Spa break

Being a fashion writer is no day at the spa...except during Fashion Week. Normally, I would turn down an invitation for beauty treatments unless I was specifically reviewing them for the paper. But the usual rules don't seem to apply during Fashion Week (and my boss is a time zone away!). Besides, the publicist said Carmen Electra would be "dropping in."
So I paid a visit to the Cygalle Healing Spa, a traveling operation that is camped out for the week in the penthouse of the past-its-prime Night Hotel, just a couple of blocks from Bryant Park where the fashion shows are held. Cygalle, a slight and not particularly fashiony young woman greeted me and nodded approvingly when I explained that I'm a reporter and was there to see what a VIP fashion suite is like. "I love that," she said, speaking really slowly. "I'm all about experience."
And so, I got to experience a 10-minute hand massage (I'd provide more detail, but it was difficult to take notes.) while seated on the edge of a round bed. Cygalle seemed flustered that her press releases had not properly been packaged in envelopes. Two liters of Coke sat on the floor while Cygalle's assistants had some sort of debate about bringing up a tray. The music of Erika Jayne played in the background and her picture was all over the place. Oh, you never heard of her? Perhaps that's why she paid for the spa to be there. Lure reporters with the promise of hand treatments and hope to get some publicity for your new album.
I didn't see any celebrities at the mini-spa. Only other reporters, who seemed quite at home indulging in massages and manicures. At one point while I was there, Cygalle ducked into the bathroom for an important phone call. Maybe it was Carmen Electra?