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Monday, December 20, 2010

Clinic - 12/18/2010

I had my last public clinic of 2010 this past Saturday. I have eight more to go before I'm done.
Because BSOM has been running 2-4-1 specials in the Balt-y-more Sun, clinic was packed with clients.
As soon as I walked in the room to say that I was ready, they were giving me another client. Wow! Certainly beats sitting there and waiting for clients. As a result, I had another clinic day working on four clients!
I was quite tired afterward, but knowing that I could come home and be done with school for two weeks was quite rewarding.
I'm celebrating being off school this week by taking a few massage appointments for friends/family after work this week.
Honestly, I don't know what I'd do with the extra time if I weren't taking appointments. Probably be on facebook or youtube watching cat videos all night. Like this one: Animals Singing Jingle Bells
On Sunday, after Christmas day, I'm leaving for a week vacation in the Outer Banks. I will not think about school or massages. At least giving them. Hehe. My plan is to maybe get one while I'm on vacation. Wouldn't that be great?!!?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Day 138 - Can I Get an Amen!?!?!

Today was one of "those" days. It wasn't bad at the J-O-B, but we had one of the first snows of the season today. It began this morning, and it seemed that one by one, co-workers left and went home to miss either the snow or the traffic. It could go either way...people are nuts, ya know.
Anyway, knowing that my work commute is a whopping 14 minutes, I figured that I could handle staying until the end of the day. And I was busy the whole stinkin' time. I didn't even have time to primp my hair or do my nails!
Unfortunately, in those 14 commuting minutes, 12 of them are on a back, winding, hilly road.
Because I didn't feel like landing in a ravine or on the side of a tree, I really took it easy and it took me a whole 30 minutes to get home! That's over double my normal commute!
I couldn't handle that every day.
(Have I mentioned in my previous life, 30 minute commutes were considered a "good day"?)
There was a debate on whether or not we would actually have class or not tonight, and then after it was decreed that class would be held, a debate with myself if I would go or not.
But, after arriving home and freshening up a bit, I got back in the car, brought WGH with me, and we rode to Baltimore together. The roads weren't that bad, actually. And the traffic didn't stop/slow/get ugly until about the Patuxtant River bridge, close to I690-500.
Some call it 695, but I call it "six-ninety-five hundred" because of the way people* drive.
*I've become one of "those people."
Upon arriving at the school, I got my stuff, got into the classroom and we promptly took the anatomy final exam. After we finished, we were free to go because of the weather.
I actually stuck around after I finished. Well, mostly because WGH had gone off to the wild blue yonder that's also sometimes known as Arundel Mills Mall, but I also was able to find out my grade whilst waiting for him.
98% baby!
Yeah!
That's the way you do it!
Take that, Erector Spinae muscles! Oh yeah, transversospinalis muscles? What do you want, suboccipital? You want a piece of me, you sphenoid bone?
Don't worry, I got this.
Oh yeah...sorry. I tend to get excited about these sorts of things.
Tonight marked the end of classes for this year, so can I get an amen to that?!?!
I still have clinic on Saturday, but I think that's pretty easily handled.
So, in conclusion. I would like to say that WGH and I arrived home around 8:45 - and that was after making a pit-stop at Dunkin Donuts because SOMEBODY wanted a hot chocolate. Not naming any names or anything, Ricardo Leon Smith.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Day 137 - Almost There

One of my classmates said that whenever I mention anything lately, it's about the time off we have. Yeah, I'm a bit (a lot) excited about it. One more final tomorrow night.
Anyway, about tonight. I have been studying for this pathology quiz we had tonight for the last couple days. I think I did ok. I won't know the results until probably the new year. I may have actually gotten my first "B" out of this class. Wow. I'm just preparing myself for the possibility.
One thing I wish: I wish that when our Pathology "Textbook" talks about an abnormality, it would talk not only about what it is, where it came from, the functional significance, and the stuff it has in it now, but also how the Massage Therapist handles it - do we work on it or not?
After the quiz on the nervous system, we began learning about pathologies of the endocrine system. By the way, our "regular" teacher (still trying to figure out who our regular teacher is) was out sick so we had a TA teaching us the material. Since we aren't being quizzed or tested on this, and I was/am tired as an old coot, I left at the last break.
I'll have to make sure that I study endocrine pathologies before I take the national certification exam.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Day 136 - Shiatsu Takes My Breath

