Twenty-fifth posting - Millie

For those of you who haven't heard, I got my first full body massage this week. My sister had given me a gift certificate months ago at a fancy local spa, and knowing it was hard to get an after-work appointment, I booked right away. With my pending move, the appointment snuck up on me, but in the midst of the stresses of moving, the timing was perfect.

Because my only experience was with a trainer's sport massage at the company gym, I didn't really know what to expect. I won't go into all the details, but I have a couple of overall thoughts. (I can hear the "Of course you do, Nathan," from everyone...) The music set a pleasant mood, although I was conscious when the theme changed from vaguely Asian waterfalls, to vaguely classical, to vaguely Indian trance... I was never really sure when it was appropriate to talk or comment on what Millie, my masseuse, was doing. At one point, I mentioned I had a bony shoulder from a bike accident (although because I was buck naked, she obviously had seen it). Then Millie said she once had foot trouble walking on the Coney Island boardwalk -- and at the same time she lifted the towel/blanket completely off of my legs, and a suddenly cool breeze where I didn't think there would be breeze that session. Not that I expected her to work under the blanket, but there was a lot more shifting of covers and exposing more body than I thought.

I suppose it's her job, and Millie saw me like a butcher sees a side of beef, or a floor sander sees planks in a newly purchased condo that requires a 25,000 watt generator to be parked behind a building with a four story electrical cord -- so the only intimacy in the room was in my own mind. By the end of the massage, though, I think I overcame the notion that she was being paid to do something illicit, although there's a lingering feeling that she really thought I was special... NATHAN