Almost Two Months Out

I have been out of the massage therapy program for nearly two months. In that time, I have taken a weekend trip, a week vacation in Orlando, and the national certification exam. I have also submitted my application for the Maryland State juris prudence exam. And now, I am waiting to hear back from their office that I am approved to take the exam.
Until then, I am in the process of really trying to figure out what I want to do in massage. Ultimately, I believe, I want to be a sole proprietor and have my own clients, setting my own hours - even if it's 50 hours a week - it may not be the nine-to-five style that most Americans are accustomed. I am thinking of a name for my business and what exactly I want it to look like. Once I have a couple key elements down, then I'll get a better idea of what my pricing would be for various services. I think in the business world, they call it a "business plan" - and something we even discussed in our Professional Development class many months ago.
Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time with spreadsheets.

Seems Like It Never Ends

From April 19, 2010 to April 14, 2011, my focus was on finishing school - and doing it well, I might add. Once I got that done, I needed a break and I took WGH and myself to Florida for a week. Since returning, my focus was on studying for my national certification exam, which I took - and passed - yesterday.
To say I was relieved would be an understatement. During classes in school, the instructors would talk occasionally about what might be on the national exam. My understanding is that the national board uses a database of 3,000+ questions and (somewhat?) randomly chooses 160 questions for the applicants to answer. The questions have to be weighted in different areas and I wonder if they may have a handful of questions that are asked of each candidate, based on legal, business, and ethical subjects. It's been one of those mysterious things that you have to do, but you don't know exactly what to expect, but it eventually gets done. Which is why it is such a relief.
On the computerized exam, they have a button you can press on the question screen if you want to "flag" the question for further review. I flagged the very first question on my exam, which I thought was a really bad sign. However, once I got into the exam, I knew most of the questions right away and began enjoying it. In all, I had flagged maybe 10 questions. Out of 160, that's not too bad.
At any rate, now that I am done with the second hardest part of the whole process, I am beginning the hardest part - applying for the State of Maryland Juris Prudence exam. I say that it is the hardest part because of some of the loops that the state makes their applicants jump through. Such as not accepting personal checks, only certified checks or money orders. Or requiring two passport type photos, one of which is placed on the notary(!) page and stamped by the notary. And then, getting my signature notarized.
I know I will get it done, but it's a matter of taking the time to do it all. I've gotten this far, I know it's just a little bit more aggravation and then I'll be licensed.

Scheduled! (Note: Really Long Post)

After finishing school, WGH and I went on a weekend trip to the Eastern Shore, which ended up being a nice getaway for us. Our big trip, however, was going to Orlando, where we went on our honeymoon and where my sister and I own a timeshare.
The day we left for the trip, I got notice that I was able to schedule my national certification exam, which I promptly did. I am scheduled to take it Monday, May 23rd, about one week from now.
In the meantime, we left for Orlando after I "worked" half a day at the J-O-B. I don't know that I actually got much done that morning, but at least I was there.
We drove through the night and were able to watch the sunrise in St Augustine, FL, from Ft Marion. Unfortunately, there was some cloud cover on the horizon, so basically, we just watched it get lighter. We drove to Daytona using Rt 1 instead of the typical interstate, which makes for more interesting sight-seeing.

Uh-oh

Once we got back onto I-95, I realized that we needed to make a pit-stop before getting onto I-4, so we exited off the ramp for Ocala. While we waiting at the stoplight at the bottom of the ramp, we heard this HUGE crash and looked next to us (out the passenger side), where a pick-up truck had slammed into the back of a SUV. All the airbags were deployed in both vehicles and the young woman in the SUV was able to walk away after the paramedics checked her over. The driver of the pick-up, an older man, seemed confused and it appears that he may have been experiencing a some sort of medical event (diabetic? stroke? Alzheimer's?) and did not even try to stop at the light. According to one man who had seen him from the previous exit, he had already gone into a ditch and taken out a sign while getting back on the road. The other witness was on the phone with state police reporting his erratic driving and told them that the accident had occurred.
Also freaky about this event, was that there was a motorcycle rider, whom I had noticed before, who was sitting at the stoplight behind the SUV - on the passenger side. As the rider explained to me, the proper positioning of a rider is behind the driver, not the passenger. However, if he had been on the drivers side, we would have not been talking to this rider. The crash happened about a foot from him, and had he been in the proper position, we would have been finding pieces of him all over the road.
We stayed and waited until the police didn't need us any longer as witnesses and then proceeded to our waiting adventures in Orlando, albeit very freaked out and finding it somewhat difficult to get this out of our minds. What if we had been in the middle lane? What if the rider had followed protocol and been behind the driver? Needless to say, this won't be easily forgotten.
About an hour later, we found ourselves in Celebration, FL, sitting down to a scrumptious breakfast at the Market Street Cafe, where I had the best grits I've ever had. After breakfast we walked around a bit and then went exploring the Orlando around, seeing as how we had about four hours to kill until we could check in at the timeshare.
We got checked in and then went back out again to get the necessary groceries for the week and then came back and chilled out for awhile. Since we had been up for way over 24 hours, we ended up going to sleep early.
The next day, Sunday, we went swimming and then greeted my sister and hubby for their arrival. We had dinner and discussed about what we were going to do the rest of the week. It was mostly a "down" day. Meaning that we didn't do much. I love those days.

