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Monkey Tail in Quarantine

March 21, 2020 admin Leave a comment Opinion

Some things I'm doing during the corona virus quarantine

Watching relevant movies

One of my former professors joked about watching Outbreak, so I watched it. It was pretty good and I decided to set a goal to watch one movie per day about quarantines and disease outbreaks.

Outbreak - 1995

Watched 3/18/20.

Dustin Hoffman, playing a military doctor, argues with Morgan Freeman, his higher up, about how to handle a disease outbreak. Unbeknownst to the doctor, it was due to the production of a top secret biological weapon.
A monkey was one of the stars of the movie!

The andromeda strain - 1971

Watched 3/19/20.

Based on a Michael Crighton novel, a mysterious substance from space kills a town upon contact, aside from an old man and a crying baby. Top scientists are brought to a secret underground lab to study the material and the survivors. There are some fun graphics and video editing. And again – monkeys!

Containment - 2016

3/20/20 – 3/22/20

A Netflix series set in Atlanta! In the first few episodes, this one concentrates on the politics of setting up a city-wide quarantine. No monkeys yet.

Band Projects

My band is the Silkworm Smugglers. I play the flute with a mandolin player, cellist, and various guest musicians as they are available.

ear training

One day, I heard my neighbor’s kid practicing his 4th grade clarinet skills. I picked up my flute to see if I could play those same beginner tunes by ear. Through our apartment doors, I was able to play London Bridge is Falling Down, then Mary Had a Little Lamb, but then he played a video game tune I had never heard. By this time he knew I was playing back his tunes by ear, and he could tell I was having trouble with that one. He repeated it over and over for me to figure it out.
My boyfriend could tell I wasn’t quite getting one of the intervals, so he got his guitar out to figure it out for himself. Now we had a little band, with this 4th grader behind a door as a our leader. It was amazing.

Learning appliqué

I have a 4’x2′ piece of fabric that I am designing into a sign for my band, Silkworm Smugglers. I spent 5 hours at the craft store earlier this week to explore all possible options for decorations and read some books on appliqué. It turns out it’s a lengthy process involving stencils, marking, cutting fabric precisely, and embroidery techniques. Wish me luck!

Making Jewelry

For band merchandise – jewelry seems more viable than photography, so I’ve been transforming my photos into wearable art. It’s been a learning experience!

March Covid Update

March 17, 2020 admin Leave a comment Opinion

COVID-19 aka Corona Virus Update

As of 3/16/20:

Over 100 people in Georgia have the corona virus. The World Health Organization has characterized it as a pandemic. We are in a national emergency to contain the spread of this highly contagious disease. As far as we know, according to the CDC, “spread is thought to occur mostly from person-to-person via respiratory droplets” (source).

So what?

As a healthcare professional, I always take necessary measures to sanitize myself, my equipment, and my environment to protect each of my clients from possible contagions. I treat each client as though they may have a contagious disease. It would be unethical for me to act any differently. Some people may be contagious without even knowing it themselves, so I always err on the side of caution. The CDC recommends health professionals to follow standard protocol of sanitation when handling patients with COVID-19, with minor changes.

We don't know enough

We are navigating uncharted territory with COVID-19. Our healthcare system doesn’t have the capacity to handle the amount of our population likely to get ill. It appears to be far more contagious than other flu strains. One change I would need to make to my practice would be requiring clients to wear face masks upon entering the building, but our country has a shortage of masks.

Furthermore, many cities are shutting down businesses where more than 25 people gather – gyms, restaurants, etc. From my personal interactions with people, it appears most of them don’t know that it is specifically regarding large groups of people inhaling and exhaling the same air.

Regardless of how small and sanitary my business is, the fact remains we don’t know enough about COVID-19. None of us should be taking risks with this deadly virus or adding more pressure to our healthcare system if we can avoid it.

How does this affect me?

Unfortunately, my income is entirely dependent on massage clients scheduling appointments.

However, I had been entertaining this idea of providing online sessions for quite a while and I never had the nerve to go for it! So I finally created the option of booking an online guided meditation, ASMR, or a relaxing session of watching me massage my dog or cat. Hey, I don’t know what people might want! If you have a suggestion, let me know.

Another option for supporting me is to check out my photos of silkworms in dollhouses and ordering a print, or even a framed piece.

I have been working on silkworm and moth art as it relates to my band and silk road smuggling. As of today, I have one digital photo available for sale on my Etsy page. I’m not sure how I would pack and ship anything yet, but I spent 5 hours at the craft store today to get enough supplies to make art for the next 2 weeks while I’m out of massage work.

I also play the flute, and my band is called Silkworm Smugglers. You can hire me for a meditative flute session, or my band for a more upbeat experience. Here’s a video of our music. You can get us cheap. We are not only a new band, but we are all dependent on this crumbling gig economy right now. Our one upcoming gig for the Entomological Society (!) was canceled, and our AMAZING cellist is struggling with dozens of cancellations as well.

Donate

If you don’t see anything you would pay me for, I will accept straight-up donations on Venmo. My username is @silkwormsmugglers.

Please stay safe and don’t inhale air from other people. Don’t touch your face. Wash your hands frequently with soap (any soap! It breaks down the virus itself). When you can’t get soap, use a sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol.

Have a great introverted and soapy couple of weeks, everyone. I care about you.

My Jeju Visit

December 10, 2019 admin Leave a comment Opinion

My visit to a Korean Spa in Duluth, GA

The name of the spa is Jeju. This is from my visit on August 15th, 2019.

It costs $30 to enter.

They give you a uniform and a key/money bracelet to track purchases and use a locker.

The men go one way and the women go another, to their changing rooms. Once inside, you first put your shoes in your assigned shoe locker. Then you pad over to your bigger locker for anything else you may have brought with you. You can spend 24 hours there, so some people bring laptops and sleeping gear.

