Massage Therapists of the World: Save Your Thumbs!

OK, so you know how I love my thumb, Artie?
Well, there's a reason for that which I think is easy to work out. I love my thumbs because if I injure them then there's a good chance I can't work as a massage therapist anymore.

Last night I went to the local school to the intern clinic and got a massage. The massage was good, but I SOOOOO wanted to tell the student to go easy on the thumb use. I was waiting on her asking for feedback from an MTs point of view, but she didn't ask and I didn't want to appear to be a "know-it-all-pain-in-the-neck" MT (let's admit it, there are lots of them out there) who would jump on telling people what to do.

Anyway, I'll go back in a few weeks and get another one to see if she's changed up her style a bit. She'd only just started her internship and I think she's going to be really good - I just don't want to see her injure her wee Artie. If she's still using them a lot I'll maybe drop a hint or two.

Going to the school made me think of the first massage I ever did on Josephine Public in my internship. It was a disaster. I sweated like a pig and thought I was going to keel over on to a pile on the floor. It still makes me cringe to this day when I think of it - the woman still came back to the clinic - she just didn't ask for me!

Face Toning Aromatherapy Massage

The worst thing about working for myself is that I don't really have anyone to run ideas by. I can sit and have brainstorming sessions with my multiple personalities, but sometimes they refuse to surface.
I sat and thought of Christmas specials again and since I've REALLY got into aromatherapy I decided to do a Frankincense essential oil face toning massage. My aromatherapy teacher is cool since I sent her a quick email to see what she thought and she suggested adding sweet orange oil to the blend too since the two oils complement each other well - and she's right. I was SOOO glad to have someone to run an idea by over email. She's great.
Frankincense is "Christmasy" and it's also one of the best oils for the skin and it suits many skin types.
It'll be interesting to see if I sell many. Usually what happens with the face toning massage add on is that people try it once and then keep on getting it since it's so relaxing.
I sat up and updated my website last night with the new massage specials. Would you be tempted to try it?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It also happens to be the most stressful
AND the busiest time of year for MTs
AND the time when we make the most money

I've got a list a mile long of things I need to do to promote gift cert sales, specials, wee things I'll sell and general promotional ideas I need to implement that come from being in a different location with 40 other little businesses around me.
Oh, and I need to include "Don't have a nervous breakdown" on the list too.

Holy Sheet

How often do we have to get our sheets together?
If there's one thing that we know about it's folding them.
OK, so taking 20 massages per week (I think that's the average), working 48 weeks out of the year, that's at least 1920 sheets per year that need folded and washed (approximately).

So over the past 6 years, I've probably folded round about 11,500 sheets just for work.
That's a helluva lot of sheet-folding.

Man, if only there were an Olympic event for it.........MTs would be ALL OVER IT.

Wee things this Massage Therapist has learned

1. When getting up to do 30 second commercials at networking meetings, be careful when trying to tell a joke since there is a chance no one will laugh BECAUSE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION
2. When getting up to do 30 second commercials at networking meetings, don't be overly concerned about your gut hanging over your trousers or what you wear BECAUSE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION
3. When you go to networking meetings and someone says "Is this your first time?" when it's actually your sixth, don't be alarmed, BECAUSE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION

Or maybe it's: "BECAUSE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO ME"

Sometimes I really wish I looked like Cheryl Crow.

It's REALLY nice to be missed

I spent most of today at an office doing chair massage. I also had 2 regular table massages, so I'm knackered, but the chair massage gig was a long one....but nice!

I'd been going to the office every month for ages, but then last January they started a ton of renovations to the office, so I couldn't go - there was nowhere for me to massage since the offices were being torn apart in stages. I thought I'd never hear from them again, but the office manager called about a week ago and asked if I could go today since they were having a health fair.
I was amazed at the number of people that said they missed me - all these wee software guys.
The office manager said that she sent out an email saying I'd be there today and that there would be a sign up list in the kitchen. She sent the email and she said by the time she got to the kitchen there was a line of people waiting to sign up!
Plus I got a free 'flu shot too - can't beat that.

We're going back to our monthly visit.
It's nice to be missed!

I love the prenatal yoga teacher at Medical Center of Plano

Why?
Because I've had 3 new clients from her class over the past 2 weeks and another new one has just booked - 4 new clients from 1 person in 2 weeks - now THAT'S a good referrer. It could also be a "ripple" effect, you know, the people in the class that have talked about their prenatal massage, but at the same time, I know the teacher is giving out my cards to people. She rocks.

I gotta get over to the class and give her a gift certificate for a 1 hour massage as a thank you.

The Obligatory Photo of Cows in the Field:

Can't have a photo of Ireland without cattle......these ones were at the back of the house, just hanging out, wondering who the dork was with the camera.

