My L’il sis and Bro’ in law got Hubby and me an Astral Float for Two for Christmas. Yep. Nope. Yep. This is a real thing.
When we called to make the appointment, we inquired as to what we should bring with us. Please say swim suits. Please? Pleasepleasepleaseplease! They replied with, “nothing” which naturally meant I had to bring my swimsuit anyway. Just in case.
What is an Astral Float for Two, you ask? It’s as close as you can get to riding on Space Mountain without actually being on Space Mountain because you are instead floating naked in a sensory deprivation tank filled with body-temperature salt water. Expect you’re by yourself while your husband is in another room in his own sensory deprivation tank filled with HIS naked body and some salt water. I know he didn’t have his swimsuit on because I had it in my purse which was in my room with me.
Also? There’s no orange asteroid which periodically flashes across the sky like in the real Space Mountain. You’re in a sensory deprivation tank after all, so all you can see is a deep, dense black that is the same whether your eyes are open or closed. Snippets of the movie “A Cure for Wellness” flash through your mind until you become increasingly worried that no one will hear your screams if you start feeling tentacles.
It seemed like I spent the first thirty minutes fooling myself into thinking I did…and then I didn’t…and then I did have to go to the bathroom. Eventually I talked myself out of the bathroom thing because the bathroom was all the way down the hall, no robes were provided, and my swimsuit was high and dry right next to Hubby’s in my purse. Why didn’t I put on the swimsuit? It would have been helpful with the bathroom run.
At some point, the voices in my head died down enough for me to begin to relax. Until I slowly started to realize that I could hear OTHER voices, through my ear plugs AND the sealed door of my deprivation tank, two different voices talking somewhere down by my feet.
Ack! ACKKKK!! Screw the tentacles, THIS is the biggest fear!! That there are people who accidentally stumbled into MY deprivation tank room and will shortly be throwing open the tank door and exposing me in all my glory! Why are there two of them? Are they checking on me? Or do THEY get to float together while Hubby and I had to stay separate but equal?
So I’m straining to hear. Straaaaaaaining to hear. Trying to pick out a word or two and deciding if I’m going to be all friendly and casual when the tank door opens “Hiya!” Or all super pissed, ready to go ham and shout “Shut the door!” to whomever is out there.
It dawns on me, but not soon enough, that the low rumblings and alternating higher pitched whining noises are actually coming from stomach. Oopsie. Tee hee hee. Stupid chili cheese fries for dinner last night. And for the record, those noises all sound different coming through salt water and ear plugs.
It’s such a relief that no one’s about catch a glimpse that I do actually become quite zen. Until I start wondering whether L’il Sis and Bro in law would ever get something like this as a gift for my parents.
Since it’s stream of consciousness time, I’ve moved on to thinking about when my parents lived in a mineral spring spa town in Germany and my aunt came to visit. She convinced my mother to “take the waters” with her, have a spa day and get a massage. Except my mother, who hadn’t ever had a massage as far as we knew, ended up wearing her jeans on the massage table. It’s become something of a family joke. At which point I picture my mom wearing her jeans to the astral float. And I start laughing. And laughing. And laughing.
Then the ghostly music begins to play which was my cue that my time had come to an end.
And none too soon.
Ahhhh, relaxing! Astral float for two. Jeans not recommended.