We had our final exam tonight for Shiatsu - a written portion and then a hands-on portion. I was quite confident in the written portion and highly confident for the hands-on portion.
We took the written portion first, and when I first got the exam, I brain-dumped the meridian circuits and any other pertinent information onto the back-page for reference. From there, I completed the hand and foot meridian points portion of the exam and then finally, to the rest of the exam. I was so confident in the whole thing, that I believed that I got a 100%. Later discussion revealed that I got a 99%.
I can live with that.
After I finished the written portion, I made a field trip to the gas station and filled up the tank. On a side note, since October 13th, when we purchased the commuter car, we have put approximately 7,000 miles on it. That's 7,000 miles in less than two months.
Wow.
Well, that's why we got that car. To put miles on it and not care.
Anyway, after returning to the school, I studied a little bit for the Pathology quiz tomorrow night and then began preparing for the hands-on portion of the Shiatsu exam. My partner went first performing the exam. She did well, I believe. Then we took a break and switched partners doing the work and it was my turn.
As soon as I started, I felt like I was breathing heavier than normal and my heart was beating faster than normal. I'm not usually one to get nervous over this sort of thing, but I had a pretty hard time trying to catch my breath while performing my protocol on my partner. Besides the fact that it's a very physical modality, if you don't center yourself just right to begin with, it takes way more effort to get there. I was "there," but my breath wasn't following me.
Well, I guess I should just keep working on getting back into shape and practicing yoga to help with flexibility and strength.
All-in-all, I think I did pretty well for both portions of the exam.
Another thing that we have learned in this class is that gas happens. Because of the physicality of this modality, sometimes gaseous expulsions have occurred, courtesy of fellow classmates. Tonight was no exception. And the best part: while the perpetrator of the expulsion was laughing because of the first expulsion, further expulsions ensued, which made the rest of the class lose their wu wei (beingness).
I guess this is better to happen in class, where we can get all the giggles out, rather than when it's our client on our table or on our Shiatsu mat.
In the meantime, WGH has been his wonderful, goofy self and been putting together our Christmas cards to get ready to mail out. Yeah, Christmas is in 10 days and we're just getting around to the cards. Considering that I was trying (unsuccessfully) to convince WGH that we didn't need to send out cards this year, I think we're doing pretty well.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Day 135 - Getting on My Nerve

Over the weekend, during clinic, I had four clients! I was tired after my shift, but I guess that's to be expected. My clients were quite pleasant, generally speaking.
One piece of advice, though. If you go get a massage, do the therapist a favor and bathe beforehand.
Thank you for your attention to this PSA.
In tonight's Pathology class, we learned more about abnormalities of the nervous system, both the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).
I found my nervous system starting to shut down around 9:00 tonight, though. Maybe it was the howling wind and cold outside and the warmth inside. Not sure, but at least I was able to get my notes down as best as I could.
Now I shall go let my body go into a parasympathetic state.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Day 134 - Shiatsu, Please, With Feeling

In our Shiatsu class tonight, we practiced our protocols and reviewed for the final exam next week. Also, we had a visitor, Gina, one of the school staff, who had come around to tell us about the new program the school has: Honor Roll. In order to be eligible, students would have to meet the requirements of at least 97% attendance and at least a 3.7 GPA for that five week session. She even had certificates with her for the students who made Honor Roll during the October term. Several of my classmates got them, but there was not one for me. I thought this was rather strange, being as how I'm always there and I have an overall GPA of 4.0. Oh, have I not bragged about that before? Let me now. I have a 4.0!
I gave her a puzzled look as she was walking out the door and she realized that what I was saying was, "where's mine?" She told the class that if anybody feels they deserve one but didn't get one, come see her. Well, don't you know that on the first break, I went to see her. I don't really care about the Honor Roll, but I do care about principle. The principle that says that I meet the requirements for it, and therefore, I should have gotten one. When she looked at my grades and attendance, she agreed, but apparently, not all of my grades have been turned in for clinic. Yes, we are graded for clinic.
Let's see, the session was mostly for October and early part of November, and it's now a month later. Is that not enough time to turn in grades?
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound snarky.
Well, yeah. Maybe I did.
Anyway, long story short: she'll be printing me out a certificate saying that I'm on the Honor Roll.
Now...who will be on the Ornery Roll?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Day 133 - Pathologeez

I have to say right now that I enjoy my classes, my classmates, and most of the teachers and even some of the substitutes. And as you know, there is always a BUT. BUT I'm really looking forward to not seeing any of them for two weeks over Christmas break. I need to just sit and stare* for awhile and not think about massage, anatomy, pathology, shiatsu, russian, acupressure, structure, cranialsacral, or professional development. If that's wrong, sorry.
At any rate, our teacher - I'm not really sure is supposed to be our "regular teacher" for Pathology anyway - wasn't there, so we got the joy of having one of our favs teach us tonight. She definitely knows how to handle our class, and I think that she is one of the only teachers that all of us respect and enjoy at the same time. And I'm not just saying that because I know she reads my blog.
Anyway, in our class tonight, we had a quiz first thing. Apparently, the majority of the class didn't do so well on it (I got seven out of 15), so she gave us the option of retaking it. I took the lifeline.
And ended up getting a 14 out of 15 in the re-take!
I have to say, Pathology has a lot of diseases/abnormalities that all sound the same, and it's really hard to remember which symptoms go with which name.
We then learned some pathologies of the nervous system. Some of them were very familiar, like ischemic stroke and intracranial inflammation - which is what happened to my dad almost exactly three years ago, but that's a whole long story in itself.
We also learned about seizures and some symptoms of the different types of seizures. Like muscle spasms or staring*. When we were talking about the symptom of staring, all I could think of is one of my frequent status updates on facebook: *blink*blink*stare*...meaning that I'm just so tired or out of it, that's all I can manage to do right at that moment.
Also of note, since we got CC (the Commuter Car), I fill it up with gas every night right before class or during the first break. Hey - with 200 miles a day between WGH and me, go figure. Anyway, oddly enough, the gas station I usually frequent next to the school was out of gas tonight. So I went to one down the street and found that it was also out of gas. What's going on in Linthicum that there is no gas???
There are a couple of guys that work at the gas station I normally go to. They are a trip. I was minding my own business a couple months ago, pre-paying for my gas with cash, and when I came back inside to get the change, Rashid told me that they don't give out change on Mondays. *blank stare*
The next night, he told me that they don't give out change on Tuesdays, so I said, "I thought that was Mondays." He said, "Monday is Kumail's night. Tuesday is my night." So we started a little rapport about it. Well, I had built up so much change from them, that one night, I took all of the one dollar bills to pre-pay for my gas and he was quite surprised and said something about all the ones. I told him that it was from all the times I worked the pole. I told him that I needed to get a better club where they throw fives and twentys. Yeah, I enjoy picking on my guys there.
Then there's the young lady that works at the Subway. She sees me and knows exactly what I want. Wow! Now that's service!
Anyway, a little long-winded tonight, but I remembered all these things that I wanted to share. Have a great night and a pleasant tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Day 132 - Anatogeez

