Pain Threshold

I turned 30 yesterday.

I didn't really want any big fanfare, turning 30 just didn't seem like such a big deal when I actually came upon it. I can remember when I was in my mid-20s and some of my friends turned 30, and I thought it was a huge deal...but when it came my time, really it was just any other day. I just now have to remember to say that I am 30 when someone asks (not that it happens often).

I decided that I wanted to take a day off of work and go to the spa the whole day. It was bliss. I work from home and am a real homebody, so I don't really feel attached to this community. Not that I don't want to be, but I also don't feel left out. But being at a small town day spa I almost felt that I was on the set of some movie about a small town: the gossip and chit chat and stories you hear! It was like a session of cultural anthropology on the South. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

There was one story that cracked me up and I wanted to share it here. The owner of the spa told me about a soldier who wanted to get his chest waxed for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day. So he called and made an appointment. She said she usually doesn't wax men, but he pleaded with her. She spoke to him over the phone and warned him how painful it was going to be (he had never been waxed before). He said that he was aware of this, and all of his friends had warned him too, and also said he wouldn't be able to handle it, but he was sure he was going to, because after all, he had been on 2 tours in Iraq AND he had been shot there...so he knew what pain was. So she said she would do it, and she would understand if he wanted to bring in a few beers to dull the pain, before she started the procedure. So he came in, and she started waxing him, and did one strip on his chest....and then a second one...she saw that he wasn't doing too well, so she left the room for a few minutes to help her assistant who was dealing with a whole line of customers wanting gift certificates for Valentine's Day presents. She said when she came back into the room, the soldier was sitting upright on the table and twisted his torso to show her a pretty gruesome looking scar. He said: "this is where I got shot...and it did NOT hurt as much as this. Ma'am, I will gladly pay you for your time, but I can not complete the procedure. I apologize for wasting your time." The story reminded me of the waxing scene in The 40-year Old Virgin.

Now, I have personally never been waxed other than my eyebrows. I think it is amusing to think that women go through a procedure that would probably be against the Geneva Conventions falling under torture, and that someone who has experienced a gunshot wound in combat says that getting waxed is more painful...