Local Businesswoman Takes Beauty On The Road (Literally)

Have no fear South Sounders, the Beauty Mobile is here!

At the driver's wheel? None other than Erin Rose, owner of Skin Care by Erin Rose, a terrific local skincare and waxing business.

Skin Care by Erin Rose offers facials, skin, and waxing treatments that refine your look and just make you glow inside and out. Besides Erin Rose's longtime experience in the biz, she has great energy, superb customer service, a wide array of services, a comfy spa environment, and competitive prices. Don't let those fuzzy wuzzy brows take over your face! Dull skin bringing you down? Look no further. Help is here!
Please click HERE to see a menu of treatments and prices.

Intrigued? Thought you'd be. Concerned though that it's hard to squeeze in a brow wax or a facial with a busy schedule? Looking for a fun and creative party idea for a shower or a girl's night out? Take advantage of Skin Care by Erin Rose's brand spankin' new mobile service! She will come to YOU. Home, office, party site--it's just one phone call away, my friends. Here's how it works:

Get together a group of 5-12 people at your home OR work place and she will come to YOU and provide waxing and/or facial services. Please click HERE for the details and menu for mobile beauty or pick up the phone and call 206-349-3790.
Yes, it's that easy.

And if you need a gift for friend or relative, gift certificates are available, too. Perfect for birthdays, girl's outings, grads, and holidays. And don't forget the dudes too! Check out the menu by clicking above to see the options for men.


Here's our gal, Erin Rose!

Where To From Here? Lyme Desperation

It's funny how a major explosion in your world can make a moment of such clarity, everything slows down, and your senses deepen.  I could hear songbirds, feel the grass under my knees, smell the peonies and honeysuckle, and taste their sweetness along with the moisture in the air.  Every flower, shrub and tree came sharply into view, the explosion too deep for tears to blur my vision.  I willed myself to keep breathing, there on my knees, in the middle of our blossoming garden.  Keep breathing...and ask for help, my hands gripping the Mama's hair.

It seems the government wants to kill my daughter.  The news slipped in quietly, a postcard in the mail with small writing.  I almost threw it out as junk mail...then I looked closer.  Turns out to be a love-note from Medicaid...actually...more like a break-up note.
"As of July 1st, 2012, Medicaid will no longer pay for prescriptions from doctors who are not contracted with Medicaid."

"Don't worry," said her doctor, "I'm investigating what I can do," he told us, on our last visit, in May.  So, we didn't worry...we thought he would do whatever he needed for his patients who are on Disability and Medicaid.  Yesterday, he wrote an email to my daughter, telling her he would not be signing a contract with Medicaid, and she needed to find another doctor, to continue ALL her many, many meds.  You see, Medicaid could sue him...for not following the 2006 Lyme Guidelines, linked from the CDC site.  Dr. Jemsek was sued by Medicaid for $1.4M...lost his practice, though he has started again in a different state, a true Lyme Warrior, willing to fight for his patients, at his own personal cost. 

All this is, sadly, the business of medicine stopping the art of healing.  I don’t quite understand my daughter’s doctor’s fear of being sued, when he has explained, to the satisfaction of the Board of Health, his treatment of tick-borne illnesses.  It took a prompt from my daughter for him to contact Medicaid, one month after her visit, just over two weeks to go until the cut-off.  His promise to stay with my daughter, all the way through her illness, is null and void.  Again, all misery leads back to the outdated 2006 Lyme Guidelines.  The insurance buck stops there, though we are light-years ahead of those guidelines now.

These 2006 guidelines are what we've worked so hard to try and get struck from being endorsed by the CDC site.  In the years since they were put there, evidence has piled sky-high against their assertion that there is no such thing as chronic Lyme, that patients are cured with 28 days of IV antibiotics.  That has been proven wrong, with the continued infections killing many patients, and taking away the quality of life for those surviving.  To put this another way, imagine an AIDS patient, without treatment and facing prejudice every day; quadruple the number of AIDS patients in America today, and there you have Lyme.  Their guideline given to Infectious Disease doctors, for chronic patients, with multiple infections, is to ignore them...DO NOTHING.  That's their treatment plan for my daughter, and we've seen what doing nothing does.  Every time she goes off antibiotics, she slides backwards at an alarming rate...put her back on, and there she is, her mind brilliant. 

