Author: admin

HAPPY FATHERS’ DAY to all you dad out there working hard to be good, responsible role models!!! Good job!!!

Since the passing of my dad, I don’t really “celebrate” fathers day… My “observation” of it is to just kind of enjoy the day… So today, I was able to do a massage, then grab a chocolate milk tea from “Coffee or Tea” at Pearl Kai (new place, I’m sure they don’t need to the publicity, but it’s a cool alternative to the Starbucks), watch X-Men
Days of Future Past (good movie, lots of cool nods back to the previous X-Men movies and a solid set up to the upcoming movie), and then eat at La Tour Cafe (I tried the chicken sausage bahn mi… winner!!!). Not so conventional, but still pretty cool. We did observe Fathers’ Day with my grandpa at Tsukiji Restaurant… I was not so impressed with the food, ambience, or service in general; too loud, not so family friendly, and overall a bad choice for large group meals.

As the day wrapped up, I saw something on facebook that made me stop and think. One of my best friends is gonna have a baby soon. Exciting news, definitely, but for some reason, the baby mama likes to affectionally like to call the baby “Malakapoopoo”. According to her, it’s a term of affection and a dig at “the people from Hawaii that give their kids super long middle names”. I don’t consider myself as overly cultural sensitive, but for some weird reason, her using that name really bothers me… as you can see with me writing about it!!!

I decided to look up what malaka means in Hawaiian… according to the wehewehe.org website, it means mullato, having one white parent and one black parent… the term itself is slightly derogatory…. In Greek, its a slang meaning wanker. Poo poo on the otherhand means poop. My friend is part native Hawaiian while his fiance is not, she is of a Hispanic decent. Maybe I would find more humor if she was trying to dig on her own Spanish language as opposed to one she knows nothing about. I’m pretty sure calling the kid “mulatokaka” would piss her off… or maybe she would think it’s funny, I don’t know.

But anyway, here’s to my friend and the rest of the dad’s out there!!!

Alright, alright… we’ve reached June already… 2014 is definitely flying by and I have no idea where all the time goes. It was a pretty busy week at the office and oh yeah, there was that bank robbery downstairs in the American Savings Bank. Needless to say, I was blissfully ignorant of anything happening down at the bank because I was just wrapping up a massage session. Thankfully everyone was ok! Hopefully they catch those two guys and whoever else is helping them because honestly, it’s just not cool!

Aside from work, I was out and about this weekend. I was able to attend the Nijikai event for the Hawaii Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce. Lots of food and drinks and I saw a lot of random people I didn’t expect to see there so that was an added bonus. And then Saturday, we helped Nocturna Lounge celebrate their third anniversary! And again, I was able to see some of my fellow Oregon State alum I hadn’t seen since I left Corvallis in ’99… ish.

So yeah, a good, fun start to June… let’s keep the fun going!

One of my regulars came in yesterday. He’s a coach so I wanted to pick his brain on his own personal coaching style, some tips, and strategies to get information through to the kids better. As we were talking, he told me to watch this show on the Esquire network. The show is called “Friday Night Tykes”… There’s one free episode on youtube (http
//youtu.be/I99yEypRJHY)… It maybe one of the craziest things I had ever seen in a LONG time… Imagine if you will, a combination of “Varsity Blues” and “The Program” with a bunch of 8 & 9 year olds… Like seriously, it’s ridiculous… You have to watch it to believe it.

Anyways, FYI for everyone out there, I will be in the office this Monday… I believe it is Memorial Day, so if you want to schedule something, please call ahead to ensure availability, you know, like tomorrow or Saturday.

Thanks!

I finally had someone tell me that they read my blog!!! Woohoo!!! I was glad to hear that I amused them a little!!!
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Well, schools are getting out, so hopefully we’ll have a small respite from traffic… yeah, doubtful, I know, but hey, I can think wishfully…

It’s been a pretty busy couple of days… good since the weather has been so kooky. I’m thinking I’ll be a little bit busier in the next few weeks since I will also be helping out the JV Campbell summer league baseball team as well as helping the girls with the softball.

Eh… I’ll be back later with something else to blog…

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY to all the moms out there!!! I hope whatever you did, you had a fun time!

I was able to spend my mothers’ day with my mom… I helped cook dinner! But before that, I spent most of the day at the Central Oahu Regional Park (CORP for short) helping coach my friend’s daughters’ team… Needless to say, it was a long day for everyone involved. Like I said in the last post below, there were TWO doubleheaders, one today and one yesterday. I give a lot of credit to the moms that stayed and watched both doubleheaders this weekend… I think I might give them massages next weekend as a reward for their committment!
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I had another person get mad at me for running late on appointments. It is my bad and I’m sorry, but I really want to do my best job at helping those who really need massages to get better.

