School and stuff
August 6, 2011
Well, as of Sunday I am now officially a masseuse.
Nowadays the only way they give the test results is through the student’s page in the college’s internet site. Well, actually in the massage classes they give us the results to the various tests in class. I guess the doctors and student doctors who teach the western medicine classes want more officialdom. So finally after a week and a half of checking daily and up to 3 times daily, the test was listed with the result “not for publication,” which I immediately assumed meant that my results were so bad they weren’t going to publicize them. That was on the weekend, so I had to wait to call the school and ask about the result. It turned out it was just a computer-work glitch. I got an 84 on the final test of Anatomy and Physiology, which is good for me in a theoretical class taught and tested in Hebrew. Of course I had to learn for the test by reading up on all the material on the internet, and then try to understand how the questions in Hebrew related to what I had learned. Thank goodness for university websites. (Bless you Colorado State.) And it means I will finally get my diplomas from the classes I took last year and can get professional insurance and work in the field without fear of some bureaucratic axe falling on me.
One of the girls in the class is a graphic artist and I think I will ask her to help me design a business card. I did one last year before I realized that having put off the ANAP course meant I wouldn’t be able to work in any organized way or place. But it doesn’t fit my status after two years of learning. She has some good logical ideas for making a card that will hold up even as I continue to learn new things.
The Assistant Teacher to the Deep Tissue Course asked me to send a resume to a good sport center she works at and let her know so that she can recommend me to them. She said they need more really good masseuses. Yea! That encouraged me.
At work I asked for a raise from the latest manager. She said that the answer she got back from “the offices” is that a law is now in effect that people who have worked a particular length of time in one place must be given a 13th paycheck, and that will take the place of a raise for me. But I have tried to find out what that law says by searching online and what I find out is that the place of work decides what the terms of the 13th paycheck are. Which means at my place of work it will never happen. I thought that knowing it was coming in a certain time frame might make it worth holding out there longer, but since there are no guidelines and the bosses don’t care about the employees, I’m sure it would be a waste of time.
I thought I had a current resume ready and I showed it to the assistant teacher. She recommended stating specifically various types of massage that I had learned that they need at the sport center. So, what do you know, my computer stopped working.
I thought I would have to buy a new laptop because when I called the technician I’ve been using he said it could be an electrical problem within the computer and with the age of my computer, buying a new one would probably not cost much more that replacing all the effected parts. I couldn’t find the number of the place I bought my last computer so I called my step-son who had brought me there and got me a good price. He told me to go to a certain place in the city and ask for a particular person, then tell that person that my step-son thought it might be the electric cable (charger) that was problematic. He did an electrical check and said it was true there didn’t seem to be any activity in the charger. He tried a new one and voila! The computer turned on and started playing the music I had been listening to when it died. Yea! That saved me more than a thousand shekels for a new computer.
Now I need to redo the resume and send it off. I’m actually also interested in another job as a masseuse at a cosmetician’s as there I probably wouldn’t need to work on Shabbat, which would be a lot better for me, family-wise. That position was advertised a few weeks ago, though, so it could well be filled.
A week ago I had a massage job that I needed a clinic room to do. In the past I have either brought the treatment bed to people’s homes or worked at a cosmetician’s with her treatment bed when she called me in. I had a deal with a man with a clinic here in the village. He had two treatment rooms and rented one out. But he has since closed the clinic. In the end my sister-in-law let me use a refurbished apartment that she just uses occasionally for guests that come from outside the area. It is beautiful, with a beautiful view, which is good. But so hot! I opened it up the night before the treatment to air it out, but even so I was dehydrated for two days after that. We had a fan going and it wasn’t really noticeable how hot it really was. But the heat took its toll.
Having signed up to learn body centered psychotherapy starting this October, and having already started to pay for it, I am not in the greatest of financial states. I am also paying Israel’s Social Security for a mistake they made in paying me too much money a year ago. I wrote out three years worth of checks for 450 shekels each, to pay back what I didn’t know was a larger amount than I was supposed to be receiving. Giving them the checks gave me a “special deal” wherein I don’t have to pay interest on the amount. Now is school fee paying time as well as time to buy more books
I’m thinking about money because I could definitely use a car for private jobs, and to get to the sports center mentioned if I need to, as it is on the far side of the city. I’m also thinking if I really need a clinic, I might need to invest in an air conditioner for my sister-in-law’s apartment. I’m really leery about taking on the financial responsibility of a car. The air conditioner probably won’t be a necessary investment. There is apparently another woman in the village who rents out clinic space. I haven’t seen it yet, though.