Knitting in the Shadows

Why Massage?

Every now and then, folks ask why I've chosen to forgo a career in the law to pursue one in massage therapy.  (They asked the same thing about designing knitting patterns, but even I didn't really expect that designing would or could become a full time gig any time soon).  Now it should be said that I didn't suddenly walk out of my law office and into massage school; but, I did actively choose not to re-activate my law license and instead to spend the money that would have gone for the Continuing Legal Education required to do that on tuition for massage school.

There are a number of reasons, not the least of which is that no one is every truly happy to be in a litigator's office. Even when they win; even if I've ever done the best job possible to do; even if they're now rich, clients really wish they'd not had to consult a lawyer in the first place. On the other hand, few people are unhappy that they're consulting a massage therapist. And if I've done the best possible job, my client will be happy they came.

But is that good enough? I certainly devoted a lot of time and energy into the law. I must have loved it. I mean, three years of law school, and two decades of practice is not something you do for a career you find boring. And massage therapy doesn't have that much in common with law, after all, right? Or does it?

Both disciplines are about helping people. A litigator works on resolving problems that people are having with other people or with companies. A massage therapist works on resolving problems that people have with their bodies. A business lawyer, and an estate lawyer works on preparing people to accomplish things they want to do; a massage therapist works on helping people feel good in their bodies so that they can do the things they want to do.

Both disciplines have many sub-specialties: There's business related law (including contracts and real estate and labor and employment), and there's litigation (lawsuits). In litigation, one can focus on civil or criminal issues (violent and non-violent; felonies and misdemeanors; capital and non-capital); and of the civil issues one can focus on professional malpractice (with sub-specialties in things like medical, legal, accounting, architectural), or personal injury, or family practice, or business related. There's aviation law and admiralty law, and international law. And these, of course, can be parsed even further.

In massage, there are a similar myriad of sub-specialties – only we call them modalities. There's massage to allow the client to relax; massage to energize the client; massage to warm a client up to prepare to compete in an athletic event; massage to help a client prepare for surgery; massage to pamper; and massage to help a client regain range of motion in an injured limb. There's energy work, and shiatsu and reflexology, and cranio-sacral massage. There's chakra therapy; and aromatherapy. There's Swedish and hot stone massage; and there's neuro-muscular massage, and Rolfing other deep tissue work and orthobionomy. There's prenatal massage, and pediatric massage. ..   and ... and ...

Both disciplines require that their practitioners graduate from accredited schools. Both disciplines also require that their practitioners pass a standardized test, and become licensed by the state in which they practice (well, not all states require licensing, but most do). And both disciplines require their practitioners continue their education, taking classes annually to maintain their licenses.

One of the things I've realized over the passed few months that confirms to me that I've made the right choice is my response to the prospect of taking those continuing education courses. When I look at the choices for continuing education classes in law, I'm bored and frustrated that I have to spend so much time and money to take them. When I look at the choices for continuing education in massage, I'm excited, and frustrated that I can't take more of them right away.

But still, is that enough? It's easy to be excited about something new. And let's not forget, the earning potential of a high-powered lawyer far exceeds the earning potential of a massage therapist. If it were as simple as the fun of learning something new, I might wonder more about my decision, but massage therapy does something that law doesn't do. Massage therapy brings true healing, both to the muscles that were worked, but to the whole body. Better still, research shows that massage therapy brings psychological healing too. Law may bring compensation, but it doesn't bring healing.

Massage Therapy may not have the earning potential of a high powered law practice. But it has a far greater potential for joy. I'd rather live a life filled with joy than one filled with stress and a full bank account.

And besides all that?  Four hours of doing legal work leaves me tired, and wired.

This weekend, I've learned that four hours of giving massage leaves me serene, happy, and quietly energetic.

 

Feeliin' cocky

In which the allegedly adult learner channels her inner 20-something...

So.

Friday, I took this scary Practical exam in my Physiology/Anatomy class.  Armed with a clipboard, and a test sheet, we went into a room lined with gurneys. On each gurney was a cadaver.  Not neatly tucked into thier body bags -- oh no.  Sitting there, open.

Worse yet, each cadaver had at least one (some had two) numbered tags pinned to a blood vessel.  There were about ten cadavers -- eleven tags.

Those of you who didn't say "ewwwwww" and close thier browser tab can guess what came next.

We each stood by a gurney, and examined the cadaver resting thereon.  Having found the tag (or tags), we had to write down the name of the blood vessel on the line on our test sheet that corresponded to the number on the tag.

So.

Standing next to a cadaver that had this tagged....

no, wait.  I tried to find pictures that would give you a real idea of what it looks like without being either too ... well... gruesome, or too vague... 

This doesn't give you a real idea, since it's a pic from Limbs & Things (a place that sells models phlebotomists use to learn how to draw blood), and not a picture of an actual dissected arm... But still, imagine that this is a real arm, and that what you're seeing are real blood vessels, not, you know, fakes.  Then imagine that there was a tag on the part that looks like the crossbar of the H.

