Vive la borg

This past weekend brought the borg together again to celebrate a collective 30th birthday. We assembled (sans husbands and/or posterity) at Jennie Rae's cabin where we've spent many a midnight hour discussing all the essentials and nonessentials.

I love this crew so much, not least because they seem to have loved me in spite of myself (if you could only witness some of the photos over the years!). But more than that, I love them individually for being the awesome women they are, for their angles and insights, for encouragement and understanding. Don't you love the experience of delighting in a person? This is not diminished by delight x 4 (or 5 or 20).

We each planned a meal and an activity. Activities included not-quite-professional massages, book discussions, an evening out in Salt Lake, purusing photos, a walk, and more talking than anything else. Eroo had the idea to go for massages at the Utah College of Massage Therapy: $25 for an hour massage! I recommend it even though my experience was less than optimal. I made the mistake of not requesting a female therapist (note: Eroo also had a male therapist and her experience was great). I didn't think gender was an issue to me but I didn't reckon on being stuck with a crusty man! I realized my mistake the minute he walked up and instantly revised my visions of a full-body massage to back only. I know massage is clinical but I didn't like the idea of this guy working me over. We retreated to the curtained massage room where my key to survival quickly became keeping those eyes shut. Blocking out the view of his white tennishoes did not fully do it however; I could still smell his cheap cologne and hear the smacking gum (don't they tell those students not to chew gum?!!). He spoke to me in whispers, "I'm going to push on you and I want you to rate the pressure from 0-10, we're looking for about a 7 and a 1/2, okay?" "Is that too hard?" I kept comparing his massage to Annie's (sister-in-law masseuse) and he didn't even come close. He didn't even compare with Martin who hasn't had ANY professional training, though a good deal of practice on this particular body. At one point Masseur had me roll over to work on my neck and he started massaging my earlobes. Then he just took hold of my ears in the middle with his thumbs and forefingers and just held them for a minute. Someone please tell me, is there a purpose in this? There is not a lot of ear muscle, nor could I feel any trigger points being roused; I thought I was going to bust out laughing for sure! I tried to keep my smiles under control and think of something else. It didn't help to suddenly remember a hilarious story from the night before involving a cape! Sadly, I really was anxious for the massage to end--a sure sign of failure as I could easily give way to skilled hands for hours. Ah well, it was an experience, just one more to chalk up with the borg and laugh about. "Are you still with me?"
















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