Answering Service

I just keep disappearing don't I? Lots of stuff going on here. Very little of it any good but I won't bore you with it all today.

Let's answer some questions!

Yarnhog asked:
Did you enjoy being a massage therapist? If so, why? I always wonder when I get a massage if the person giving it is actually enjoying it, or if it's just a job and they're really watching the clock and thinking about what they're going to do after work.


My good friend Sandy from Tucson answered her in the comments. She writes:
This is for Yarnhog. I'm a massage therapist too, like Ruth, and I have to say it is an incredibly enjoyable thing to do. While there are some massage therapists who, undoubtedly, think of it as just a job, the really good ones don't.

Trust me, the client can tell whether the massage therapist is focused on him or her or is thinking of something else. It will come through in the therapist's touch.

There is something amazing about feeling the muscles and other soft tissues respond to our touch. It is the therapeutic connection between the therapist and the client that makes it worthwhile and fulfilling to perform massage.

Massage therapy is so much more than the therapist just doing some techniques. When it is done correctly, with genuine concern and regard for the client, it is a way to have human to human contact for no other reason than to help someone else feel better. It doesn't get any better than that.

I've been a massage therapist for 19 years. I can't imagine ever doing anything else.

Sandy in Tucson, AZ

I have to agree with everything she says! She is the most amazing therapist and also a published author!

For myself, personally, I did enjoy it. I worked at Loew's Ventana in Tucson for eight years. I also had my own practice. Working at Loew's was always a challenge. Not necessarily because the clients but because of the spa/resort itself. As the massage therapist's employed there, we would lovingly call it the "ghetto spa" as we were constantly running out of things like.... massage lotion.... fresh sheets (and they had their own laundromat in the hotel). In the 8 years I worked there I had 5 different Spa Directors and 8 different Spa Managers and that about sucked. There was only one Spa Director (the third one) who had any prior spa experience and the rest just made an easy, fun job into something full of misery and stress. On the plus side were 90% of the clients! Except for a select few, all my clients were lovely and appreciative! I did over 1000 massages per year and almost all of them were out-of-towners and rarely did we ever work on the same person twice. I worked on people from all 7 continents and all 50 states! I even got to work on some famous people. Lots of fun stories there and I'll get to them all someday. For now you can read my How-to's on getting a massage. Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. (They have lots of juicy stories!)

Truthfully, yes, there were days (or clients) where I'd be looking at the clock but for the most part my job was to make people feel better! What better job then that!

Pretty Knitty asked:
How did you come up with the idea for your stitch savers, and do you do other metalwork as well?

That's technically two questions. . .sorry!

I saw a tutorial online. In the tutorial, they used wire cutters and pliers to cut/bend things. At first I was making them for friends and the cut/bend thing didn't work for me. The hooks kept breaking. I got frustrated and broke out the Dremel. One friend showed them to the LYS owner and she said I should sell them to her wholesale and send them to knitty.com for their cool stuff page. I did both. I was one of the smaller features on knitty.com's cool stuff page (Spring 2008) and it's been pretty much gangbusters ever since!

I don't do any other metalwork. I don't think I'd like to either. I burned through three Dremel's in the first year, then I got some more heavy duty equipment and it's been a lot easier to make them. There's two stages for me: 1. Making them (this is the power tools in the garage phase) and 2. Putting them together (this is the jewelry making phase - beads, jump rings, etc.). I hate phase 1. It involves a really heavy duty gas mask thingy and there's aluminum dust EVERYwhere when I'm done. It's a real drag. I listen to books on tape while I'm in the garage and that makes it a bit easier. Last year, I listened to 26 books on tape this way!

K asked:
And tattoos? Pictures? Whys?
And how did you meet your husband?
And are the kids a detour, or was this the plan?
Garden?
Coffee or tea?
Favorite artist? Favorite color?
Favorite time of day?

I have six tattoos but it looks like only four. I have one around another one on my right scapula, I have one covering my first one on the front of my left hipbone and I have two on the outer side of my right upper thigh. I'll save the stories and pic's of those for their own post (mainly because I have to find those pic's of when they were fresh and beautiful!). I will say this....
I loved them when I first got them and I still love them. I want at least two more! I find that tattoos are oftentimes like religion. The only people who care if you have them are the people who don't want you to have them! (I guess that's the reverse of overly religious people?) I love when people say things like:
Them: What are you going to tell your children about them?
Me: I'll tell them the truth! I got my first tattoo when I was 21. When they are 21, they can do whatever they please with their body! Also, they've never known me without tattoos so it's really no big deal to them.