I had to write:  median cubital vein.

Even for things like the aortic arch (which anyone who knows anything about the circulatory system knows is an artery), I had to write aortic arch artery.... so they'd know I knew it was an artery and not a vein.

Yeah.  15 blood vessels later, I walked away hopeful.

And this morning I got my test back.

100%

No, I'm not proud ... not in the slightest. (liar, it's the first practical I've not done something stupid on).

And then..

today...

I took the quiz on the circulatory system.  All nervous about lymph and B-Cells and T-cells and stuff.

And...

100%

Fist pump... Oh yeah...

So, yeah, I'm feelin' a  little cocky today.

Here's hoping that doesn't ruin my focus for the six muscle quiz on Wednesday. Did you know that the pectoralis major (that muscle we all just call "pecs") had two heads?  Me neither.  And what is it with our MusculoSkeletal Anatomy teacher these days?  All the muscles have multiple heads -- and thus multiple origins (or insertion points) and tons of actions to memorize.  My brain is turning to mush.

But...

did I mention...

100%?

Whoosh... another week, another year

Another week flew by.  I am SO NOT meeting my blogging obligations, and feel guilty about that.

This past week (busy as always for the full time student/mom) included my birthday.  Though several friends made sure to say (or sing) happy birthday), it feels largely uncelebrated. 

Partly, that's because the actual day  was busy busy busy, filled with a bunch of stuff unrelated to birthdayness -- I had PT in the morning (we're back to working on my shoulder, which started twinging a bit, and which I don't want to get bad), then I gave a massage to complete my homework for the week.  Then I had class, followed by a wee break in which I stuffed my face with a drive-thru burger before I dashed off to a VERY INTERESTING seminar on headaches. 

Partly that may be because the night before we celebrated LJ's 21st bday, and I didn't want to detract from hers by imposing mine on it.

Partly that's because the dinner out attempt last night was -- not particularly pleasant. Driving to the restaurant of choice, a conversation arose in the car that left the two women-folk in tears.  By the time we got to the (second) restaurant, and waited 45 min for the table, the unpleasantness had been reburied and we all faked it through dinner, but it left me feeling as though this was just dinner, and even though I remembered to bring the birthday cards my family sent, and the gift Golf Pro had purchased, no one in who was at dinner remembered to say happy birthday to me.

I had thought it wouldn't matter.  I had thought I was over this silliness.  After all, having lived half a century, I ought to be over the need to feel special one day a year just because, well, I lived another year.  And yet, having had a birthday dinner in which no one said happy birthday, even when I opened my cards from wonderful aunts and uncles and mom....  leaves me feeling sad and a little lonely.

Having a day that feels largely silent so far (I've managed to start a couple of conversations, but they've lasted all of three minutes each) is not improving my outlook.

But, I'm trying to wrest myself around to the place where I look back at all the good stuff, and feel loved and all that.  I know that the more time we spend looking at the sad stuff, the sadder we'll feel.  And, conversely, the more time we spending looking at the good stuff, the happier we'll feel.  So ... here are some happy thoughts. (But are they enough to activate the fairy dust?)

Golf-Pro gave me white roses first thing (even before coffee), and said happy birthday.

My classmates in the massage practice class actually sang to me.... during classs.

My father and (ever wonderful) step-mother sent me a gorgous bouquet of flowers.

Golf pro slipped out a rose from the bouqet while I was in class so that there'd be one in a vase next to my knitting chair.

I got to go to an awesome seminar.

Two of my crafty friends took me to lunch the day after my birthday, and we had a lovely time and a lovely lunch.

My mom funded my very own massage table (which I hope to have ordered by the end of the day, if they're open today).

And... when I finally woke up and LOOKED at my face book page -- there were many many greetings!

(that helps... it's surprising how much difference it makes).

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging and School

Wow.

This last week was a doozy.  I need to learn how to write up short quicky blog posts without feeling as though I'm letting everyone down.  Of course, when I don't do that, I wind up feeling as though I let you all down anyway, because I don't manage to post at all.

So, this post is my list of reasons (none of which excuse the  no-blogging of course - they merely explain it.  Sort of my testimony to prove that I'm not just ignoring my job here.

I have been working on the Dwarrowdelf curtains, though progress is slow.   I need to find my bleeping camera battery recharger so that I can take pictures of my in progress knitting to share with you. 

And I need to figure out where my camera/computer/SD cards are hiding the rest of my Scotland pictures.

For now -- a summary of why I haven't been blogging more for the past week:

1) Anatomy Class.  Last week we had a quiz on the muscular system.  It followed closely on the heels of a practical exam during which we had to identify muscles on cadavers.  Having shown that I could identify 17 out of 20 muscles on a cadaver, I then had to demonstrate that I understood the cell structure of different kinds of muscles, and what in fact goes on when muscles contract.  (I'd tell you, but I'm pretty sure there are scads of web sites out there that will do a better job.

