

Just a few months after later (after rachel went back to the US), I asked my newly-arrived friend Amy if she'd like to go out for a foot massage.  After trying several places (all of which were closed), we ended up at this one place that was close to both of our houses.  It started out innocently enough, just two friends wanting to get to know each other better.

It quickly turned into a serious addiction.  We loved the time together, we loved the massage, the steaming hot water your feet soak in, the time away from our kids, the way our friendship grew...we loved it all.  We met every thursday night without fail.  As more people moved into the city, they also joined on thursday night foot massage.  

The place is actually part of a larger chain, so it's a very high-class operation.  The facilities are beautiful and have an asian motif...which is interesting, since we're in asia.  (I can imagine they'd be SO popular in America - everyone seems to be into the asian thing in America.  Not that I would know, since I don't live there, but anyway...)

Things have changed a bit recently, so we don't go to the massage place quite so religiously, but every so often, we make it down there.  

My friend Rachel called me the other day and had an interesting proposition:

Let's take our kids to foot massage.

It sounded like a good idea. 

I mean, my kids know that "thursday" is "foot massage night", even though it hasn't actually been "foot massage night" for several months.  (We meet at someone's home now.)  They love the idea of foot massages, and I've done mini-massages with them at home before.  But never a "real" foot massage...

So we did it.  Her kids and my kids.  Me and her.  (Or she and I.  Whatever it's supposed to be.)  For whatever reason, their big room was full, so emma and clara anne shared a chair and chloe and samantha shared a chair.  

The masseuses were happy to smile for pictures while the girls soaked their feet. 

I brought Princess Candy Canes along...you know, just to keep them busy.  
A nice, long soak...
It makes me long for one just writing about it...
After a long soak, you lie back on these comfy chairs and they do their thing on your feet.  Emma loves massages and back rubs and scratches and hugs.  Loves it, I tell you.  
In actuality, the girls didn't really participate much in the massage.  After a few minutes of foot massage, they decided they'd rather go to the corner of the room, rearrange the furniture and play house.  Girls!

But as I lay there - no, I didn't give up my massage! - I thought how interesting it was that I was in the hallowed space where I usually go to get away, and my kids were just a few feet away from me.  It was a weird moment where my "Rachel-as-a-real-person" and "Rachel-as-a-mama" worlds collided together.  And then I drifted off to oblivion and forgot about the collision of the worlds.  Aaah, I love foot massage.

I've been trying to keep my camera around lately, so I can get more moments like these:
...and these.  
Come visit me, and I'll take you out for the best foot massage you've ever had!