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4C Daily News – Wednesday, January 23, 2013 FEATURES Exchange student dreads returning home return whenever you can Dear Annie: I've been afford to do so. How well studying abroad in Rome you adjust depends entirefor the past three months. ly on your attitude. Be I head back to America in determined to make it as a few weeks. I can honpositive as possible. estly say I haven't missed Dear Annie: I have a being home. I've problem with my parents' absolutely loved my stay decorating habits. They in Europe. I feel safe and Annie's insist on putting up arthappy. work that I did when I was The one thing I'm a child. The dining room, dreading is reverse culture shock. I'm afraid I'll by Kathy Mitchell living room and bedrooms resent my small-town col- and Marcy Sugar all have pictures that I drew or painted from the lege or that I'll become depressed when I get home. All time I was 6 until I was 17. I have of my friends will have left for repeatedly asked that they their own study-abroad adven- remove them, but they say they tures. No one will be able to can't bear to take them down. speak the Italian I've learned and Mind you, they have no such pichelp me maintain my fluency. tures from my sister's childhood. The foods and pastimes that I've In fact, they don't even display become fond of are nonexistent pictures their grandchildren have drawn. in America. I know it's their house, but I'm My European friends say I should just enjoy the little time I a 35-year-old man, and I don't have left abroad and keep posi- want people to see this stuff and tive thoughts when I'm back in think I still do such childish colAmerica, but I don't expect my lages. It also feels creepy. It's reimmersion process to be that like my parents aren't allowing easy. How can I learn to stop liv- me to grow up. My father insists on telling ing like a dead man walking and not fall into a pit of despair once people I am an artist. At one I board the plane ''home''? — time, I wanted to be, but now I am a high school teacher and Pining for Rome Dear Rome: Please recognize proud of it. How can people take how fortunate you are to have had me seriously after talking to my the opportunity to spend time in parents? My father says being an Europe and the fact that you've artist is special and interesting, enjoyed it so much. You will miss and he becomes unhappy if I ask your Italian friends and Italian him to describe me differently. I've gotten so fed up that I pasta, but try not to over-romanticize the experience. Accept it for dread visiting their home, espethe short-term fun it was, and cially when they have guests. know that you can certainly What do I do? — Not an Artist Mailbox Dear Artist: So your parents think being an artist is ever so much more glamorous than other professions, and they prefer to fantasize about your job. Your attempts to force them to change will only make all of you miserable. Who cares what their friends think? As long as you conduct yourself appropriately and correct any misimpressions, no one will mistake you for a 9year-old with fingerpaints. We know it's annoying, but please try to ignore this. Dear Annie: I read the letter from ''Dreading Christmas,'' whose husband's two siblings take turns hosting Christmas Eve dinners in their homes, but they won't let her reciprocate because she doesn't want to have it in her house. I have two sisters who love hosting Thanksgiving dinner and alternate each year. They have lovely china and beautiful homes. I have always lived in a small house, but we have a beautiful yard and garden. We reciprocate by hosting a barbecue on Labor Day weekend. Maybe ''Dreading Christmas'' could do something like this. — Oregon Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please email your questions to anniesmailboxcomcast.net, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. Foundation accepting scholarship applications CHICO — North Valley Health Education Foundation is now accepting scholarship applications for health students pursuing their education in health or health-related fields. Health fields include but are not limited to traditional physicians, nurses, and physical, occupational, or respiratory therapists, etc. Scholarship applications and more information are available at www.nvhef.org. The scholarship application deadline is Feb. 8 for UC Davis medical students and Feb. 15 for all other applications. Interviews with applicants are scheduled for the first week of March. Over the past 38 years, NVHEF has given $758,548 in scholarships. Throughout the many years since its founding in 1973, NVHEF relies on the many individuals who give their support through monetary donations and volunteering their time. The board of directors consists of 12 elected and four appointed members Boomers needed to help with Medicare Passages is looking for baby boomers or other individuals who have a desire to help people with Medicare navigate through the complex system of healthcare coverage options. Boomers' computer and analytical skills are extremely valuable and needed. Research has proved that volunteering is beneficial to the volunteer, and that there is a strong relationship between volunteering and the health of volunteers. Volunteers have lower mortality, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression. Comparisons of the health benefits of volunteering for different age groups have shown that older volunteers are the most likely to receive greater benefits from volunteering. After thorough training both on and off the job, HICAP (Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) volunteers help clients understand Medicare, including supplemental and drug insurance, Medicare health plans and long term