Romance update.

My husband surprised me with a spa day for our wedding anniversary at the amazingly mellow Shibui Spa in The Greenwich Hotel.

After decades of marriage, this man knows me well.

Forget the flowers.

Give me a massage…talk about a turn on.

Shibui is a zen-like oasis with dark timber, bamboo, and hemlock floors, centered around a reconstructed Japanese farmhouse.

I have had massages at fancy hotels, luxury resorts, and places where people whisper about energy fields and chakra alignment, but none compared to Cindy.

She somehow located every knot, ache, and complaint my body had accumulated and addressed them with a technique unlike anything I have experienced before. Rather than simply pressing on sore muscles, she grabbed, stretched, and worked problem areas for 90 minutes in a way that felt remarkably targeted and effective.

It was part massage, part forensic investigation.

By the end, I felt taller, looser, and approximately twenty years younger…perhaps wishful thinking.

Afterward, I headed to the pool.

One hundred laps in the soft lighting, accompanied by soothing music and blessed silence and a lounging zone stocked with water, tea and little nibbles.

No news alerts.

No politics.

No errands.

No writing deadlines.

No emails.

Just the sound of water and the rare feeling that there was nowhere else I needed to be.

As we get older, we become diligent about maintaining everything around us.

We service our cars.

Repair our homes.

Take our dogs to the vet.

Care for our family.

Somehow we forget that humans need maintenance, too.

For a few glorious hours, I stepped off life’s treadmill.

I left feeling relaxed, restored, grateful and completely ready to face this frenzied world.

Honestly, after all these years of marriage, that may be the most romantic gift of all.

Without an inkling of what my husband had planned, I gifted him a fabulous facial with the talented Karen at Sia Spa followed by a full body massage on the same day and at the same time.

We met up at The Greenwich Hotel, co-owned by Robert De Niro. The hotel feels like a high-end private residence rather than just another luxury hotel.

We strolled the few blocks through picturesque Tribeca and shared a deliciously romantic evening at Brasserie Fouquet’s.

Ain’t love grand.