Flight, Hotel, Spa

“Take a deep breath.” I did, and with it Lisa Souza, my massage practitioner at San Francisco's <a href="http://internationalorange.com/">International Orange</a>, pressed into a knot just below my shoulder blade, deep in the <em>latissimus dorsi</em>. She worked along the length of it, not as a baker kneads bread, but rather as person wringing water from a damp cloth. Each press was deliberate, powerful. I'd asked for the deep tissue treatment. Eight hours in planes from Boston (six hours to LGB, almost another two to SFO) had taken their toll, and this, I hoped, might spell relief. » about 300 words