Monday

WGH and I went to Hollywood Studios at Disney. A long, hot day, but quite enjoyable. Highlights: the Indiana Jones adventure, the backlot tour, Prime Time Cafe with our waiter/brother Mark, and the extreme stunt show.

Tuesday

Mark, WGH, and I went to Universal's Islands of Adventure, where we got to experience the new Harry Potter world. Highlights: Dr Doom's tower, Poseidon's Fury, the Mystical Fountain, and Spiderman.

Wednesday

I treated myself to a day at the spa: hour massage, hour facial, 20 minute foot massage, and a& paraffin hand treatment. After all that pampering, I was able to walk so much better. For dinner that night, the four of us went to Universal's City Walk - to Emeril's restaurant. I had the short-ribs special (boneless!) and WGH had the filet mignon. For dessert, I had the vanilla bread pudding with cinnamon& ice cream. We were all quite full when we left.

Thursday

WGH and I went to Universal Studios, where "The Mummy," my favorite roller coaster, is located. It's not big like some of the others, but it actually tells a story and has some unexpected elements to it - besides the fact that it's an inside roller coaster and a good portion of it is in the dark. At Universal Studios, one thing to do to avoid lines for a couple of their more popular rides: get in the "Single Rider" line. You will get pulled to fill spaces left by groups of uneven numbers. For instance, on The Mummy, I walked up to where I was supposed to wait, but the attendant saw me coming up the steps and said, "Single Rider, line 4." I literally walked right onto the ride! WGHBeetlejuice Rock-n-Roll Revue, Twister, Jaws, and Disaster (formerly Earthquake).

Friday

We did nothing but hang out by the pool and in the pool.
Saturday morning, as we were getting ready to leave and still packing up stuff, the cleaning crew came in and began cleaning the other unit. I'm thinking - uh...we haven't even checked out yet. Can you give us a few? We checked out at exactly 10:00, the check-out time. And we had checked-in the previous Saturday at 4:00, the check-in time. I believe in getting my full vacation!
We met a lot of rain on the way home, and about 25 miles from home at 1:00 am, my mom called to say that she was stuck and needed help. Her blood sugar was down and she didn't have the strength to get herself to some food to bring up her sugar. She'd had a couple oreos that she keeps next to her for such occasions, but it wasn't enough. So, I pushed myself and got to her house and got her situated and back to where she needed to be. I certainly didn't need coffee after that adrenaline rush of getting to Mom.
After a tiring 14 hour drive, we finally got home, were greeted by the kitties, and then got to sleep.
My task this week is to study as much as I possibly can for the national exam in a week!

One Week Out of School

Since being out of school, I haven't had much to blog about, but don't want to totally ignore this awesome little blog. There's not much to report on the massage front, other than that the school has sent off my transcripts to the national certification board to go with my application.
As far as regular life, I enjoyed the weekend away on the Eastern Shore also, despite the rain, wind, and cloudiness on Saturday. I was even somewhat excited to get back to the J-O-B on Monday.
Prior to starting school, my routine after work consisted of maybe making dinner and then sitting in front of the TV for far too long and then going to bed. I used to think that I didn't have time to "do" anything during the week. The last year has taught be otherwise.
After my first week of being out of school, I have not fallen back into that routine, thank goodness, but have tried to do things around the house, take walks, make dinner, and then sit on the couch in front of the TV. I have certainly not been watching nearly as much TV as I used to before starting school.
I still have a lot of catching up to do with all that I missed in my house, but this is Easter weekend and I am not going to push myself too hard with that. Besides, I know I have time during the week and that makes a world of difference!

Day 189 - Sports Stretching (14 Days Left)

We had a lovely break from anatomy for our sports massage class tonight. After an hour of lecture about sports massage, its history and benefits and that sort of stuff, we got to see a demo of more stretches to do with our clients. Then we got to practice it ourselves. As far as I'm concerned this may be my least favorite modality, but the jury is still out on that. They may have to order pizza for these deliberations.
Because we're doing stretches and there are so many stretches to do, it's hard to remember them all, so that is somewhat frustrating as the practioner. However, as the receiver, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once again, because I sit all day in basically the same position, it's really great to have muscles moved around into different positions.
So, we'll see what the next three classes offer about this sports massage thing.
Now, on to more interesting stuff. This whole program is part of the requirements for being a Licensed Massage Therapist in the State of Maryland. The other requirements are passing a written national exam and a Maryland State jurisprudence exam. In addition, it's best to carry liability insurance through one of the national massage associations. Needless to say, studying for all these quizzes and exams doesn't stop once I get my certificate from the school. I still have a good couple weeks to a month or so of studying for the national exam.

This past weekend, I joined the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), and tonight, I submitted my application to take the national exam through the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB), along with my check for the exam fee.

With those two items down, I feel like I am right on track to where I want and need to be with working toward becoming fully licensed.
When I think about the period of time immediately following my graduation from this program, the only word I can describe that time is "detox." After living, breathing, and studying massage, anatomy, pathology, business, and the like, I will almost need to purge my system of all of that for a week or so afterward.