Some love all the presents and parties, the wrapping and decorating, the dreidels and the bourbon balls. But let's face it: Beneath all that season-specific cheer, the true, undying essence of the holidays is, in a word, stress.
Mall stress, spending stress, cooking stress, traffic stress, fighting-off-offers-to-eat-more stress, drying-Christmas-tree stress, card-sending stress, and the one so close to us all, repetitive-dysfunctional-family-gathering stress.
What to do? In a word, de- stress.
Fortunately, there are lots of ways to do that without going broke or spending much time. A manicure and pedicure, for instance, can cost as little as $15, which is about the cheapest hour of nerve-soothing massage anywhere.
For those who best de-stress by burning off steam, an hour at the shooting range might be the answer.
"Some people come in and draw their bosses face on the target," says Scott McPhillips, an employee at Straight Shooters, a range in Orange where firing away runs as low as $4.95 an hour.
Yoga and meditation can work their wonders too, as can kayaking and other outdoor sports that combine endorphin-boosting with nature's calming effect. A visit to a nearby hot spring, a massage, some garden puttering, batting practice or Tai Chi can change your perspective on life. More suggestions follow.
From Tip to Toe
To the uninitiated, a nail parlor might come off as a cross between a Big Brother sweat shop and a torture chamber.
At the Nail Star in Irvine, all workers, situated at small stations arranged in two straight rows, face the same way. Their heads bent in toil, they wear hospital masks to avoid inhaling the dangerous chemicals. The frightening buzz of electric drills comes too close to the sound of dental work. Worse, customers are forced to listen to Phil Collins on the radio.
After an hour, however, Phil sounds positively transcendent. Last month's Redbook magazine makes absorbing reading, and the chemical smell--some nail products contain substances "known to the state of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm"--ceases to annoy. The water we drink is worse, goes the rationalization.
Parlors are plentiful in and around Orange County, but the $15 manicure-pedicure at Nail Star is one of the cheapest indulgences on the market.
After she has delicately trimmed errant cuticles and filed and buffed, Michelle Vuong, at station No. 9, gives one of nail parlordom's all-time longest massages, spending a full five minutes--about double the average--on each hand and lower arm.
The same goes for Vuong's pedicure: five minutes for each foot and lower leg--with lotion, of course. It starts in the usual way, with a foot bath in a vibrating tub of sudsy warm water. Even the buzz of those drills--used to file fake acrylic nails--softens to a soothing hum.
Some parlors serve men and women, although many, including Nail Star, cater mostly to women. Men, who typically forgo polish, should demand equal rights--this is pampering not to be missed.
An essential reminder: For a pedicure with polish, take open-toed sandals so toes may dry on the way home. Also, face masks are not required but are strongly advised.
\o7 Nail Star, 5365 Alton Parkway, Irvine, (714) 551-2009. Hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. \f7
Targeting the Tension
Bill Hobbs, 31, visits Straight Shooter, the Orange shooting range, every other week. Adjusting his earphone-like hearing protectors, he takes his place in one of 16 narrow "lanes" dividing the 50-foot-long range. Then, he pushes a button activating a wire trolley that carries his paper target, soon to be shot through with holes, to the desired distance. Steadying his gun with both hands, he shoots repeatedly, littering the carpeted floor with bullet casings.
"It's like a stress relief," says the towering Anaheim Hills resident, who drives a gas tanker for a living. "It gets out a lot of your aggression. You just go out there and go \o7 ugh-ugh-ugh! \f7 . . . I'd come in every day if I could."
To fire with accuracy and avoid potentially fatal accidents, shooters must concentrate exclusively on the task at hand, explains range employee Phillip Bao. Thus, for an hour at least, cares and concerns disappear--or else.
"It could get dangerous, if you forget that a round (or single bullet) is left in your gun," Bao says. "You have to be self-conscious the whole time." Technically speaking, "you definitely have to focus on one thing," and that's the gun's "front sight," a small spot atop the barrel's end that must be properly aligned to hit a bull's-eye.
Shooters need to slow themselves down, too.
"You have to breathe slower, and you have to relax," says Bao, who sums it up with the acronym BRASS: Breathe, Relax, Aim, Stop and Squeeze.