What you should bring:

Water bottle
Reading material
Towel
Swimsuit

Of course, I didn’t bring any of those things on my trip. But those are the things I wish I had.

You’re gonna see a lot of naked bodies walking around, showering, and maybe even with legs splayed to shave their lady parts. It’s very down-to-earth. Everyone has to shower in the public area before entering the hot tubs, and no one bats an eye about it.

From the hot tubs and locker rooms you continue on into the common area, wearing your orange uniform to mingle with both genders. There’s a little cafe serving Korean food, 9 saunas, massage therapists, reflexologists, benches, and drawers offering pillows and blankets. I stood outside the reflexology room, half reading the mostly Korean descriptions of the feet, half waiting for my friend to come out of the men’s area. An employee burst out of the room and quickly started trying to escort me into the room. He didn’t speak any English, so I couldn’t explain I was waiting, but he vigorously pointed at the photos with some English descriptions of the benefits of reflexology, and motioned me to come inside.

I had decided before entering that I will get more than one treatment while we were there because it costs $30 to enter, and 45 minutes to drive there, so I don’t plan on returning for several months. I had also heard great things about the reflexology treatment, so I finally let the man usher me to his chair, without waiting for my friend.

Reflexology Treatment

He motioned for me to lay on an oversized recliner covered in towels, so I did. He then roughly tucked a folded towel over my eyes and under my head, bumping me around and pulling my hair until I assisted his efforts. I then lay there awkwardly for about 5 long minutes. He eventually came back to put my feet in a tub of hot water, then left me again for an uncomfortably long period of time. I was glad for the tub, and it had a spiky texture on the bottom so I could use that to sort of entertain myself while I waited, listening for my friend and hints on what the guy was doing. I finally started taking the blindfold off because I just felt so uncomfortable, and I don’t know if that was his cue or what, but he sat down by my feet the moment I did that, and began the treatment.

It mostly felt good, and it was a positive reminder that you can do the same stroke over and over and over again and it doesn’t get old. He was a bit rough on the insides of my toes, but it didn’t feel bad. I didn’t recognize anything as specifically reflexology vs a foot massage, and he worked a bit on my calves as well. The person who recommended it to me described it as a massage that covers everything from the hips down. I did not have that experience. He mostly stayed on my feet, worked a bit on my calves, and then it was just at the very end of the session when he roughly manipulated my thighs, rotating my femur in the hip joint, and did quick, hard compression strokes up and down my adductors and IT band. I could barely handle the IT band work, and when he repeated it on my adductors, I had to tense up to protect myself and just grit my teeth for a couple seconds, because he wouldn’t understand me if I tried to speak anyway.

I don’t think I’ll do that treatment again. However, in his defense, in massage school I was taught to treat a client as if they were completely relaxed, and we practiced manipulating each other without assisting each other at all with movements such as putting a pillow under the head. Most clients are not relaxed when you start to put a pillow under their head, and they always lift their head to help. I was being abnormal by not lifting my head in the beginning, and he had probably never tried to put a towel under someone’s head without them helping him out. I have to admit I have lost the skill of lifting someone’s head with one hand and placing a pillow beneath with the other. But I communicate to my client what I want them to do.

Hot Tubs

I learned about Contrast Water Immersion in massage school when we were studying plantar fasciitis. So every time I go somewhere with hot tubs and cold tubs, I submit my body to a few minutes in the hot, then about 30 seconds in the cold, then immediately back to the hot, several times. As far as I can tell, the idea is that it’s exercising your blood vessels and increasing blood flow where it might otherwise have been restricted.

Ever curious to find evidence, I found several articles in journals such as Physical Therapy in Sport, Journal of Science and Medicine and Sport, and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Several studies have been done to test if contrast water immersion speeds recovery for athletes or for people with injuries. It appears to be true that CWI does speed recovery. I did not find anything regarding what it would do for a healthy female spending a day in the spa, however, nor the theory behind exactly why it’s therapeutic.

Alternating hot and cold water immersion for athlete recovery: a review
Darryl JCochrane Feb 2004. Physical Therapy in Sport.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1466853X03001226

Contrast water immersion hastens plasma lactate decrease after intense anaerobic exercise by R. HughMorton in Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport December 2007
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1440244006002301

Effect of water immersion methods on post-exercise recovery from simulated team sport exercise
May 2009. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

Jeremy Ingram Brian Dawson a Carmel Goodman a Karen Wallman a John Beilby
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1440244008000388

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation July 2005, Pages 1404-1410

Changes in Lower-Leg Blood Flow During Warm-, Cold-, and Contrast-Water Therapy

Kimberly A.FiscusMS, ATCaThomas W.KaminskiPhD, ATCbMichael E.PowersPhD, ATC, CSCSc
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003999305001863

VASODILATATION IN THE LOWER EXTREMITIES IN RESPONSE TO IMMERSING THE FOREARMS IN WARM WATER By JOHN H. GIBBON, JR., Aim EUGENE M. LANDIS 1932
https://dm5migu4zj3pb.cloudfront.net/manuscripts/100000/100456/JCI32100456.pdf

Hammock Massage

December 8, 2019 admin Leave a comment Opinion

Hammock Massage

If you don’t feel comfortable disrobing, lying down on a table, or being touched, ask about relaxing in a hammock with some light rocking and guided meditation.

I got this hammock at the Georgia Renaissance Festival and fell in love with it. It feels so relaxing to sit in it and sway. So I brought it to my massage studio and started experimenting with how to incorporate it.

I’ve met a few people who admit they could use some help with relaxing, but feel uncomfortable with being touched. If that sounds like you, consider coming in for the hammock treatment.