Pain in the neck

Sorting through all the things you accumulate over a period of six years and figuring out how to move all of that back to America in two fifty pound suitcases is a pain in the neck.

But that’s not the pain in the neck I’m referring to.

I woke up with a slightly sore neck yesterday morning. And then (perhaps foolishly) I worked out. And then progressively throughout the day the pain increased. By the time I went to bed I could barely turn my head to the left.

Sleep didn’t fix the problem. In fact, if anything the problem was worse today. The good news is I still live in China where massage services are cheap. I’m not the biggest fan of massages. Frankly, I’m a wuss, and most of the time don’t consider the pain of a massage worth the results of a massage. However, after mercilessly mocking the fact I had to turn my entire body to look at them, my teammates gave a concerned plea to at least give a massage a shot. And so this afternoon I stopped by our neighborhood masseuse for a visit, and paid about $2 for forty minutes of work on my neck and upper back. As of now, the pain and stiffness hasn’t been reduced that significantly, but the masseuse instructed me to return tomorrow. For that price, I will likely spring for a second massage in hopes of getting rid of this pain in my neck so I can deal with the other more figurative pains in my neck.