We also had a lab for which I needed to memorize a BUNCH of stuff about the heart (the veins and arteries coming in and going out, the names and functions of each chamber, the names and functions of the valves etc.  Once I'd learned that stuff, I got to dissect a sheep's heart and point out all those parts and explain how they worked.

2. Psychology class.  I had a paper due last week.  While it was only a four page paper, and thus should have been a walk in the park, the topic choices we had were either so very broad as to make writing only four pages a challenge, or narrowish, but uninteresting to me.  So, I fussed for far too much time over a paper on Operant Conditioning.

3. Massage Therapy Courses:

a.  Massage Theory and History -- mid term (and first) exam. We'd had some homework (3), but had not received any of them back, and had not learned our grades for them, so we sort of went in blind.  This wasn't that hard, but there was a lot of material to remember. Evidently, I got 93% on that.

b. Muskuloskeletal Anatomy - for this mid-term, we had to do a presentation about five muscles.  Being me, I spent far too long rounding up good pictures to show exactly where all of the attachments and insertions for the muscles were.  I thought I did pretty well, and they gave encouraging verbal feedback, but my grade on that hasn't made me happy.  We'll see WHY I got that grade when we get our feedback on Wednesday.

c. Massage Practice.  We had a proficiency test.  The challenge -- time.  Clock management is not my strong suit. I did five massages during the week prior to the test, but still need to shave 30-60 seconds off my time. ... But there are other things about the massage that we were graded on.  I'll find out what those were on Thursday.  

 That was school.

This sounds like a typical college student week.  But I'm not a typical college student.

Somehow it's different when you're an "older learner".  Perhaps its the part where in college I was responsible for ME.  Just me.  And now I'm responsible for me, Golf Pro (to an extent) and Kitty and Bookworm and the critters...  They're all pretty self sufficient, but my attention is still with them just to be sure. And so....

Then there was life  :-)

On Monday, I got to take Kitty to school by 6:30 a.m. so she could board a bus for the Illinois Music Educators Association All District Band Auditions... (she wowe'd 'em, and will be playing in the All District Band).  The rest of the world thought it was a holiday (well, except for MY school, where I took a quiz).

BookWorm has had a bunch of Marching Band related things to do, for which I'm the designated driver.

It took me most of the day Saturday to catch up with bills and long over due Seasons of Lace work, like creating polls for the lovely contests.

By Sunday, when all the stuff was over, I was ready to sleep the day away.  I didn't, of course, because despite all the mid-term papers and tests and stuff, I had homework to do.

 

 

A Knitters' Dilemma

I was "doing bills" today, and thus was plowing through what seems like in insurmountable pile of paper.  That pile contains receipts, credit card and bank statements, bills, and almost anything else folks think it's appropriate to send me in the mail that makes it past the first round of diverting incoming paper to the recycle bin.

After doing what I do with a swack of receipts, I came upon a "bill" that I'd really like to just by-pass for a while, because that bill requires me to make a decision.

It's my Interweave Knits Renewal chit.

Deep sigh.

Now, I'm a fan of owning ALL of things that come in sets. And among those sets for me are Interweave Knits and Knitters. 

In fact, I've kept up with Knitters for the past two years far more because I have the complete set than because I really think the magazine is worth it anymore. (Yes, Virginia, I do have all 103 issues).  As much as I once loved Rick Mondragon, I think his best stuff is behind him, and that he's been leading Knitters in a not very pretty direction since he took over.  I'm lucky if any given issue has even one thing I'd consider knitting in it.  And the rest has wholly failed to inspire me to make anything loosely based on it either.

But I'd grown used to being able to rely on Interweave to protect me from the ghastly, the boring and the garments that look like they'd never fit ANYONE.   My latest issue was all about what to do with huge chunky yarn.  Now, I think almost every yarn has its place, but I aslo think that no yarn is so wonderful that it should occupy an entire issue of any magazine:  There simply is NOT any one yarn that everyone loves enough for that.

So... lately, Interweave has failed to excite me.  True, it's yet to trot out anything truly ghastly, but .... well.... anything that has something nifty seems to be designed with -- oh something lame as part of it.  For example, in the recent issue, there's a cardigan with a very cool lace medallion back:

But the shoulders demonstrate such a complete lack of tailoring that, well, let's just say that despite searching for one, I couldn't find a single picture of this thing that looked like it fit the model from any view but the back. The front, to me, is... awkward at best. I know that's MY opinion, and I know that there are many who like it. Heck, that was the most recent issue, and already Ravelry shows that there are339 projects using this pattern.  But still, to me... I'd use the back, and the sleeve cuff, and have to redesign the front to make it into a garment I could wear.

So, I dither ....  Do I continue my subscription in the hopes that it wil wake up? (Vogue did that to me all the time -- every time I let my subscription lapse because the previous four issues were full of stuff worthy of the long missed "You Knit WHAT?" blog, Vogue popped up with an issue full of gold.)  Do I cling to it so that my collection will remain complete (and so I'll still have at least two magazines that show up all on their own?

Or, do I decide that those $25.00 are better used on ... well... yarn?