You're doing what now?

As first semester madness prepares to die down (it hasn't actually died down, technically: I've got a final exam on Monday, a final exam Tuesday morning, and a final eval Tuesday afternoon) and clinic madness prepares to commence, I realize that I haven't actually blogged about massage school much. Granted, I haven't written much of anything in general, or drawn anything, or any of that fun stuff, because I've been too busy learning bony landmarks, muscle attachments and actions, and how to give a killer (and ethically safe) Swedish massage. But I figure the end of my first semester is as good a time as any to reflect on what's been going on these past three months that doesn't involve sweaty women in uniforms running amok on a field.

So, massage school. It's both harder and easier than I imagined. Touching people daily is a strange and sometimes wonderful (and sometimes incredibly awkward) thing. I've learned that I can still give a really good massage to people I find irritating, which is good. I've learned a lot about bones and muscles, which is probably my favorite part, oddly enough. I've learned that I don't really like being on the table for too long, which is unfortunate. I'm pretty sure I've done something awful to my knee, which is REALLY unfortunate. I'm pretty sure the something awful has something to do with giving two back to back 90 minute massages, plus driving on the parkway in the dark for the first time the next night. Plus STILL being unable to find satisfactory shoes that fit me properly and don't make me look like a nurse. A nurse with a lazy mohawk, to be sure, but still a nurse. Seriously, why are wide width shoes so hard to find, and so ugly when you do find them??

But I digress. I started clinic on Thursday, which was sadly kind of a big bust. I got myself all nervous and excited, and I set my little massage cubicle up all nice-like and found my client's file (eventually) and worked out what I was going to say when she got there and everything... and then she never showed up. Bleh! Disappointing. Especially since I had to wait out the full hour anyway before I could go back into the room to get my stuff, since that would be disturbing to the clients who did show up. But at least I still get credit for the hour since she didn't cancel. Also, she appears to have re-booked for the same time this coming Thursday, and I'm assigned to her. So I (hopefully) will get the chance to work on her after all. (And no, I'm not going to ask her why she didn't show up last week. that would be rude) So clinic has been a whole lot of nothing so far (nobody booked me for Friday), but the graduating class is leaving really, really soon, so things will soon be totally out of hand. I really want to try to find some time to squeeze in a visit to my family and friends in New York, but I'm starting to doubt if that's possible between clinic, a half marathon I'm interested in working for clinic hours, and Amanda's class schedule. Which sucks, because I really miss my family, and things are only going to get busier from here.

On the plus side, I'm going to be moving closer to campus soon (still need to work out the exact date... why is my two week break seeming so much more stressful than the semester??), which will enable me to work more clinic hours more easily. I'm hoping this move will be a good thing. It's not going to be easy getting used to not living in the same house as my girlfriend again... But I really need to take care of these clinic hours, and taking some of the stress off my driving knee and a whole lot of time off my commute should help.

So, that's life right now, mostly. Too much stuff, not enough time. So what else is new?