masochistic massage

i've never had a massage done. i think on a not so subliminal level i'm afraid of what might happen to me. something could snap or unravel. how do i know that the tension within my muscles isn't precisely the thing that keeps my whole body from just coming apart all at once? then there's the whole personal space issue involved. i'm a very ticklish person so having a stranger rub and prod me can be more like torture i imagine. and i figure i'll be the guy who gets the girl or guy with large moles growing hair who smells like they haven't bathed in recent memory. but since i'd already done acupuncture and since amy had had such a great time a couple nights ago and when else am i going to get the chance to say i had two chinese girls giving me a massage in changsha, china? so i joined the other 6 or so in the group who didn't go the time before. there are some really funny guys in the group. one guy is from boston and it's just fun to hear him talk. about anything. his accent is great. at acupuncture he had them light up his shoulder because of an old hockey injury. they stuck him full of pins and then wired him to a light switch and lit him up. he turned white as a sheet and so morgan had them dial him down a couple notches and unplug a few pins. he did much better after that. he was in this group, too. so i figured i was in for a memorable if not fun time.

i didn't get as great of pictures as i could because i was laid out on my back with a gal working over my head and face and another one working my feet and legs. the feet and legs were almost torture due to the ticklish factor. the head and face were ok but when she got to my neck - oh man, i thought she was going to take my head clean off. then the face and head gal moved to my arms and back and by this time she was getting wore out. the other guys in the group got their shoulders done but my gal was sighing with exhaustion after doing my arms. morgan was in the room with us and he said they were talking about how much bigger western men are compared to chinese men. so i guess we don't get as much bang for the buck because they can't cover as much territory in the hour. oh well, it was still only about $10 for the hour. and then the really interesting thing happened. they took morgan and folded him in half, backwards. dave, the bostonian, thought that looked great so he had it done, too. i did get pictures of that because my gal had long since tired and left the room.

as we were leaving all the gals wanted their picture taken with a very blond girl from alabama who's here with her mom. dave the bostonian told them she was jessica simpson. i don't know if they know who she is because every time we go someplace they put on one of three western songs, usually it's richard marx singing "wherever you go" - you know, the love ballad where in the video he's singing to a crowd of smitten asian women - but sometimes it's michael jackson or even boys to men. oh, while i'm at it, i think the ice cream truck plays christmas tunes. i think it's an ice cream truck, i have never seen it only heard it, but it's the same style of music as an ice cream truck in the states. except it's jingle bells, santa claus is coming to town, etc. i've heard it twice now. for all i know it's the frozen fish head truck. i wonder if the songs played on ice cream trucks in the states are some familiar chinese tune, possibly from the chinese new year? wouldn't that be nice symmetry?

we're gathering up other white folks to brave another trip to wal-mart and the huge shopping district next to it. tonight we have dinner together and tomorrow we hop our flight to guangzhou. waiting around and doing nothing is kinda fun. joy is blossoming more and more, well to us it looks like blossoming, in reality she is becoming more herself. her and amy are getting along better, too. but i'm still number one. my back is paying for it. the kid is heavy. and there's a spot on my left thigh that's numb, i think from some kind of pinched nerve or after effects of 18 hours on the bouncy bus to yuanling. you'd think massage and acupuncture would help that sort of thing but being from the west the physics don't work the same i guess. all in all, an amazing trip.

one other new thing. the hotel just keeps filling up with more white people and their new asian babies. our section (the one where all the white people sit with their asian babies) in the restaurant is nearly full. on the one hand it's really cool to see. on the other it's a bit troubling because i know for every one little girl we see in this hotel how many more are there out there? it's one of those things you don't really want to process through all the way. why spoil the good time everybody is having?