Category: Uncategorized

“Northern Virginia” is a local colloquialism for the counties closest to DC. It does not mean the top half of the state.

Over the years, I sporadically have received appointment requests for locations that are no where close to Northern Virginia but are technically in the top half of Virginia. This post was prompted though by someone booking from a location adjacent to, but not even in the top half of Virginia. They knew I only went to Northern Virginia, but was their location close enough? (I don’t want to put them on further blast so feel free to ask me at your next appointment.)

The precise definition of Northern Virginia is always a good debate. People have been trying to expand it for ever. I grew up in Vienna, clear NoVA territory, so my definition was decided long ago. It is indeed heavily prejudiced by how distance was measured when I was a kid but also by how much worse traffic has gotten over the years.

My Northern Virginia definition is Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William counties (all cities and towns contained therein), plus the border towns of Ashburn, South Riding, and Sterling. It is not up for debate unless you have managed to get from Haymarket to Triangle during rush hour in less than an hour. And it’s not going to be a debate, it’s just me asking for your secrets.

Currently you can pay for services by cash, check, credit card, paypal, venmo, cash app, zelle, and now Schedulicity Pay.

I am not requiring prepayments/deposits on appointments or even a card on file for potential no-shows. (My generous cancelation policy is also not changing.) As always, my goal in adding a new payment option is to make paying me as easy as possible. If it’s not easy for you, pick another way instead.

It does save me a percentage point in fees to run a credit card this way at the end of your service than it does for me to use Square like I normally do. I can also send you the invoice via text message and you can pay via that text message from your own phone, which I thought was kind of fun.

It is totally okay to pay with Square as usual instead. With the rule change last year (or was it back in 2020?), everything I pay in credit card fees is now a tax deduction so it truly doesn’t matter either way.

I’m just going to speak plainly since that’s what I do. 

I absolutely believe that Black lives matter. The way Black people are regularly senselessly murdered by police makes my heart sick but I am no longer surprised by it. I support the current protests and to be honest, I don’t mind the rioting. Riots gave women the right to vote, gave us labor rights, civil rights, gay rights… if a few building fires and looting will make the police stop murdering Black people and face real consequences for doing so, let’s go. Property can be replaced, murder victims cannot. 

I acknowledge my privilege as a white woman. I am doing the work to be anti-racist and unlearn the engrained white supremacy of growing up in American society with its institutional racism. 

I have screwed up in the past, I’m likely to screw up in the future. Having adhd means that sometimes my mouth moves before my brain does and what comes out may be more clumsy/awkward than I intend. Please do call me out when I’m wrong. The moment may be uncomfortable but I am always grateful to learn and do better. The last thing I ever want to do is make anyone uncomfortable – that’s not very relaxing!

Just wanted to write a quick post about reviews. Reviews are a great way to help my business. I know the ones that go viral are long and hilarious but they don’t have to be long or hilarious. Short & factual reviews are just fine. 

If you don’t know what to say, here’s a few ideas:

• was I on time?
• was I pleasant to deal with?
• did I focus on what you wanted to focus on?
• would you hire me again?
• would you recommend me to a friend? 
• did you feel better after your massage? Less pain, more range of motion, calmer, able to sleep easier?

Here’s where you can leave reviews:

• Facebook (I think you can just give a star rating without writing a review on Facebook)
• Google
• Yelp

Thanks in advance for helping me out! 🙂

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The July update is still coming along, it’s going to get its own page. In the meantime, the new things are: no hotels, no tourists, no out of town visitors, no apartments at all (so please don’t believe the exemption below, it no longer exists). Everything else remains the same because this disease is still a hard pass for me.

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The mid-June update:

I’m not pleased with how any government is dealing with this pandemic so let me just say that the following is here to stay until the pandemic is over.

• Masks for me and you.
• I’m staying close to the exit.
• You are welcome to provide your own sheets (table is about Twin size but anything larger is also fine). I am trying to develop the habit of bagging the sheets post -massage so feel free to mention it if you don’t see me doing it.

And of course everything below as well.

More than the death or ventilator possibilities, what really concerns me are the stories from survivors about how long it’s taken to feel normal afterwards. There’s many people who for weeks afterward would walk upstairs in their home and need a nap. Walking up a flight of stairs is like me getting all 80 pounds of gear out of my car and carrying it up to your front door. If that alone exhausts me, how long would it take for me to actually get back to work? Nope, no thanks, not it.