Them: If you like them so much, why didn't you get them where people can see them?
Me: I didn't get them for you or anybody else. I got them for me.

Them: What are you going to do when you're 80 and they are all old and stuff?
Me: If I'm 80 and my tattoos are the worst of my problems?? I'll be gooood!

How did I meet my husband? Another post. Actually, let's just make it a contest! (Yay - contests!) I'll let y'all guess where I met him. I will say that I met him while I was at work. But where was I working? I'll close this contest at the end of the month.....

The kids were totally planned. Dave's parents didn't have him until they were 40. Dave and I got married at age 30 and there was this whole negotiation about when to start having kids. He wanted to start immediately and I wanted to wait a bit. We compromised and after getting married in April 2000, we started trying to have kids in August 2000 (so I guess he won more then we compromised - hah!).

We chose August for a few reasons. Mainly because the baby would be born in May and 1. who the hell wants to be super-preggers in the soul-sucking summer heat that is Tucson and 2. the summer is the slow season at the spa I worked at so missing work wouldn't be as big a deal. It worked out so well the first time that we chose August again for the second one! We were lucky that both tries - BOOM - there ya go, first try and we're pregnant!

Garden? I'd love to but I've been known to kill cacti. My family had a lovely vegetable garden when I was a kid and I've always wanted that for our boys. So far, we've been renting in CO and have not had a real shot at planting anything. We tried a container garden at our Parker house but it failed rather miserably. We hope to buy our own place next year and then maybe we can plant some stuff!

Coffee or Tea? Neither, really. I've never liked coffee (love the way it smells, though!). My friend Donna has me addicted to Chai Lattes from Starbucks (sooooo sweet and spicy!). I don't drink hot tea but we do make quite a lot of iced tea in our house. We use two Luzianne bags and one bag of Celestial Seasonings Passion Peach in the iced tea maker. So lovely!

Favorite Artist? I recently kind of covered my tastes in art in this post. I can't really pinpoint a favorite.

Favorite color? I like dark red. Like really dark red. Not a purply red, not a bright red, not an orangey red, a deep garnet red. mmmmdeepgarnetredmmmm. Strangely I own nothing in this color (at least not clothing-wise, I have a few lovely specimens in the yarn department!) Most of my clothes are blue. You know, I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like blue. Have you? Anyway, I tend to gravitate towards deep jewel tones. Not a fan of pastels.

Favorite time of day? Either 9am or 9pm. I used to be a total night owl but now I like to go to bed btw 9 and 10p and I like to wake up btw 8 and 9a. Sadly, neither of those times seems to happen for sleeping or waking.

Anonymous asked:
you never talk about your family - just your husbands family - why?

In high school one of my friends used to tease me saying my family was a "walking Oprah show". There is sooooo much to talk about with them that I rarely know where to start so I usually don't say much at all. The short version is this:
As of today, my dad is on his fourth marriage, my mom is on her seventh and my brother is a recovering meth addict who's last girlfriend was a prostitute (he said what did he care, he didn't have to pay her. Ew.). Dave is much closer to his family then I am with mine. I talk to my dad about once a year. I talk to my bio-brother about the same. I talk to my mom a bit more - about once a month or so. I talk to my stepbrother Ron probably most of all lately (Hi Ron!). My mom and Ron read this blog but I know I've told my mom and I'm sure (since he reads this blog) that Ron knows, I don't censor my writing. This blog is as much diary/memoirs as anything else for me. I know I'll get into all that someday on this blog but it's such a convoluted mess and despite quite a bit of very effective therapy, it still has the power to make me all pissed off at how my family acts/acted.

Also, Dave's parents live about a half mile away from us so we see them much more then I see my family (most of them still live in CA where I grew up).

OK, so - don't forget the contest! Leave your comments about today's blog on this post but also put your guesses of where I was working/what was my job when I met Dave here! For those of you who know the answer, just raise your hand and say, "I know!" and I'll put your name in because I'm thinking there's two prizes. One prize for a correct answer (if more then one person guesses correctly, I'll put the names in a hat and draw) and a random-thanks-for-guessing prize.


Reliving the moment, Ruth!