Spa day! + Sit & Write #32

Greetings, friends.

This weekend, Zach and I met up with a couple friends to go to a Russian bathhouse near Northeast Philly. We pulled into the parking lot just after noon; the sun was bright and the air was cold and clear. The building itself was an unremarkable squat rectangle next to a bowling alley. It would have been impossible to find without the big red letters that read "Southampton Spa" above the entrance. Inside, a curt but good-humored old man took our keys and wallets for safekeeping and pointed to a less emotive man, who silently led us to the locker room and handed us a stack of white cotton robes and thin towels. After quickly changing into our swim suits, we explored the facilities, starting with the main atrium, which housed a pair of hot tubs and a small swimming pool beneath a neon pink wall that started above the marble tiling and stretched up to the arched ceiling. The pink was broken up by rounded, fake windows that overlooked a neon blue sky from behind segments…