Life has been crazy these past few months. Good crazy. Mostly.
One casualty of the busy has been that I haven’t been posting on AGMA very much. The other is that I haven’t had time to read all of your wonderful blogs. I hate that.
I went on two wonderful trips to Europe. Did I mention I love to travel? My question now is, why did I come home from the first one?
Looking back, it made no sense to fly over and back twice, endure jet lag twice, do all that packing and unpacking twice. The trips were five weeks apart. It would have been so much more practical for me to have hung out in Europe for those extra five weeks. Duh. So common sense, right? My husband, who is the founder of my travel feasts, might not agree. He’s such a buzzkill…
So at the same time I’m packing and unpacking, getting over jet lag and trying to find somebody to feed the cats, I was also in the middle of learning a complicated new clinical soft tissue manual therapy technique.
What the hell?
Oh, haven’t I ever mentioned that I’m a clinical soft tissue manual therapist (CSTMT)? Let me use another term that you might be more familiar with as long as you promise to respect me in the morning…
Massage therapist.
That first word carries soooo much baggage – I cringe when I have to use it to describe what I do. Now honestly, didn’t your eyebrows go up just a little bit? See…
My journey of becoming a massage therapist at 55 is a long story. It’s all part of the plan NOT to age gracefully. But that’s another blog post.
So to be clear, I’m not the type of massage therapist who advertises in the classified section in the back of The Riverfront Times or Creative Loafing, or on Craigslist. And whatever you do, never, EVER call me a masseuse. My eyes glaze over, roll up into their sockets, and I lose all bladder and bowel control. It’s not a pretty sight.
Anyway, I took a five day class to learn this fabulous new technique. It’ll help me help my clients resolve issues like frozen shoulder, carpel tunnel syndrome, runners knee, planter fasciitis, IT band issues and more, all without expensive unnecessary surgical intervention. This is the stuff dreams are made of for this AGMA CSTMT!
The class is just the beginning. To become proficient, I’m spending hours and hours studying the technique, complementary techniques and working on “guinea pig” clients. Hey – I give them a big price break…
Plus, now I’m studying to become a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT). Good Lord… I’m doing it because I need to be able to “legally” give corrective exercises to my clients as part of this new technique. In most states, giving exercises to clients is out of the scope of practice for a massage therapist. Translation – I can lose my license and/or get my ass sued off if a client hurts themselves doing one of the exercises. I can’t even guesstimate how many hours getting my CPT certification will take.
The icing on the “Is AGMA going crazy and why hasn’t she been posting much or been reading my blog?” cake is that I threw a big, elaborate baby shower for my daughter-in-law last weekend in Ohio. I live in Georgia. I literally couldn’t move on Monday and Tuesday. I was one tuckered puppy.
Oh yeah – the holidays are coming, the grandson is due to arrive in December and I’m training to run my first marathon in February.
I figure I can sleep in my 70’s…
Aging Gracefully My Ass 
Well, it sounds like you’ve got quite a thing going for yourself. Good for you. I have suffered twice from frozen shoulder (rotator cuff) am now dealing with planter fasciitis. I have an appointment next week with a podiatrist for the planter fasciitis; in the meantime, I’m limping badly. Any free advice as part of your therapeutic education?
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Have you tried rolling your foot on a golf ball to help soften the fascia? Let me know what the podiatrist says and for heaven’s sake, don’t let him cut on you! That is always the very last resort…
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There is NO WAY a donkey is running a marathon…..
😛 honest to [insert deity here] you are an inspiration. in both humor. and life. and we cannot have one sans the other
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You are so kind, but truly – an ass (of sorts) will be trying to run a marathon! Truth IS sometimes stranger than fiction… 🙂 Seriously, thank you much! My step-mother always told me I would be a late bloomer. Just kind of wish the blooming would have started before I was in my 50’s! But hey, better late than never right?
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Lucky, lucky you–a grandchild! Will this be your first?
I decided that I wanted one of those, and since my sister has TWO, I also decided that it is only fair that one of them becomes mine. I do a lot of deciding. It’s what I do best.
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He (name yet unrevealed) will be my first! And, depending on his disposition and if he minds his P’s and Q’s, possibly the last! 😉 I have a friend who is the same age as me who has seven, count them SEVEN, grandchildren with an 8th on the way. Where did I go wrong??
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I’m in my 70’s and you can’t count on being able to sleep then. I’m so busy I haven’t been able to write on my blog. And I’m only now catching up on all those I follow!
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You go Irenec!! I’m good with postponing sleep into my 80’s! Stay busy my friend!
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Great post. It sounds like there are a lot of great things going on in your life. Keep going and live it up!
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It’s feast or famine sometimes isn’t it? Last year at this time I had very little going on which is one reason I decided to start a blog. Now, I can barely eek out time to write once a week. But it’s something that I have really grown to love so what’s an AGMA to do? Thanks for your kind comment!
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