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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2000)
To relax, avoid dating; try ‘date for one’ ■ If school has become too stressful, take some time out to enjoy a relaxing day or evening alone By Monica Hande Oregon Daily Emerald It’s Dead Week. With the major stress epidemic around campus this time of year, who has the en ergy to date? What we all really need is some personal time to relax: a cheap date for one. Sure, it sounds silly now, but you’ll surely see it differently once you’ve experienced it. Your “date for one” can be as cheap or as ex pensive as you’d like. Of course, be cause the focus of this column is budget-friendly, we’ll start with ideas that won’t put you in the poor house. First of all, it’s amazing how valuable a bathtub is for relaxation. By now, you should know how to bathe, so I don’t have to fill you in on the details. But be creative: Try new scents of bubble baths, oils or crystals. Ladies, now’s your chance to use those generic bath and body gifts you received when your friends didn’t know what to get you. Or perhaps you can stock up on bath products and use what’s left after your “date for one” for holiday stocking stuffers. Regard less, it doesn’t matter what you put in your bath, as long as it suits you. But don’t forget the candles. You can’t underestimate the power of mood lighting. The same romantic candle light that can woo a date will help you relax on your own. If you have them, try aromatherapy candles or any other sensual scents you’ve got around the house. And what about the wine? As long as you don’t drink enough to become inebriated, wine can be a great relaxation tool. And it does n’t have to be expensive. Travis Geny, the wine columnist for Pulse, knows some great deals around town where you can find a bottle of quality wine for only $3. See his column today on page 6B. When you’re done with your bath, if you’re not so relaxed that you’re ready for bed, just take some time for yourself. Curl up in some comfortable clothes and read a book or watch a video. Although, if a video is what you’re up for, check out the exercise tapes at your nearest rental outlet, and you’ll probably find yoga videos. Donna O’Neil, the yoga coordi nator at Four Winds Center, at 1840 Willamette St., said yoga is the ultimate form of relaxation, “learning how to release tension and learning to withdraw your senses.” But if sitting in front of a televi sion screen doesn’t do it for you, there are some drop-in yoga classes you might want to try. Four Winds Center, which offers an introducto ry yoga class, is one option. A $15 lohn Henry’sDance Nights |136 E. 11th, Eugene] Thursdays: 10 pm, $2 80 s New Wave, Pop & Butt Rock. Vinyl. O Now serving ^rvO O full liquor bar. OJ Qik invite you to discover (zploliday ^/amures (9rkjtnd works f/rorn local <9 ^Northwest artists (^Jktne art posters and more La Follette GALLERY & F R A M I N G 410 East 11th, Eugene • 484-1420 Bring in this coupon for 10% off any purchase (Excludes consigned artwork. Expires 12/30/00) The price of relaxation Private bath: free (plus cost of bubbles, oils and candles) Wine: $3-$10 (see “Eleganceon the Cheap" on page 68) Yoga video: $1.5043.50 Yoga class: $15-40 (depending on number of lessons) Massage: $20-$45 for half hour, $30465 for hour Hot tub: $11 -$16 for hou r, two people registration fee includes the intro ductory class and an extra regular class, such as beginning yoga, which is next scheduled for today at 6:30 p.m. Of course, if you really want to splurge, experience the epitome of relaxation: a massage. Don’t expect to easily find a good deal on a mas sage; they’re usually pretty expen sive. However, some places, such as Eugene Downtown Massage Thera py, offer student discounts. Actual ly, many places that don’t advertise student specials will often cut you a deal if you request it. But don’t fig ure on saving more than $5 or so. Expect to pay at least $20 for a half hour massage and at least $30 for an hour massage. But you’ll really have to shop around to get deals like these. This is a starting point for you to create your own relaxing “date for one.” But if you still think a date re quires a partner, here’s an idea for 010215 wnwfTMTi Community Center tar the Pertormny Arts 8th & Lincoln • Friday i Floater TV 616, Lo?os Eye Heavy Rock $10 advance, $io door, 8:30 pm ■Saturday ■ Babes with Axes, Folk $7 advance, $9 door, 8:00 pm ■ Sunday ■ An Evening with David Wilcox Folk $22.30 in advance, $2$ door, 7:00 pm ■ December 8 ■ Joules Graves CD Release Party w'rthRafePeaitman Power Folk $8 advance, $10 door, 9:00 pm ■ December 9 ■ CCPA 25th Anniversary WOW