I wonder if people real these posts… or if the hashtags do anything also. I hope they do, but if they don’t it’s cool, there’s just a lot of random things on this blog!

Oh well, enough of the blabbering on… until next time!

It’s really hard to believe that we’re already headed into May… Man, does time fly…

I guess good news or bad news, things have been relatively quiet at the office. I did that event out in Ewa at the Hawaii Prince Golf Course… while it was fun, not to many people took advantage. Hopefully people come out next year and get a massage!!!

Mothers’ day is coming up for all of you out there… hopefully some of you will give your mom a massage (we have gift certificates, you know… or you can just schedule it up and bring her in yourself!). I think it will be a busy weekend for me next week because I have been helping out one of my friends coach his daughters’ softball team and they have 2 doubleheaders on Saturday AND Sunday. I never mind if it’s busy if I get to interact with positive people and everyone is having a good time!

Oh well though… Hope you all have a good rest of the week and weekend!

I have to say, it’s been a pretty good week and a half or so… thanks to the Good Friday/Easter weekend, I was able to stay relatively busy with a fun mix of returning clients and new one. But for all the good times, there was one person out there, as Thor’s brother Loki would say, was “burdened with glorious purpose” and decided to text me that I was a “horrible asshole”… After the past couple of difficult weeks, being called that by someone who knows nothing about me and what I do just made me laugh.

If being a “horrible asshole” means NOT answering the phone during a massage session or spending additional time to talk to my clients after their appointment, then yeah, by all means, that’s me!!! I have clients that encourage me to answer my phone calls or texts when it rings, but it’s just bad common courtesy… not to mention it breaks my massage flow! Unless it is of vital concern, I never answer the phone during session. If you pay for the massage, you get my undivided attention.

But no matter what it says on the outgoing voicemail message saying something to the effect that either we’re busy or in session, people will call, and call, and call, and call… and call… Currently the record is 15 calls without a message in a 30 minute span. (If you’re reading this,PLEASE don’t try to break that record!!!) It’s cool, leave a message, I will return your call… seriously!!!

So anyways, call or text, and set up an appointment!
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Alright, so after a pretty trying week two weeks, ago, things got back to normal at the office. I had a few of my regulars come back in for their maintenance massages. They always feel better when they leave, so that’s good. I really do appreciate them when they come in. During their time in the office, they often catch me up on their lives or just the things that are bothering them. I’m cool with that… it’s their hour for “therapy”, so while I can work on their sore backs, necks or what have you, they can also decompress and let go of the other non-physical stressors they may have. Honestly, sometimes they may need that more than the massage itself. People like to be listened to! And for the hour they’re in my office, I am a more than willing ear!

There are times I may be happier to see them than they are of me. Some times I need them to bounce ideas off of!!! And although I occasionally dwell on the difficult clients that may enter (and subsequently leave quickly from) my office, I never forget the awesome clients I have had the privilege of meeting throughout the time at my office.

Have a good week everyone!!!

Hey people reading this, it’s Aran… I dunno, I’ve had a rough day today at the office, so I decided to do something different… I thought I’d let you behind the curtain and share with you some of my thoughts about massage and maybe getting to know me better before coming in!

So anyways, a customer came in that really got to me. Here is what happened according to me

Client walks in to the office while on the phone… I say, “Hi, are you (her name)?”. Quietly, I point to the intake form and tell her can you fill this out. She sits and fills the form out. When she stands to give it to me, I ask her, “Do you need to go to the bathroom?” She says yes and I tell her outside and to your left. After a few minutes, she comes back in (still with her phone to her ear) and asks for her intake form and I ask why. She tells me, “Are you the one doing the massage too? Well, you are rude, on the phone and in person and with a smile, she adds, I’ll see you on yelp.”

See, yelp and I aren’t on the best of terms… I know, I’ve read ALL of them. Most are good; the people that like me, REALLY like me! But some have been less positive, some disparaging with some of the those attacking me personally. Don’t get me wrong, I realize that people are entitled to their opinion, but what I don’t like is that people feel like they have free reign to slash and burn a person or business with any repercussions.

I am a massage therapist by trade… I do massage. Having to set up appointments, that’s just what I have to do. I may not be the best at it, but I do the best I can. When people get to my office, at times, I should be nicer… sometimes I’m busy or just preoccupied with stuff on my mind, I’M HUMAN. I don’t say a lot at first because I want you to fill out our forms quickly… You’ve paid for an hour of massage, not to fill out forms and stuff. I ask questions quickly so you get on the table faster, so I can do the MASSAGE!!!

I’m not a dick… I care a lot about your well being and I take pride in helping people feel better… Come in for a massage and make up your own mind about me, don’t just believe the stuff people write on yelp about me. …

If you want to respond, feel free to write me at [email protected]