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_{It's one of those posts that I have been shelving for a while now because I was still debating against myself whether to hit that publish button or not. I know I have to post something and out of a lot of content that could be posted, I came up with this post. Whatever. Judge me all you want.}

One of the main reasons why I stick to Hive is that it can be my repository of memories. When I felt that no one cared about my blog before, I cheered myself up by having this idea that I am my first reader and audience, or at least the future me. That's why I decided that everything I should put here should be worthy to read at least for my future self. And that's when I realized that no one can ever take away that experience of showing my true self in this blockchain. Even if no one will read, upvote, or comment on my blog, my future self should be my first audience. At least when I'm old and don't have the energy to do the things I'm doing now, I have a treasure trove of memories immutably stored in this space.

Wow! Such a lengthy and emotional introduction when I will just be sharing my first full-body massage experience. 😂 Yes! In my 27 years of existence, it was the first time that another person was able to touch my butt cheeks! 😏

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Story Time!

You were already warned in the title! And I'll warn you again, this is too much information [TMI]! Stop here and go somewhere if you have something else to do. At the end of the day, it's just me being silly and putting myself in an unnecessary ~~spotlight~~ cringe. To be honest, my introverted self has been raising the alarm over this, but I won't stop from sharing this milestone. This is a milestone for me and no one can invalidate that! If your milestone is to get married and start a family, spare me from such because climate change and pandemics will probably kill us sooner or later. 😎

I have been talking about a lot of unnecessary stuff, so here's the story that I know some of you have been anticipating because I tweeted about this many weeks ago. As if you cared about my tweets. 😅

Last month, when we received our salary as researchers in our university, @glecerioberto invited me to have a full body massage because we were really sore from the leg day two days prior. We already talked about having a massage for a long time because I haven't experienced it yet. In our group of friends, Ivana and I are both introverts so the idea of having someone touching our bodies is just dreadful. But I have always wanted to experience it because I thought I should try those things that I haven't tried yet, like having a tattoo or sky diving. You know, those things I always dread before.

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Just across the university, there's this massage parlor called Moonshade Massage. My first impression from the name itself was that it's shady. You know, we hear those mysterious things they're doing in some massage parlors that became subjects during drinking sessions. But hey, I thought I should give it a try (not those shady business, bitch!), the massage I mean. They have a happy hour promo which would be until around 4 to 5 PM only for about $4. Since we went there are at almost 7 PM, we were not able to avail of the promo. It was fine because we just received our salary so we can splurge a little bit.

We went inside and we were told to wait for a few minutes because one masseuse was still attending to one customer. A few moments later, one lady told us to take off our shoes because she would wash our feet. Forgive my ignorant ass because I really didn't know that it's a standard protocol in massage parlors. It was a pleasant experience even if it was more like getting rid of the smell of stinky feet than an intensive washing as I would have imagined. The warm soapy water was a pleasant sensation to the skin.

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After our feet have been washed, we were told to get inside those dim quarters. Glebert was on the adjacent quarter, a slightly bigger quarter than mine. I can smell the aromatic oils wafting through the air while relaxing music was playing in the background. We were told to take off our clothes except for our underwear. I was a little bit nervous, but it was fine so far. I had to immediately lie down on that small bed and cover my exposed body with that small blanket. While waiting for the masseuse, I did some curation for PoSH because I was already behind my schedule. Yep, that's how I curate, almost everywhere.

The lady came in and asked me to choose the aromatic oil that I want for the massage. I chose rose oil. Then she asked me to remove my glasses and tuck my phone in my bag. She was very reassuring. I mean if those people will ask you for something, you can't really say no. She then told me to lie face down for she will start the massage.

The first thing she did was press my backbone somewhere in the middle of the shoulder blades and I could really hear those two pops that I felt my bones cracked. It was not painful though. It's as if she knew where to press. That sets the mood of the entire session. It was really nice.

In Cebuano, we have the term "panuhot" which is characterized by trapped air in some parts of the body, especially at the back. It's usually located beneath the skin and in some parts of the muscles. I really had a hard time finding the translation in English. The nearest term is subcutaneous emphysema, but I think that's even very different in terms of the origin and location of the trapped air. Anyway, as the masseuse was massaging my back, I felt that all my panuhot had been slowly removed. It was such a nice feeling.

Everything was well and good except on my legs. As I've mentioned above, we were having our leg day two days prior so my legs were really stiff and they hurt like crazy. As the masseuse was working on my legs, that was when I felt all the pain that I unconsciously resisted. She told me to relax, so I told her we had our leg day and it was really painful. With the leg part aside, everything was really nice. I didn't realize it was already one hour.

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After the massage, we were offered hot tea. Glebert asked me how was my first experience. I told him it was nice, but I have nothing to compare because it was my first time. He, on the other hand, said that he was not really that impressed. He said we will try those high-end and a little bit expensive massage parlors next time. I think I should try those next time because it was such a nice experience. As an introvert, all those fears and reservations about having a massage were proven not to be true.

I guess that's all for this post. How about you? How was your first massage experience? Would you dare to share them here? 😂 Anyway, see you in my next post! I hope it won't be a cringe post. As always, I appreciate all types of support!

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Kim Ybañez _{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying hard photographer so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.} _{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

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