My first massage

My last post reminded me of my first massage. It's kind of a funny story so I thought I'd share.

As you might have guessed, I'm not a touchy-feely person. I do not like hugs from people I'm not very very close with (in other words, if you're not my mom, my best friend or my husband, hands off!) I spend 30 years of my life purposely not getting a massage cuz I knew I'd be weirded out by a stranger touching me. Well, last year for my 30th birthday, my in-laws got me a gift certificate for services at the salon my mother-in-law frequents. I appreciated the thought (how were they do know I didn't want a massage?...she gets them all the time), but I was thinking I'd never use it. I don't have acrylic nails, I am very faithful to my own hair dresser at a different salon and I wasn't about to use it for hair services, and I wasn't interested in a massage. But, a few weeds later I started getting really bad headaches from my neck/shoulder area due to lots of computer work at my old job. I kept telling my husband I needed to see a chiropractor, but decided I should get over my phobia and try a massage first since I had a free one coming. The day I scheduled it I felt like an idiot, because people just assume an adult woman has had one before. I tried to pretend like I was all worldly and sophisticated. I explained to the lady that I had a gift certificate and that I needed to try to get rid of neck/shoulder tension and she suggested a Sweedish deep tissue treatment and said I had enough for one hour. So,that's what was scheduled.

Now, I don't know what I was thinking, but never thought for a second that the massage would be anywhere but my back. That's all I had ever seen on TV. It makes sense now that it would be all over.....what else is the poor girl going to do for a whole hour?! But I did not properly prepare...it was the end of February and really really cold, my husband had been working nights and I hadmy period....all of which were contributing factors for the weeds of stubble of leg hair I had going on. I never even thought for a second a perfect stranger would be rubbing up on my bare legs. Keep in mind that at this point, I'm already tense because I don't know what to expect from this experience, she has already gone to down on the very painful knots in my shoulders, and because of her pushing down so hard, not only is my back hurting but my nipple is all chafed from rubbing up and down on the cheap sheet under me. When she moved down to lower half, and I could tell she was about to move the sheet to expose my leg, I panicked and lifted my head and said "what are you doing?!" She very calmly said "I'm just going to massage your leg, but I promise you I will not go too high or touch anything inappropriate. I can even stay below the knee if you want". Good God, the poor girl must think I've been sexually abused or something!? At that point I figured I must fess up so she didn't call the cops on my husband or something. I had to say very sheepishly..."no I, uh, I haven't shaved in a few days" when in truth it had been about 3 weeks. Of course she was professional and said not to worry, she had seen worse, but I'm sure she hadn't.

I left that place feeling so stiff and sore it was rediculous. When my husband asked me how it went and I told him the story he said "you're the only person I know who can go in for stress relief and come out more stressed". He must have told his mom, because I noticed that this year she gave me a gift certificate for my own salon.