October 11, 2006:

I've worked 9 consecutive days in a row.  Either I really, really, really like my job or I'm an occupational masochist.  Heheh.  Not only do I love my job, I'm getting pretty good at it.  I look forward to work everyday.  I wake up in the morning, get the kids ready for school, pack their lunches and kiss them goodbye.  Then I take my shower and I'm out the door as well.  It's been a busy couple of weeks for me (I can't believe it's only been 2 weeks!) and I'm still trying my best to juggle everything.  I'm averaging 3-4 massage clients a day and I've been working non-stop.  Unfortunately, due to my over-zealousness, my forearms are killing me.  They're tight and sore and achy.  I've been using the Tiger Balm stuff to alleviate the muscle pain.  This stuff works well enough but I stink like a geriatric Chinese person's  medicine cabinet.  Hee-hee.  I have to start pacing myself before I burn out.

Other news, I got together with my friend Carole for a coffee date.  She is such a sweetie.  She's starting up her own massage business in the trendy 23rd area of Portland and she's so stressed out.  It was good to "talk shop" with someone else who's going thru the same thing as I am.  She has a little preschooler at home and she doesn't know how she's going to juggle home life and work and taking care of her son.  She's got a heart of gold and a good head on her shoulders so I know she'll do just fine.

Oh, and today, I only had one client in the morning and so I took the rest of the day off.  (Actually, I was on-call but it was a slow day.  If I don't have any clients, I don't have to stay at work, I can just leave and do errands or go grocery shopping.  I LOVE the flexibility this job offers!)  I went to the mall to pick up some new shirts for the boys to wear tomorrow for Picture Day.  Afterwards, I stopped by their school and had lunch with Jarod and Patrick.  It was pretty cool to have lunch with them in the cafeteria.  They like the attention they get from the other classmates, almost like they're bragging that their mom is having lunch with them.  I'm sure there'll come a day when they're going to be too embarrassed to be seen with their mother but for now, I'm enjoying every single moment of it.  :-)

I know there's a bunch of other things I wanted to write about but I'm going to bed.  I'm so tired.  Nite-nite.

 

 

October 2, 2006:

Last week was my first week of work.  I worked a total of 4 days and I had a total of 13 clients.  So far, I'm averaging about 3 clients a day.  Saturday was the killer though.  I massaged 5 clients that day and my arms paid the price.  The following day (Sunday) my arms were killing me.  I really could have used a massage myself, hehe.  I think the consensus among my friends and other people that I've talked to is to gradually build up to working on 4-5 clients per day.  I shouldn't be pushing myself so hard during the first week at the massage clinic.  I guess there's a part of me that feels like I have something to prove.  I want to make a difference in the world.  I want to make people feel better about themselves. Another part of me just wants to make a good impression on others.  Luckily I was on-call today and I ended up not having any clients today.  It gave my arms a chance to rest up a little bit more.  I've been doing lots of stretches and stripping down the arm muscles with deep tissue strokes.  It seems to do the trick and I feel a lot better today.  We'll see how things go tomorrow...  :)