Why are those Lyme Guidelines allowed to stay on the CDC site, when the same site has, almost daily, posted new studies and peer-reviewed articles that ring alarm bells about Lyme as an "emerging" disease, along with the many deadly co-infections (my daughter has two, babesia and bartonella, along with Lyme) that the IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America) panel now says they didn't know about, complicating treatment, why do they stay up?  Why aren't they posting guidelines from an ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) panel?  ILADS has the new research and peer-reviewed articles, is training as many doctors as will sign-up, to get on top of this mounting plague...why are they not given space on the website of the Center for Disease Control, when they so obviously know more, and DO more for the suffering patients??  They call for more doctors to train and this, let me tell you, is the field for those determined to save the world.  Come and join the heroes who are working against a silent plague, brought to you by ticks...ticks on deer, dogs, cats, mice, rats, humans, squirrels, lizards, snakes, tortoises...and birds.

Engorged tick attached to a bird

Yes, birds...the true Trans-World Airlines for these little arachnids.  Follow every migratory route, and you will see the "airborne" spread of Lyme.  That a panel of fourteen doctors can stop treatment for thousands of desperately-ill...and I do mean desperate...patients, is egregious, especially while they continue to make money on the lie, that chronic infections don't exist, not there, not listening...lalalalalalala!

My daughter was lucky (?) enough, after suffering for eight years (that's 2,912 days of agonizing pain, malarial-like sweats and chills, paralysis...and three more pages of symptoms) to find a Lyme-literate physician who, seeing her in a wheelchair and completely compromised, took her on as a patient, pro bono.  He found Medicaid just too difficult to deal with.  My daughter, on Disability that pays her less than $700/month, was blessed with this big-hearted, big-money doctor.  With him, and long-term antibiotics, she was able to get out of a wheelchair!  In those previous eight years, bacteria grew in her body to the point where antibiotic treatment is maintenance, and not a cure.  But she'll take maintenance, thank you, while researchers try for more.

Can you imagine, you're below poverty level and you find a doctor who will treat you, for free.  You have the comfort of a support system and medications, and then Medicaid decides to find their missing money, in your treatment.  Never mind where money bleeds out in Medicaid fraud, and on salaries for those comfortable in their positions, on grants and misusing funds.  No, go directly for the patient.  What rights do the poor and the sick have in this country?  Understand me here, the number one cause of death, in Lyme patients right now, is suicide.  They give up hope. 

Number two…is stopping treatment. 

They have been abused by the system that feels "comfortable" (a term doctors like to use) in denying their illness, even when they sit in front of them in wheelchairs, having seizures, irregular EEG's, and painful spasms, then forgotten until it's time to be abused again, by a government that swore to take care of the disabled and disadvantaged.  Why do they consistently look for their missing money, in pockets that are less than empty?  The pockets have worn away.  Here, in our fourteenth year of fighting this damn disease, we're worn.  As my daughter said last night, "We're up a creek, without a paddle."  I would carve the paddles, if I could find the doctors willing to be educated, if I could make someone understand that, to do nothing, is to allow a plague that will drain Disability and Medicaid Funds dry. 

Now we are left, because we were told not to worry, with just over two weeks to find a doctor/doctors who will take over the many prescriptions for the many symptoms, and will accept Medicaid.  On July 1st, barring a miracle, my beloved daughter's Lyme treatment ends.  God forgive you, powers that be, at Medicaid...because I can't.  The birds still sing, and flowers bloom, but our world is shattered, our belief in compassion flying through the air, just bloody bits, splayed with this news.

The Diamond Jubilee

As a child of an officer in the Royal Air Force, I bounced around the eastern hemisphere for the first decade, following my father’s postings.  A special paper had to be drawn up, when I was born in Cyprus, during England’s occupation, proving I was “born on British soil,” making me a Brit, because the hospital was on an R.A.F. base.  Truth be told, though I felt the roots of family and history, England could sometimes feel as foreign as Southeast Asia.  Immigrating to Canada, now that required a major shifting of gears, for my second decade and then some, eh!  Still I stayed a Brit.

