Monday, October 12, 2015

Thai Massage


My husband decided to show his appreciation of me and all I do by booking me a massage. What a sweet gesture! At least that's what I thought...

So I arrived and the massage parlor is gorgeous. Dark hardwood floors and softly lit sparkling chandeliers  Lovely relaxing music is playing and I am given bamboo sandals to wear. Then I am escorted to my "room" which is curtains surrounding a platform bed. I undress warily eying the cracks between the curtains then settle down to await my massage. 

The masseuse asks if I prefer light, medium or hard and I say hard because I've had deep tissue massage in the past and loved them. 

Big mistake. Really BIG mistake. 

First she sat on my back and then proceeded to literally walk all over me. I hadn't noticed the pole and scarf above me that assisted her tightrope act. Heels digging into pressure points over and over. Hurt so good until I finally felt each spot begin to relax. 

As she knelt down and began using her elbows on my spine I briefly wondered how much my husband paid this tiny Thai lady to beat the holy hell out of me. And why did she seem to be enjoying it so much? 

I'd like to say I spoke up and asked her to dial it back to medium or even light, but I didn't want to look like a wimp. So I bit my tongue and endured my pummeling like a champ. I mean, at one point she braced her body against the wall and pressed her feet deep into my shoulders.  She worked my entire body from head to toe for 90 minutes pulling and stretching me into yoga positions that I didn't even know I could do. 

Afterwards I felt stronger and like an incredible amount of blocked energy had been released. I also used a heating pad and sat in the hot tub. Sweet relief. 

I now know what it's like to be completely dominated and at the mercy of my captor. And you know me, I totally tipped her well for the torture. 

The moral of the story is don't say hard unless you mean it! 


Monday, October 5, 2015

Guns

Honestly, I'm tired of the gun debate. Both sides get irate and nothing gets done. We all have to admit there's a problem, right? Whether the deaths are mass shootings, homicides, suicides, accidental discharges surely we all can agree that reducing these incidents would be a good thing? 

People throw their hands up in the air. They say this is the world we live in today. These things "just happen". 

So, let's talk about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It happens. It's tragic. It's beyond awful and no one wants it to happen to anyone. We don't know exactly what causes it, although we have some ideas and we want to do what we can to mitigate those factors. 

One solution would be for everyone to just stop having babies. No babies=No SIDS. But a lot of us happen to think babies are pretty great. Some of us have babies and really have no business having a baby, but most of us love and care for our babies as we should.

So in 1994 after studying other countries and doing research the Back to Sleep campaign was released. It didn't stop SIDS completely, but it did reduce deaths by 50%. FIFTY PERCENT! That's huge! 

Now imagine we all worked together, looked at the factors. Did some research and found something that would reduce gun deaths by 50%. How incredible would that be? 

Maybe it's higher taxes so we can provide mental health care to those who need it. Maybe it's limiting ammunition. Maybe it's bringing criminal charges against parents who don't keep their guns properly stored. Maybe it's something that people smarter than me in the areas of gun safety figure out. 

But isn't it time to quit debating semantics and actually DO something?