My last day...so sad! Went with Mike to drop off my bags downtown and had breakfast at Veselka, a hip 24-hour Eastern European diner. They have the best chicken salad sandwich. Then I walked up to the NYC Guitar Center on 14th Street to do a half hour of work. This wasn't a business trip, but I figured since I was here, I should visit. The store manager, a guy named Judd, wasn't there, so I checked it out on my own. It was so clean--looked new and had a lot of square footage for a Manhattan retail store. I had just read the Guitar Center sales manual, so I was looking to see that in action.
After strumming a couple Gibsons, I got a manicure and pedicure down the street at Acqua Beauty Bar and then got THE BEST body scrub in Manhattan at Sol Spa in Koreatown. This isn't for wimps; this is a body scrub Korean-style which means some actual pain but lots of gain. Unlike a Korean bathhouse, you're in the room alone, but otherwise, I suspect it's much the same experience. Not exactly the best atmosphere, but this place is all business. After 15 minutes in a steam sauna, you lie down on a metal table and get hosed down. Then a Korean grandma in her bra and undies sets to work with loofahs. After an hour and a half of vigorous scrubbing in which absolutely no spot is missed (and you are undoubtedly shocked at the amount of grey...stuff that has come off your body), you get a milk bath and cucumber mask and then off to the dry sauna. I am never as truly squeaky clean, smooth and soft as after I get this done, plus it lasts for weeks. Great deal too--only $120 for 3 hours which includes the scrub and the sauna plus an hour and a half shiatsu.
In one of the most difficult decisions of my trip, I had chosen to get the scrub instead of having one last meal, so now it was a mad rush to the airport to go back to my pastoral life in Oregon. I'll be back soon though--I know I'm still a New Yorker at heart which means it's impossible to stay away.