I had not really looked at the class schedule for a few days and couldn't actually remember what class we had tonight. Therefore, I also did not study for the quiz we had. And guess what? Our regular teacher wasn't able to make it, so we had a substitute. Actually, he's one of our regular TA's, so that was cool. It seems that because the class as a whole is so comfortable with him that he didn't get the respect I feel he deserved with being our instructor for the evening. But such is life sometimes. He did the best he could in the situation.
At any rate, we learned the muscles in the head - minus the facial muscles. They are in the book, but we didn't really go over them. If they're on the national certification exam, I'll have to study them on my own.
We also reviewed for our final exam next week.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Day 131 - Break 'Em In

In our Shiatsu class (you know - every time I type that, I have to be uber-careful to make sure I spell that one right) tonight, our class had the pleasure of breaking in another new teacher to the school.
She seems eager, knowledgeable, and personable. Sometimes, though, you want to ease into it, ya know. Maybe kinda hang back and watch. Let the regular teacher do her thing. Let the students do what they're doing - you know - practicing - before you bust in and say, "Hey, let's do a demonstration!" Demos are great, but if you're already in the middle of practicing, it may not be the best time to do so.
Just my two pennies.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Day 130 - Almost Forgot

We had class tonight. Yes, on a FRIDAY!!!
It almost broke my heart, but it was so chill and relaxed. We enjoyed some pizza, worked on protocols for Shiatsu, and set up for clinic. It was all-good.
After class was over, a few of the classmates and I got together for a little play time and chilled out at Ruby Tuesday down the street from the school. Just a nice time to chill outside of school in real clothes, not our school uniforms.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Day 129 - Could I Get An Extension?

In tonight's Anatomy class, we studied the extensor muscles in the back. As a Massage Therapist, it will be imperative for me to know these muscles, as these are the areas that seem to give people the most problems. And why I'm here to help.
I think I could almost geek out on this anatomy stuff sometimes.
Then other times...nope!
On a "life" note, I would probably consider myself a fast food snob. My idea of "fast food" is Panera Bread, California Tortilla, or maybe even Arby's and get a Market Fresh sammich. I haven't been to the Golden Arches for a lunch or dinner sandwich in years. Now, their breakfasts...well, I'll just say that I could pretty much scarf those down, but if there's a Panera around, that's going to win in my book, hands down!
However, let's talk about Sonic. Here in Frederick County, we see commercials for Sonic, but there's no Sonic within an hour's radius to us, that I know of. I do love me some Sonic sammiches and especially their tator tots and vanilla malts.
Well, one of my friends from class mentioned that he thought there was a Sonic within a five minute drive of the school.
My mouth started watering, just thinking about it.
After class let out, I drove over to where he said it was, but it wasn't there. But my watering mouth was still there. And there happened to be Hardee's, Taco Bell, Golden Arches, KFC, and Wendy's around there, too, where the Sonic was supposed to be.
So you know what I did?
After pulling into KFC's drive-through to find it already closed, I pulled into Wendy's drive through and got a chicken club. And it was delicious. No fries or drink. Just the sammich.
Why are you telling us this, Stacy?
I've actually forgotten the last time I ate at Wendy's. I think it's been years as well for them. And BK. And Hardee's. Years!
I hope that this was my "fast food" fix for awhile. Well, at least until Sonic comes to town.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Day 128 - Pathology of Arthrology

We got to take a quiz tonight in Pathology class on abnormalities of the Intgument system! Exciting, right?
I got 12 out of 15. Pretty good for not really studying, I think. I've been so focused on doing stuff for Shiatsu class that I've sadly been neglecting Pathology and Anatomy. I better get on the schtick, then, eh?
For our lecture tonight, we studied more of the Musculoskeletal system, in particular Arthrology - or the study of joints. I guess in this case it would be the abnormalities of the study of joints.
I guess I learned something. We'll see, I suppose.