H is For...

Heaven.

I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day. I've always found it rather silly and not worth celebrating, boy or no boy. But this year, despite me telling him there would be no gift exchange, Ben was way too overly generous and gave me a gift card to Spa Nordstrom and I must say I've never been so excited about a gift before.

I tend to carry all my stress and tension in my shoulders and thus was in pretty desperate need of a professional massage. When Ben gave me the gift card, I pretty much immediately called to book an appointment. I booked a 60 minute massage and hydrating foot treatment for today, so I spent the past week impatiently waitng for the weekend to come so that I could have my day of relaxation. And today it arrived!

Walking through the Spa Nordstrom doors this morning I immediately felt a sense of calmness for I knew what was in store for me. Once I slipped on the robe I was transported to heaven. I have never worn anything so soft, it was hard to take it off when I left. My day began with a foot soak and a heated wrap on my shoulders. Then I got my foot treatment which involved an exfoliating scrub and moisturizing lotion. Next up was the main event, the hour-long massage. For those of you who have never had a professional massage, let me just tell you it is ah-mazing. I've never felt so relaxed. I received a full-body Swedish massage, with a focus on my problem area, the shoulders. The therapist was wonderful and really got a lot of my kinks out. Unfortunately, the 60 minutes flew by and I was sad it was over. After the massage, I lounged around in the robe for a while [seriously, I loved that robe] until I decided I should probably get on with my day, so I reluctantly made my departure.

My spa day may be over, but my body still feels amazing. My muscles are all relaxed and rejuvinated, my shoulders aren't sore for the first time in ages, and my skin is silky soft. I definitely encourage everyone to treat themselves to a spa day, trust me you won't regret it.

G is For...

Gail.
Or Gayle.

It's always been a well known fact in my family that my mom picked out my first name and my dad picked out my middle name. While I do not hate my middle name, I have never really been a huge fan of it. I mean, Gail, really? But since my dad picked it out, I never wanted to say anything negative about it for fear of hurting his feelings. And then I learned why he picked it.

My dad, like any red-blooded American male, is a big fan of sports and TV shows that endlessly discuss sports [i.e. SportsCenter]. My dad was catching up on replays of games he had already watched that week [i.e. watching SportsCenter] one afternoon when my mom was nagging about picking a middle name. Having given little thought to the matter, he quickly picked the name of one of the sportscasters. At the time when my mom was pregnant, there weren't a lot of women in the sports reporting business, but there was Gayle Gardner, the first female sportscaster ever on SportsCenter.

So Gayle it was, but my dad was kind enough to change the spelling to Gail, which I am very much appreciative of. And thus I was dubbed Emily Gail. I suppose I can't be too upset though, because without Ms. Gardner, I might have ended up Emily Tim, and that would have just been silly.

So what's the story behind your name? Are you named after anyone in particular? Share, share!

F is For...

Fancies.

Let me start this post off by saying I am not a girly girl and never have been. While other girls were playing hopscotch in their dresses and dreaming of Prince Charming during recess, I was out playing kick ball with the boys in my NASCAR t-shirt and soccer shorts. I had Barbies, sure, but I didn't care about princesses and fairy tale weddings and the like. I've grown more girly with age [I now regularly wear dresses], but I still don't like flowers and will never understand how anyone could justify spending more than $40 on a purse.

I do, however, have one girly vice and that is Anthropologie. I find it nearly impossible to walk into that store without falling in love with at least one five articles of clothing. So last week when I heard that Anthropologie was launching a wedding line, BHLDN, on Valentine's Day, I could hardly contain my excitement.

As I am not engaged, nor plan to be in the near future, my new-found obsession for wedding gowns perplexes me. Perhaps it's due to the overload of engagement announcements that bombard me on Facebook or the fact that I'm getting older and am in a serious relationship. In any case, recently I've found myself fawning over wedding gowns for inexplicable reasons. Hence, a wedding line by my favorite store really tickled my fancy. So this morning while I ate my Cheerios, instead of catching up on my usual celebrity gossip with a touch of male chauvinism [I'm sorry, Perez Hilton completely annoys me, so sue me] I explored the beauty of BHLDN. And I was not disappointed. So if you're in the market for a wedding gown, or just like looking at them like me, check out it out, I have a feeling you'll fall in love.

And in case you're wondering, my favorite dress is this lovely number.

I've always said I wanted to get married barefoot [just because I hate shoes] and I think this dress would be perfect for that. But with a $1,000 price tag, I should probably start saving up for it now...