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Here’s the end of April update:

The more I learn about this disease and how contagious it is … the more concerned I get. So here’s what I’m thinking:

• I’m not working in hotels or apartments (unless its a ground floor unit I can access it directly from outside, like if there’s a patio (I don’t want to use any common doors or breathe in any common areas). There’s just too many unknown factors that are not under anyone’s control.
• I’m only working in living rooms, unless there’s a room closer to the front door I can use. I mention this below but for real, for real, this is now a firm thing.
• I will be wearing a mask during the massage. I’m still adjusting to wearing a mask, so far, not a fan but I’m happy to do what I can to keep us healthy.
• I am developing a second intake form specifically for COVID-19, it’s mostly to ensure we are both healthy and not going to sue each other over accidental infection.

So far I’m still healthy (absolutely knocking on wood as I type that). And as this pandemic is developing, so is this page. I am very concerned about Virginia opening too soon, and a second wave coming through as that’s what happened with the Spanish Flu. So we’ll see what happens.

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The obvious points:

• Don’t book if you’re sick or if you’ve been exposed to this virus until you are cleared from quarantine. 
• Cancel your appointment if you’ve been exposed or you are sick. There’s no penalty for last minute cancellations due to this virus but kindly cancel ASAP. 

Thanks in advance for helping to keep me healthy and free from having to quarantine myself. 

I am not shutting down for the virus unless/until I’ve been exposed or get sick. I’ve been debating this and here’s what I think: so long as our households are both healthy, getting a massage should be fine, especially with the precautions I’ve listed below. If you disagree, that’s fine, don’t book right now.

When my schedule is free (to be honest, my schedule is very, very free these days), I’m keeping socially isolated at home with my cats these days. I have lots of books to read and yarn to knit up – my inner introvert has been preparing for this for years!

As you know, I wash my hands before and after every massage. I am wiping down all of my equipment and bottles with Clorox wipes after every client (to be time efficient, I do this in my car rather than in your home). I sanitize my hands before getting out of my car. My sheets are professionally laundered & live in a plastic bag in my back seat until I grab them to use in a session. 

These are some ideas I have had to make us both feel more comfortable. 

Before I arrive: 

• Plan a space closer to the front door so I’m not walking so far into your home. 
• Let me know in advance if you want me to take off my shoes or wear shoe covers. 
• Let me know if you want to use your own sheets.
• Spray some Lysol around where we’re going to be. 

While I’m there:

• Opt to skip working on the scalp and neck (the only time are our heads would be in close proximity). 
• Wear a robe to change in and out of.
• Wash your hands after the massage when you’ve gotten up and dressed. 
• Pay via the prepay link on my website (melissa.to/prepay), Venmo (@MelissaRocks) or Cash app ($MelissaMorse) to eliminate a point of contact.

After I leave: 

• Spray the area again with Lysol. 
• Take a shower.
• Wash the robe (and sheets if you used your own).

If you have other ideas, I’m definitely open to hearing them. If you have any questions, please ask me. If you’re still uncomfortable, then please don’t book until you are. You know I’ll be here still when this is all over. 

If I do get exposed or sick, I’ll be canceling all appointments and taking my schedule offline until I’m out of quarantine or feeling healthy again. In the meantime, I’m taking my vitamins and using essential oils to boost my immune system and maybe finishing some knitting projects.

hello! I’m apparently just updating this site on an annual basis these days. Here’s what’s going on now.

First, I am no longer assisting at my friend’s business so my schedule is back to being fully open six days of the week. This is most obvious on Thursday which had been blocked off until 3 or 4pm most weeks and now is open starting at 10am.

It’s true. By request, I’m opening Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10am. These appointments must be made in advance. Otherwise appointments start at 11am and run until shortly before midnight (last appointment is 10/10:30pm).

There will be a small price increase on the 90 and 120 minute sessions, and by small, I mean like $2-5, which will begin at the new year. I’m still working on the numbers but the differences will be small.

There is a new policy on hotels. I’ve gone back and forth on it. For the last few months, I’ve alternated between telling people that I don’t work in hotels anymore and being super obnoxious about imposing several rules and fees to avoid working in them. I have had no shortage of awful, terrible experiences at hotels – people just wasting my time left and right. But I still have people asking and booking online at hotels. So time for an official, real policy.

