You kneaded me

Today was my massage appointment. I decided to check out Knead to Unwind since it is in my neighbourhood. Normally, I do not like cutesy business names. In fact, they turn me right off. But the place is really close by, so I let the name slide.

I was the last appointment of the day. I don't know why, but I had my guard up. I was all cool and business like as I talked to the massage therapist. In the room, as she asked me the "new client" questions, I leaned against the wall and avoided eye contact. I was feeling skeptical I guess, since my first experience wasn't so great.

Her technique was a bit different, and there was no butt massaging, but I think she was actually good. She wasn't chatty. She told me what to expect in terms of pain, and explained what she was doing. Apparently, I have a rib that's popped out. I would make the guess that that was a major contributor to my pain the last time I went for a massage.

I actually wasn't in any kind of pain this time when I booked the appointment. I just figured it was a good time to go and try again. But after the session the therapist basically told me I was a small mess. There is a lot of tension in my shoulders and neck. She asked me if I had a lot of stress in my life.

I shurgged. "New job, new relationship. I had a pilates class on Monday that left me pretty sore."

"Yeah, I'd say this is more than a hard pilates class. What you have has been building up for a while."

It's interesting to think that your muscles can tell a story. With her hands, the therapist could read me and tell that I was carrying around some emotional baggage. That alone was a comfort and made me want to book another appointment with her.

She recommended that I take a bath with Epsom salts when I got home to prevent soreness the next day, like I experienced last time. So on the way home I stopped at Shoppers and bought what must be a one kilogram bag of the stuff. Lavender scented. I don't really like baths. It feels weird to just sit there in a shallow pool of water. I can never get the temperature right either. But if it meant I wouldn't feel like I was beaten with a baseball bat the next day, I was willing to give it a shot.

I smell like an old lady now. My shoulder feels agrivated again, but I'm hoping that will work itself out by tomorrow.

I called Tyler before I went into the bath. We try to talk every night before we go to sleep. I miss him when we're not together. It's weird for me because usually I get sick of people pretty quickly, even people I really really like. Tyler doesn't seem to have that effect on me though. The other day he grabbed a chocolate chip cookie for me while getting one for himself. I held my hand out to accept it. When he placed it there I looked at it, frowned, turned it over, and frowned again. He burst out laughing. Then I started laughing. Tears rolled down my face I was laughing so hard.

"Why are we laughing?" I asked.

"Because I gave you a cookie and you were upset that it had hardly any chocolate chips." He was right. He was exactly right. How did he know? He just did. It's why I love him.

He grabbed me a replacement cookie, by the way, with more chocolatey goodness, so please don't send him angry letters for giving me a lame cookie.