Our Meadow:

Just a typical Irish field, right? There is a little stream where the hedge is in the distance where my brothers and I would build dams and catch "spricks" (what we called tiny fish, and I have no idea what they were really called).

It's green. Very green. And there are no nasty snakes in the grass.

North coast of County Antrim

My family used to go on vacation to Portrush every summer when I was young and every time I go home I go there with my Mum since my sister lives in a neighboring town. This beach brings back a lot of happy memories for me. The north coast of Antrim has the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, but the water is a tad cold!

(oh, and if you click on the pics you can see it much better)

Where St. Patrick did a bit of meditation....

....and would you blame him for wanting to get away from those pesky Irish? Apparently in the year 445, (that's right, NOT1445, 445) St. Paddy headed off to a wee island on Lough Derg and the whole island (which is VERY small) is now a place of pilgrimage. I know Robin wanted some pics of the homeland and these photos weren't from THIS visit home, but from 2 visits ago. Anyway, on the island they had this little labyrinth-like path that people walk around, meditating or praying (or both) and then they'd leave a little stone in the center. What struck me is that the center of it sort of looked like the yin/yang symbol, the way that the two grass lines come around each other.
It's cool.
If I was rich I'd have one of these in my back yard and my back yard would be 3 fields!

I just watched a not so good movie...

...that had a couple of great lines in it:

"Don't be bitter, Mary. It leads to Botox"

and

"Check out the face lift at 2 o'clock. She looks like she's re-entering the earth's atmosphere". The funniest thing about this is that it was Candice Bergen saying it to MEG RYAN in the movie.

Did Ryan NOT realize that this would make some women watching pee themselves laughing? Or maybe that was the point. Maybe she's making the most of those mutilated lips.
Oh, and they are REALLY distracting - the whole movie was just a Ryan lip watch session.

Do you ever feel like you need this?

Hmmmm....not too sure that's a good thing.....

A poor wee hurting client told me today that she's been using visualization techniques to try to help with her knee pain. She said that she's been setting her leg off to the side when she lies in bed and just imagines it as a disengaged piece of meat that's not attached to her.

Not too sure that's the right way of visualizing a limb....
We talked about it though.

3 things that I hate...

1. Spammers. I have a community site for MTs in Texas and I had to turn off my spam protection since I had a problem with the third party software. I've to upgrade the site (which I'll do tomorrow) to the new version of the software. So what happens as soon as I turn it off? I get bloody well spammed out the whazoo. Spammers hitting the discussion board selling ED pills and the like. Arrggghhhh! If I ruled the world all spammers would be hung by their iliopsoas muscles - yep, open them up, pull those muscle out, hook 'em up and swing 'em.

2. Chicago O'Hare airport. Every time I come through there I have an issue. This time I was pulled over by immigration and kept in a smelly room with other suspicious characters for about 45 minutes (because a middle aged woman with red hair and blue eyes and a wobbly belly just looks like she's up to some badness). I'd to run through the airport to get my connection flight and deal with that line for security that's about 5 miles long. Next year I'm going some other route.

3. Snorters. I thought I was OK on the plane coming over from Ireland when a dude who looked quiet sat beside me UNTIL HE SNORTED. Not "sniffed". NO, this dude sounded like he had a bucketful of snot at his occiput which he managed to rattle in a most gag-inducing way I've ever heard. You know what I mean, right? When dudes do this weird snort thing that just makes you want to shout something really unladylike very loudly. This dude did it every 15 minutes FOR HOURS. It's a good job they don't allow sharp objects on planes anymore since I would have been slitting my wrists from the agony of listening to this dude's phlegm rattle. I even tried my iPod and the rattle came in over the top of Zeppelin. Uncool!

OK, that's my rant for today. I reckon the worst person on the planet would be a snorter who works in O'Hare who spams for a hobby.

OK...so this is proof that...

...I'm a total failure at reading people.
The woman that I was so paranoid about a couple of posts ago (the one that I thought she thought the massage sucked) emailed me to see if she could get in for another massage - and her daughter.
I could get her daughter in, but not her since I'm booked solid this week and she's out of town next week. The MT that's on maternity leave comes back week after next.
So this is a good thing, right?
Thing is, I think she was a bit miffed at not being able to get in. BUT I'm just back from vacation and it's always balls to the wall when I get back since everyone is looking for one this week.
Oh well.....maybe I'm just misreading her again!

The reason I've been so "non-bloggy"

I've been in Ireland visiting the folks and I only got back yesterday.
It's raining in Texas AGAIN.
I got good weather most of the time in Ireland though and it was a nice visit.

Got to go and sort out real mail, email and the like now so I'll be back later!