boingy boingy boingy!

So, yeah, Platypus the Genius managed to forget that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I got up early so I could call the health insurance place and didn't realize what was going on until I got the automated voice saying "(Office) is closed for the holiday". Of course this did not happen until I'd had about half my first cup of coffee, and so I am now far too hyped up to go back to sleep. Ergo, I harass and befuddle you, O Internetz!

I know you've missed me, right? I've been really locked up in my own head for the past (few) months, which makes it hard to think of anything to babble nonsensically about to the world in general. However, I seem to have managed to wade through whatever mental jello it was slowing me down...now I am back to my old spastic, verbose, easily-entertained self. Woohoo!

Anyway, Big Doings in the World of the Platypus have included setting a date for that whole gettin' married thing (May 19th, if you're curious); listening to Eve 6 and Barenaked Ladies semi-obsessively (not that this is anything new); increasing my daily amount of exercise (because I want to be all sexalicious with my bad self on my weddin' day, natch); and writing stupidly long sentences (yes, I do this in my pen-and-paper journal too). Mr. Platypus had a job interview with Big Important Research Hospital a week ago, and now we're frantically hoping that they'll call him back. (Would have been nice if they'd done so like, four days ago, but so it goes.) That whole Mr.-Platypus's-Job-Search thing is kind of on a mental back burner for me right now, so I think that's all I'll say on that subject.

I just know you're all eagerly awaiting the details on the Wedding Plans of Scary Doom, so I shall fill you in. We are having a very small (one might almost say microscopic) ceremony in a park that has a gazebo. Hopefully, my friend/coworker who happens to be an ordained minister will be able to officiate for us; that will both save me some money and make the ceremony more meaningful. My best friend will be there to take pictures and sign as a witness. That's gonna be it as far as attendees, unless a random raccoon or other small animal happens to be sitting in the gazebo whilst we're exchanging vows. Afterwards, we are going to go out for lunch or for dinner together; I just have to figure out what restaurant we're going to choose. It'll probably be an afternoon ceremony, 'cause none of the four of us are really morning people. As far as dress, rings, and all that sort of thing, I've got that pretty much sorted. I've had the dress for about two years now; it's a lime green cotton halter-top sundress that looks all pretty. (I just have to dye it a slightly darker shade of green so it's not translucent, although people being able to clearly see my undies while I'm getting hitched would be HAWT.) We're going with simple tungsten carbide rings, and I'm not bothering with flowers.

The tl;dr version of that paragraph is that I'm having an itsy-bitsy inexpensive wedding because I am just awesome like that.

Anyway. No especially entertaining client stories, although at one point during the past few months, I did have a client I found very thought-provoking. This teenager came in for a massage, and at first came across as one of those cocky little asshats who needs a big ol' slap with the Reality Stick. During the massage, they started to open up a little bit...turns out that they're getting ready to go off to Florida for college, that they've only been that far from Massachusetts once (when they were three), and that they're going through a really tough time right now. They come from a hyper-religious family, and they're starting to question all the stuff that's been shoved down their throat as fact for the past 18 years...which is a bitch of a position to be in even when you're not about to take that big scary leap of jumping out of the nest.

I remember how alone I felt when I started questioning the faith in which my parents attempted to raise me...that SUCKED. For serious. Fortunately, a lot of my friends were going through the same general sort of stage at the time, so we kind of leaned on one another and found a "life raft" to cling to in the form of paganism. Kind of replacing one drug with another, I suppose. Anyway, it wasn't until maybe three years ago or so that I started becoming disenchanted with that whole "woo, lookit me, I'm a fancy witch!" schtick...and that opened up a whole other can of worms for me. I'd been kind of dancing around the edges of sitting down and trying to logically think out the whole dilemma, but that was the point where I started realizing that it doesn't really make sense for there to be some sort of god figure out there. Long story short, becoming an atheist was definitely a long, drawn-out process for me with a lot of tangents and dead-ends along the way; that made it a lot easier for me to empathize with Kid Who Turned Out Not To Be Arrogant.

I was able to send them out the door with a short list of books to read that I thought might help them realize that there's a world of options out there as far as belief structures go, as well as the reassurance that they aren't alone. I hope it helped. I've had them on my mind a lot lately, just wondering how they're doing and wishing I could somehow do more to be of assistance. I figure that suggesting The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins for the win!), The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Carl Sagan), and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I miss you, Douglas Adams) should hopefully have given the kid a bit more of a "toolbox" with which to tackle the issue, so to speak.

Anyway, now it's breakfast time. To the kitchen!

Excitement and apprehension!

So, this is going to be my next big endeavor.

Assuming I can get my G.E.D.-earning, flunking-out-of-community-college, deranged-massage-therapist ass into Boston University after slamming through a few prereq courses at one of the community colleges.

I sent off for admissions info today, and I find it amusing that I'm already wibbling about "oh em gee, what if they laugh in my face, what will I DOOOOO?" Let's just say that I am very good at talking myself out of taking risks once I take steps towards actually taking them...did that sentence make sense? Yeah. Anyway.

All the woo and wackadoo behavior I keep seeing within the massage industry has me pretty much soured on staying in it for the long haul, which is kind of depressing when you consider that I only graduated from massage school last December. Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I love helping people feel more comfortable in their own bodies, both mentally and physically. I do not, however, love all the nonsense about reflexology, acupuncture, and whatnot that people seem so much more prone to buying into when they're involved with massage in some way. I do not love the ridiculous assertions that poking someone in a particular spot on their foot will cure their thyroid issues, or that jabbing a needle into a supposed "chi point" will "correct" the "imbalances" causing a person's health issues.

Really, I'm working in the wrong field, and I'm fully cognizant of that. I'm not going to try to paint myself as some kind of uber-skeptic or some such...I do my best to think rationally and carefully research new topics in healthcare, and I do my best to consider things from a fair and balanced standpoint. I'm only human, however; I know that there are things I buy into that are complete stuff-and-nonsense. On the other hand, when I'm in a field packed with people who think that all this alt-med bullshit is actually worthwhile, I start to feel like the lone thinker in a sea of crazy.

Bluh. I can't maintain a coherent train of thought right now.