Hall Membership Party with Elizabeth Cable, Lo Nuestro, TBA Folk/Latin A merican/Food Admission free to CCPA members Memberships are available for $15 or more at the door, 7:00 pm All Ages Welcome • 687-2746 Adam Amato Emerald If Dead Week is killing you, take a breather. Take some time out for yourself and relax. Start a bath, light some candles and drink some wine. Voila: a date for one. you and that special person to relax together: a hot tub. Most college students don’t own hot tubs, but there is an alternative. Rent one. There are a few local business that rent private spas by the hour. Of course, most people are a bit wary of anything that rents by the hour. Perhaps it’s a valid suspicion, but just ignore it and have a good time. An hour of pure relaxation can’t be all that bad, especially when it’s with somebody special. Onsen, at 1883 Garden Ave., charges $16 an hour for two people, and Springfield Spas charges $11 to $15 an hour for two people, depending on the time and day. And maybe after ward, you’ll have a few bucks left to spend on a cheap bottle of wine. Whether it’s a “date for one” or a romantic rendezvous, it won’t hurt ' to take some time out to make yourself feel good. Don’t let Dead - Week get the best of you. Just relax. ► Web sites continued from page 7B simple principle: Submit your pic ture to the site, and let thousands of Web viewers rate you on your phys ical appearance. Why one would submit themselves to this masochistic torture is beyond me, but the site doesn’t require anyone to send in a picture to start judging others. Mechanically, the site is a dream. Load it up, look at the picture, click on a rating from one to 10, and you automatically move on to the next site. It’s physically addictive and the worst kind of instant gratifica tion. Amihotornot.com will suck you in for hours, but it might make you feel dirty enough to take a shower afterward. www.theonion.com Why visit real news sites like cnn.com when you can read the fake news, which is often funnier and a lot more interesting? The Onion is like Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, except it’s a lot more profane and 100 times as fun ny. How can you go wrong with headlines such as “Clinton Feels Nation’s Pain, Breasts” or “Area Loser To Spend Day In Bed”? The Onion is well-written and boasts some of the best digitally manipu lated art I’ve seen in a long time. It covers art, science, society, politics and other topics, and not a single word of it is true. The Onion also has an excellent arts and entertainment section, The Onion’s AV Club, with some of the most insightful and well-written re views online today. Unfortunately, they’re true, but still worth a read. You can also peruse the complete archives of the paper, which should keep you glued to your computer long after you’ve started to smell funny. www.totalsports.com Tired of cnn.com’s monopoly on Internet sports reporting? Tty Total Sports, a site just as good as cnn.com or foxsports.com. Not to say that Total Sports is a substitute for those sites, but it could be a complement. Sports sites are big time-wasters, and the more of them you can look at in one sitting, the better. The site offers up complete sta tistics, so if you call up a story on the Portland Trail Blazers’ victory over the New Jersey Nets , you can get figures on the game’s atten dance, the complete lineups of both teams, season and career stats and more. All college and professional * sports are represented, so you won’t have any trouble finding the team you love. Just remember to. log off and take a bath once in a while. www.gamesages.com If you like playing video games (you know who you are), then there have been times when you couldn’t get past a certain game. Maybe you’ve given up and gone outside to play in the sunshine. Perhaps you’ve thrown the television out the window. Whatever your previous solution was, now you can be more produc tive in front of the television for longer periods with this site, which lists codes and walk-throughs for any game. Name a game, or a system (even arcade games), and www.gamesages.corn will in all likelihood have what you need. Just type in the game you want, or choose from a massive list. Within two or three clicks, you’ll have all the information you need at your fingertips. With this many games and systems, you’ll be lost for weeks. Just remember to leave the door unlocked for the search party. Humankind has wasted time for millennia, whether with cave drawings or with cell phones. The Internet gives the user a myriad of options from which to choose. But why use the Internet for benign purposes when you could waste your life with these sites?
