Sitting in a Steam Room

Last week I took two personal days from work and went to Chicago with my husband. We stayed at a fancy hotel, ate at a favorite restaurant, enjoyed an underground tiki bar, walked around in the exquisite weather, and saw one of my favorite artists in concert. These things were all delightful, but in an obvious way. However, this blog is about noticing things that are delightful, yet ordinarily or surprisingly so.

So, I will not be reflecting on any of the above events, but on the ten minutes that I spent in a steam room in the hotel spa.

The hotel's pool and spa facility was lovely, and at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday when we walked in, it was completely vacant. As I walked into the large women's locker room, there wasn't a soul to be seen. And it was quiet, almost eerily quiet. Which may explain where my thoughts led me as I sat in the steam room, but I'm getting ahead of myself!

I opted to try out the steam room, since I had never been in one before. I turned on the timer and sat down on my towel preparing to be relaxed. The steam began to gently roll out into the tiled room. My shoulders dropped, I closed my eyes, and....realized that the steam had a smell! 

It smelled like eucalyptus or some other spa scent, but I was immediately suspicious. How could I be sure that was what it was? It then occurred to me that if someone were trying to kill me, this would be a really easy way to do it. Just put a few drops of deadly chemicals in the steam, and I would be gone. A genius idea, really.

But this was ridiculous! No one, to my knowledge, was trying to murder me, especially in a city full of people I didn't know. And how would any unknown enemies or hitmen know that I would choose the steam room over the sauna? I cleared those thoughts from my mind and went back to relaxing.

And that's when the steam really got going. What started as a gentle fog was now a full force steam explosion. The room was becoming so filled with steam, I could barely see in front of me. The steam was coming thick and fast. I was finding it difficult to breathe. The door was now just a vague rectangle of light. 

And it was then that it became clear to me that it wouldn't be deadly toxic chemicals; it would be the steam! Someone could easily jam this door shut so that I could never get out and crank the dial up to the maximum while I slid one hand down the steamy glass in an attempt to escape and died, only to have Jessica Fletcher find me when she came down to the spa for a steam.

I had to get ahold of myself! I was meant to be enjoying this experience, not imagining that I was a victim in an episode of Murder, She Wrote! 

I slowed down my breathing. I tried to make my mind a blank slate. And, after the rocky start that I got off to, the last five minutes of the experience felt very peaceful, very serene. Minus the murder thoughts, the steam room turned out to be delightful.

I met Pete in the pool to cool off in the water, and he was a little taken aback when I hugged him tightly and explained how I had escaped not one, but two murder attempts in the steam room. Oh, and my skin felt amazing that day! 

I hope I have the opportunity to enjoy a steam room again sometime in the future. Now, that I got all those intrusive thoughts out of the way, I know that I could enjoy it for the full ten minutes!