What, or in this case, who, was my constant?

My Queen is my country.

Everywhere I went in the world, there was Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.  I loved to see my father in his dress whites, ready to pilot the helicopter that would sometimes carry the Queen, Prince Philip, or Lord Mountbatten, when we were stationed in Malaysia and Singapore.  Even in Canada, there she was, my constant.  Dad was a civilian pilot by then, off in the bush nine months of the year.  Still she reigned over us and, as more feminist leanings arose in my teens, I was glad to see at least one woman with the power to bow my father’s head!

In a world of men and power, my Queen humbly gave her life in service, and has not stopped now, for sixty years.  In her lifetime of eighty-five years, the world hurled itself into the future and, though she never trained as a pilot, Her Majesty has flown the lead for her people.  I do not know of a dedication deeper than her’s, and I’m so happy to join in with others around the world, celebrating our Queen’s good heart and conscience.  She shows no signs of retiring, or even slowing down.  When folks begin discussions of her possible abdication, I smile, knowing she stated simply, that she gave us her life, whether it be short or long.

I’m not here for a discussion on monarchy, or to bite the hand of whoever signed the paper allowing me to live, work and pay taxes in America, after falling in love and marrying an American.  I’ve lived here longer than all other countries combined, exploring and loving this land.  Still, I’ve stayed a Brit.

My Queen is my country.  

Official Diamond Jubilee photo of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

   

Memorial Day, 2012

Winnifred "Bunnie" (Keelan) McCorkle, July 18th 1923-May 4th 2012

I’ve always known that there would come two Memorial Days, more difficult than all the others.  One of them has come.  My hands shook as I signed for the parcel on Wednesday, a parcel that contained my mother’s “Celebration of Life” program, a DVD of pictures made for the Memorial, three-thousand miles away, a beautiful note card from my eldest sister, and my mother’s wedding band.  Both sisters who took such loving care of my mother felt it should come to me, with my father’s blessing.  It slipped onto middle finger of my left hand, warm and heavy with memories.

Do we all feel like lost children when our mothers pass?  I am heartbroken, even as I rejoice that she has been released from the dementia that took her from us in pieces.  As I looked through all the pictures on the DVD, I kept hearing her last words to me, “I love you too, darling,” said over the phone, last year.  In the end, no matter the family sturm und drung, that’s what it comes down to.  We come from love, we regenerate love with life, and we return to love.  That’s the truth I’ve found, in over fifty-six years of living this messy, incredible life, and being my mother’s daugher.

But before we knew her as “Mum” she was a corporal in the Women’s Air Force, in England.  It was the second “war to end all wars” and violence crossed the Channel to her very home shores.  She lived through the London bombings, something she never talked much about.  I have three pictures of her in uniform, one was coloured by her sister, Paddy.  She did everything from making beds and First-Aid, to driving trucks.  The world was mad, and every pair of hands, needed.

She cooked scrambled eggs, one early morning, for a young pilot who had just returned from a bombing mission.  He was a handsome devil, and it wasn’t long before they fell in love.  Who wouldn’t fall in love with this vivacious young woman, who loved to laugh and dance?  He lived up to his wartime nickname of Lucky when he was able to span her eighteen-inch waist with his hands!  They kicked up their heels, on the edge of disaster.

I protest against those who would make war as business, because I’m a Royal Air Force brat…and every soul in uniform is my family, deserving more for their willingness to put lives on the line.  I send honour, respect, gratitude and love to all those fallen in battle.  There are so many souls to thank, for a lot of the world’s freedom, but this year I walk my labyrinth, wearing my mother’s wedding band, and the only name I will be able to say is, Corporal Winnifred “Bunnie” Keelan.  May you dance amongst the stars, with all the good lads and lassies, to the swing-time of Creation.

I love you, Mum.

Support for student art, art education, alive and well in Fife, WA

 

Above: The library at Columbia JHS in Fife was blooming with artistic inspiration including this hanging panel of

brightly colored high contrast stucent portraits arrestingly hung verically from hardware overhead. All photos copyright 2012 by Mizu M. Sugimura.

