Your Friday Quickie * Joan Would Have Liked This One

It's Friday and The Hubbs, bonus daughters and I are finally off to Iowa to go see my family and some friends and hang out for the weekend.  If you remember, we were supposed to go a few weeks ago (and go to the Iowa State Fair - now long over), but The Red Dog was having complications from his surgery and we couldn't go. 
He's healing up nicely thanks to our new friends at Shiloh Animal Hospital and the sugar bandages we've been treating him with each day.  Info on those and instructions on how to do them was last Friday's quickie. 
So, we'll be VHHing (Virtual Happy Hour) with my parents (who don't really drink) and The Whole Smiths late tomorrow night.  After that it's fun, frivolity and the Downtown Farmer's Market for us this weekend.  I'll post highlights on Monday.  
But before we head off into the great blue yonder this evening, I thought I'd honor my good friend Joan Rivers, who had been suffering complications this week after undergoing an endoscopy.  Ok, she and I weren't really friends. But I like to think that we are.  (Originally, as I sat down to start writing this post yesterday, this was a tribute to her as she was still hanging on.  About half way through, I got an alert via my New York Times App on my phone that she had passed.  My condolences go out to her daughter and the rest of her family.  I'm guessing that Robin Williams is waiting for her at the gates and they're about to put on one heck of a show.)
So, as a tribute to my self-proclaimed plastic surgery loving "friend" I offer this as a way we might all stave off the plastic stuff and try to go the natural route.  I mean we all want to keep our looks but not all of us are willing to go under the knife to do so.

Fred G at The Bliss Spa Chicago.  He's like an even hotter Anderson Cooper but he'll make you look beautiful instead of humiliate you on TV.

I've been getting facials on and off for years.  In the lean years (and there have been several - 2005 to 2010, I'm looking at you), I did at home facials, but when I could afford it, I would go once every one to three months and get a professional facial at the spa.  In Chicago, my choice was the Bliss Spa at the W Hotel Lakeshore with Fred G (Fred is still there! If you live in Chicago and/or you are in town visiting you HAVE to go see him.  And, Fred, if you're reading this, I love and miss you!).  
In Atlanta I was too damn busy trying to keep the train on the tracks, so I mostly DIYd it back then. But since moving to the Raleigh area, I've found a great Medical Spa and an even better deal.  Like, a really good deal.  Like, I keep thinking the cops are going to show up and arrest me kind of deal.  I had been going to The Skin Center of The Triangle for a while, happily getting my monthly facials, which I thought were priced really well and my skin always looked amazing afterwards.  
One day I had to have a tiny mole removed so they could check it and so they submitted the procedure to my insurance.  After which, the receptionist mentioned casually that while they were getting authorization for the mole removal, they determined that I could submit my facials to insurance, since they are to battle acne. <I'm looking at your menopause, you bitch>   That would mean I would only pay my $15 copay.  Oh, and while we're at it, I could toss in an hour long body massage, since I have some muscle issues with my hypothyroidism and it would fall under that same copay.  
I'm sorry.  What did you say?!?  I pay you $15 and I get a facial AND an hour long massage?  And I don't get arrested?  Sign.  Me.  Up.  

Hannah the massage therapist who keeps me feeling young.

For the last couple of months, I head on down to the Spa, see Hannah first for my massage. She's great and while there are moments that I think about strangling her, she's only doing exactly what I asked, which is helping to work out the monster that lives under my left scapula (that's the wingy-like thing on your back).  For the longest time I had zero range of motion in my left shoulder. And it make a cracking sound when I moved it.  Thanks to Hannah, no more cracking and I can actually move my shoulder like a normal person.

Maria, the medical aesthetician who keeps me looking young.

Once I've finished up with her, I head in to Maria for my facial.  She cleans me up, performs some extractions (I'm one of those women that LOVES her extractions - i.e. no more blackheads) and then layers on a peel to help stimulate collagen production.  So my skin looks young and fresh. And zit free, for once (note to those under 35 - menopause and peri-menopause suck for the skin.  Big time. Hormones raging everywhere and you're skin is so confused.  It sorta thinks you're back in 8th grade.). And so now I don't have to have a facelift any time soon.  I hope.  
I wobble out of there all relaxed after paying my copay and tipping the girls (note - you should always tip on what the service would have cost BEFORE the copay) and make my way back up the road to BFE, my wallet a little heavier than it would have been. 
So, the moral of this story - if you have health insurance, check with your local favorite spa (it's much more likely to be a reality if it's a med spa, that's overseen by an MD) to see if you can get the same.  And don't smoke.  And wear sunscreen (although I forget to most of the time).  And you're welcome.  And Joan, we'll miss you.