Two years ago I took a temporary job for a third-party company, working at a Lowe’s in the nursery department, hauling plants back and forth. I had a great partner, Erin (ten years younger than me) and she and I ROCKED. We were basically responsible for keeping the displays looking good—compacting them as people bought plants, keeping everything in the right places. This included a lot of gallon-plus-size containers of shrubs and so forth. I’m no spring chicken and it was physical work but we had a great time together.

My husband had been experiencing an incredible amount of stress, and a few weeks before I took the job he and I went to a nearby B&B on a gift certificate from my sensitive and generous sister (who thought we needed a rest). We sat in their hot tub, and that was the first time I had seen Brett relax in something like a year.

So I took this little plant-wrangling job, worked for 12 weeks, and bought a hot tub.

It has been awesome.

Incidentally, if you’re looking at hot tubs and are on a budget, I highly recommend X-Spas. Google them. Check them out. They’re cheaper to buy, cheaper to run (110 power!), they have no heating coil (first thing to go out in a hot tub), they’re portable, they only have one type of material to worry about (matters when trying to clean the different surfaces, each with the proper cleaner, and also NO SEAMS is nice). They’re small but suitable. I love mine.

And no, I’m not affiliated with them! LOL…sorry for the commercial.