Above and below: While many area school districts have either voluntarily or been forced to make deep cuts in relation to arts related education, I'm happy to report that the Fife School District brought its very best student artists to the forefront during the districts Eighth Annual Art Show last night in the library at

Columbia Junior High School, 2901 54th Avenue E., Fife, WA.

Budding artists among the students families, friends and guests who attended the show were invited to sit down at a well-stocked table to make individual "scales" which will be incorporated in yet another piece of art to be created after the show allowing for a bit of mutual creative collectivity.

See table shots directly below.

Representative artwork from all grade levels taught in the district appeared at the popular show in such quantity covering all available table space, book shelves, and computer monitors. A few pieces were even hung from the ceiling! At a future date show organizers may need to look at larger space options if the response to the annual opportuntity to students to show their talent continues to expand.

Asia Pacific Cultural Center celebrates new beginning

All photos: The afternoon of Thursday, May 24, 2012  dignitaries, supporters and friends of the Asia Pacific Cultural Center of Tacoma, WA gathered to celebrate the opening of its new home, 4851 South Tacoma Way with ribbon cutting, ethnic food, music and demonstrations. For hours and program schedule contact the Asia Pacific Cultural Center at (253) 838-3900.

Grand Opening of Tacoma's Asia Pacific Cultural Center May 24 Shines Non-Canvas Link With Creative Chinese Born Korean-American Artist

As many artists and followers of arts are aware there's a reliable universal current of energy and creativity out there if and when one is able to tap in. One local artist I'm familiar with over fifteen plus years whose particularly able to tap this is the South Sound's Patsy Surh O'Connell.

O'Connell who came to the United States originally as an immigrant, is an example of someone who took a legacy from a nation overseas and transformed the local landscape of her adopted land by making the most of her natural inborn gifts of leadership, intelligence and talent.

During the many years she spent as a military wife abroad and here in the United States while raising her family, volunteering in organizations and working diligently on her craft, O'Conncell also transformed herself into one of the most dynamic and visable of the arts movers and shakers in today/s vibrant Asian-American community.

While the word indefatigable is widely overused, O'Connell quite well have may have inspired the word. She compilled an impressive resume in local and state art circles and is well-known in ethnic and  non-profit circles up and down the Puget Sound corridor. And while in more recent years she has spoken of self-editing her busy schedule to accomodate the changing needs and demands of a more mature family life, her calendar would give individuals a quarter of her age a most excellent workout.

O'Connell is, additionally, the  major reason  I try to keep currently abreast about the Asian Pacific Cultural Center, 4851 South Tacoma Way, (253) 838-3900, an organization while comprised of many hardworking and visionary individuals is also in my opinion, as much one of O'Cornell's works of art which have been enriched and developed as deeply as any of the tremendous canvases that she has produced over the course of the short eighteen or more years.

Coincidentally, the Asian Pacific Cultural Center is pleased to invite the public to celebrate their Grand Opening next week in the facility at South Tacoma Way on Thursday, May 24, from 4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. which will be an excellent occasion  for Tacoma and Pierce County residents and their families to meet with center personnel, enjoy an assortment of food items and converse with instructors who will be sharing customs, skills and demonstrations from their communities of origin during upcoming classes and events.

During it's lifetime the center has occupied several storefronts and locations including at least two that I'm familiar with in the central downtown corridor. The more recent decision  by museum leadership and board to site the center along South Tacoma Way closer to the thriving economic hub of some of today's most vital Asian retailers and community services might well enhance its draw and appeal to the community base from which it has sprung. Kudos are also in order to the organization's current executive director, Lua Pritchard, who is equally a celebrated force in the community in her own right.

Having grown up in this state as a member of the Japanese-American community a different era and time when such options were not available to myself, my siblings and extended family members, I am well aware what a life-enriching treasure that the Asian Pacific Cultural Center can be. Not only are their resources a bonus for those of us whose ancestors called the Asian Pacific Rim their home, but such an organization is priceless gift for all who understand that our regions ties to other parts of the world will always ensure a better place for our children's and their children.