Hotel Policy: There’s a $50 hotel fee, and the full hotel & service fee need to be paid in advance, 24 hours preferred, 4 hours mandatory. Go to mkt.com/melissarocksmassage and scroll to Hotel Massage. Any cancelations made less than 4 hours before the appointment will be refunded 50%, cancelations made less than an hour before the appointment will not be refunded.
It’s surprisingly serious, I know. But I seriously hate having my time wasted.

Quick note on payment options, I do now accept Zelle and Venmo for payments. I’ve only had someone ask once about BitCoin and the truth is that it makes no sense to me and doesn’t seem to be easily converted into cash, so I don’t take BitCoin and unless those two things change, I won’t be taking BitCoin.

And this is the part of the update where I swear I’m forgetting something but I have no idea what it is. So maybe there will be a part two this year! We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll hope to see you on the table soon! 🙂

While my phone number remains the same, I did finally hire an assistant to return phone calls, since, let’s be honest, that’s the worst thing about me. You can still reach me directly through texts and emails.

I’ve changed my default email address to book@melissarocksmassage.com. I spend a lot of time in entrepreneurial groups, which have a lot of UK/Australian members so I wasn’t sure if book@ or bookin@ would be better so I am sort of using both. I’ll be whittling it down to book though. I think. For now anyway.

I have created a new intake form. Yeah, that’s the least exciting update.

I finally got the HelloBar working on this version of my site.

I registered some short domains so soon all my links will be cute and short (ever create a Google form? If not, it’s like 98 random characters – that’s not exactly sharable.).

And the last, somewhat sad update is that I am struggling with the plugin that I use to backup my sites. As soon as that is set here, I’ll be taking the original Melissa Rocks Massage site and setting that subdomain to forward to this domain. That’s the sad part. I’ve had that site for … idk, like forever. It’s an end of an era. At the same time, I feel fully committed and more … professional with this site and email address.

Go, tinybiz, go! 🙂

Tonight I figured out how to add online scheduling to my Facebook page! Feel free to try it out. 😀

AND I added instant gift certificates to my Schedulicity listing. It’s with a different company than the instant gift certificates on my website, but hey, who doesn’t love having options? And setting up instant gift certificate account is actually way more complicated than it sounds like.

… I realise that this is a very boring post, however, this is my idea of Sunday evening excitement (because I am afraid the Sand Snakes are going to end up on the Iron Throne so I’m delaying my GoT watching). #entrepreneurialthrills #productiveprocrastination #sandsnakesaretheworstsnakes

I have run into this situation a few times lately, so I thought I would just make this super clear:

In order to have an appointment with me, you need to provide ALL of the following information:
First Name
Last Name
FULL Street address, including apartment number
Any weird parking issues (residents of DC, Arlington, Alexandria, and townhome communities, I am especially looking at you here)
Any weird building issues, like that you live in the basement and I need to walk around the back of the house.

I need either a working phone number or an email address, or both.

If you fail to provide me your full information, I reserve the right to not honor your attempt at an appointment.

A regular client jokes that I’m like pizza delivery, but better (massage is better than pizza — there are no calories). So if you can’t get a pizza delivered with the information you provide, you aren’t getting a massage delivered.

To be blunt, I am carrying ~80 pounds of gear. Let’s make it as easy as possible for me to get from my car, parked in a safe, nearby place where I will not be ticketed or towed, to your front door. (On one hand, I do this all the time, nbd; on the other, it is 80 pounds and having to stop and dig out my phone to text or email about where I am going and/or if its okay to park where I parked, it does start feeling heavier and heavier.)

I am currently trying out a new online scheduling service. Look for the new “schedule now” buttons on the site and a widget on the Service pages so you can schedule from the site.

It’s definitely not perfect. Notably, if you are scheduling for multiple people at the same address, it’s going to force an hour of travel time between each appointment (just shoot me an email if I don’t notice this happening and I’ll sort it out manually). Also, please do make sure there’s an hour between the last appointment and your appointment as I do need time to drive from here to there.

Because this isn’t my only calendar, as I get used to updating my entire life to this schedule, please bear with me if I am accidentally overbooked and need to move your appointment.