Well, I have decided that if I am paying for this space, I better as heck use it! So here I am again. Thank you to those who keep checking in on me to see how things are going!
To be truthful, a lot has happened in the last 6-8 months, yet not much has changed. That feels weird to me.
I graduated from my massage therapy classes with a 100% average, which looks good on paper. The best part of that, though, is that the instructors I massaged during clinic were very impressed! One even said that he was really trying to keep himself awake (he always falls asleep) because he wanted to feel everything. His official and written review of me was that I gave a massage as if I had been a professional for quite a while. That kept me going for a long time! Some of you may remember that I was a little skeptical of my school and instructors because there was less instruction than I would have thought there should be ¡V inexperienced instructors, too many anecdotes and not enough instruction, not getting in the practice when we were supposed to. It all worked out in the end. If one is determined enough, they will find what they need. I was paying a lot of money for this, so I did what I had to do to make sure that I was trained adequately.
Just as an aside, during clinic I worked on a friend of the clinic instructor. The instructor is also in the music business, so many of the friends that he brought in for us to work on were in the music industry. Well, he wanted me to work on one of them and let me know that this was the guy¡¦s first massage. Not a problem, I thought. Well, it ended up being the most uncomfortable and inappropriate thing that I¡¦ve been through in a long time. The ¡§client¡¨ had me read the intake form (asks a few questions to let us know if there is any reason to decline a massage, health issues, any particular needs, etc.). I thought that he was just having a hard time translating ¡V he was from Hates, I believe. Then I directed him to the table, asking him to undress to his level of comfort and get on the table facing up. I shut the curtain (barely in time before he started whipping his clothes off!) and waited for him to indicate that he was ready. When I opened the curtain, I saw that he was face up but his head was on the wrong end. It wouldn¡¦t normally be a problem, but the table was a bit too close to the wall for me to be able to work on his big ol¡¦ head (he was wearing this amazingly LARGE hat thing over all of his dreadlocks and refused to take it off). I actually had to pull out the table while he was on it. Heh. I felt like like He-woman (female version of He-man, for those of you who remember the male character).
Darn those sheets that were provided by the school! They are not high-quality sheets and are rather . . . umm . . . transparent. It was evident that his level of comfort was to be nekkid. Not a problem if you have good sheets! He also lay on that table as if he was going to be attended to by a geisha or something. I maintained a HIGH level of professionalism as I began the massage. It became clear very early on that he was expecting a different kind of massage, if you know what I mean. He did whatever he could do to expose himself to me. I had to continually re-drape him. If he hadn¡¦t been a friend of my instructor, I would have kindly reminded him that this is a professional massage and that I was uncomfortable with his actions and then left. I did all of that, but I didn¡¦t leave. I wish I had. When I asked him to turn over, he ¡§rearranged¡¨ himself so that his penis was showing. Yes, really. And again, I had to re-drape him. He just kept taking the sheet off. I kept wishing that my instructor would come and check on me. He didn¡¦t. He never did. He was barely ever in the room. That¡¦s a whole different story, though! While I was panicking inside, I kept massaging, taking care not to get anywhere near any ¡§sensitive¡¨ points. Once I was finished, I thanked him and started to leave. He wanted me to continue working on his legs. I did another few minutes on each leg and then left. He said that I didn¡¦t get his ¡§front¡¨. By the way he said it, it was quite obvious what he meant. I told him that I had already massaged his anterior (front) side. He told me that I didn¡¦t get to one area. I looked at him, and said, ¡§I¡¦m sorry. We don¡¦t do those kinds of massages here. Please get dressed and come out when you¡¦re ready.¡¨ Then I left, went into the other room, looked at my instructor and angrily motioned him outside, and told him what had happened. I was livid (but I maintained a peaceful attitude). He acted surprised. I told him that I don¡¦t think this was his first massage, but it was his first ¡§real¡¨ massage.
Besides that horrible experience, clinic was a bust. All I was expected to do was 12 hours of massage, which I found weird. If we didn¡¦t have a 90% average or higher, we were expected to do 16 hours. That wasn¡¦t enforced, and students I knew had a fairly low to mid average only had to do 12 hours. Not only that, but there were only a couple of us who actually DID the 12 hours. The instructor fudged the hours for some people. Here I was, working a full full-time job, driving through horrendous traffic, and making sure I was there to do what I needed to do. Others didn¡¦t have to do that. Who said life was fair, huh? ƒº
But that is all over! I have my certificate. I have one regular client. What more could a girl ask for? Heh. Actually, I wouldn¡¦t mind having a few more clients, but with my schedule this year, I¡¦m still trying to find a moment to breathe. That will be in another update. I don¡¦t want too many boring details in one update; I like to spread it out!
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