care coverage. Volunteers become registered with the California Department of Aging, and provide answers to many questions and problems that confront Medicare recipients. Interested candidates can call Tim Sonnenburg at 898-6641 for a job description and application. Training begins Feb. 11. HICAP is a program of Passages, an organization dedicated to help older adults and family caregivers with important services to empower them to remain confident in their ability to sustain and enjoy independent lives. For more information about available services call 1-800-822-0109 or go to www.passagescenter.org. from the community, including: Joel Adema (President), Amy Brusie (Vice President), Kent Ahlswede (Chief Financial Officer), Janet Ellis, RN (Secretary), Jennifer Griggs (Scholarship Chair), Ned Kirkham (Finance Committee Chair), Philip Price, Robert Mauer, Kaywood Fuqua, RN, BSN, Todd Lewis, Virginia Merica, and Linda Lucena. Appointed members of the board include: Donna Davis (Butte College), Carol Huston (CSU, Chico). Mary Latimer (Enloe), and Lauren Snow (UC Davis). The mission of North Valley Health Education Foundation is to help health students with financial need become contributing members of society. NVHEF would like to see the investment in these medical students benefit the communities they choose to serve. For more information on NVHEF contact Sara Nelson, Secretary to the Board of Directors, at 530-591-4161 or visit www.nvhef.org. Skin tags aren't dangerous A skin tag is DEAR DOCpainless. HowevTOR K: I have er, it can become skin tags under my irritated if it is armpits. Are they rubbed a lot or if it dangerous? How is twisted on its can I remove stalk. That irritathem? What can I tion is probably do to keep them the most common from coming back? Dr. K reason that people want them DEAR READby Anthony L. ER: I've had many Komaroff, M.D. removed. Skin tags are patients ask me the same question. permanent growths unless They've just noticed this you have them taken off. little ball of skin sticking Doctors usually remove out from someplace on skin tags with sharp scistheir body, and of course sors or a sharp blade. Less doctors they're concerned it could commonly, be cancer. Fortunately, it's remove them by freezing or burning them off at the not, and it never will be. Skin tags are common; stalk. Bleeding can be about a quarter of all peo- stopped with a chemical ple develop them. Usually (aluminum chloride) or (cauterizing) when you first notice a electric skin tag, it's actually been treatment. Now that you know there for some time, slowwhat skin tags look like, ly growing. A skin tag is a soft, and that they are not canskin-colored growth. Skin cer, please understand tags typically appear as that not every bump on people age. A skin tag at the skin is just a skin tag. first may appear as a tiny, If you notice that a skin soft bump on the skin. growth is too firm to be Over time, it grows into a wiggled easily, is a differflesh-colored piece of skin ent color than surroundthat hangs from the sur- ing skin, is multicolored, face of the skin on a thin or has raw or bleeding piece of tissue called a areas, ask your doctor to stalk. It's easy to move or examine it. It could be wiggle a skin tag back and skin cancer. Even after examining it, your doctor forth. Skin tags probably may not be sure and may develop in response to want to do a biopsy. Canirritation. That's why they cers can be identified with appear most often in skin certainty only by looking folds of the neck, armpits, at them with a microtorso, beneath the breasts scope. Because skin tags are or in the groin region — areas where the skin tends only a cosmetic concern, to get irritated. These not a medical problem, areas often generate mul- most health insurance tiple skin tags during a plans won't pay for their person's lifetime. Get rid removal. But if you find of one, and a new one may them unsightly, you do have options to have them start next year. Many people develop taken off. multiple skin tags, and a Dr. Komaroff is a tendency to develop skin tags may run in families. physician and professor Harvard Medical They often develop after at To send weight gain or pregnancy. School. go to Sometimes skin tags that questions, or develop during pregnancy AskDoctorK.com, grow smaller after the write: Ask Doctor K, 10 baby is delivered. There is Shattuck St., Second Floor, Boston, MA 02115. no way to prevent them. Manto vineyard to support Parkinson's research MANTON — Indian Peak Vineyards, a small family owned and operated winery in Manton, California, announced that the winery will be supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research by joining forces with Team Fox. Five million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease, a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder. In the United States, 60,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year alone. There is no known cure for Parkinson's. Team Fox is The Michael J. Fox Foundation's grassroots community fundraising program. Its members include thousands of people worldwide who generate funds and awareness for Parkinson's disease research. All funds raised through Team Fox go directly to MJFF to advance its mission: to accelerate the delivery of life-changing treatments, and ultimately a cure, to people with Parkinson's disease. Winery owners Fred and Donna Boots chose to support the Fox Foundation after observing how Parkinson's affected the life of their business consultant, J. Basil Dannebohm. "While medication certainly helps, we notice that Basil still faces significant struggles every day. Seeing how the disease affects him, Fred and I want to see a cure for Parkinson's. We feel the Michael J. Fox Foundation is proactive in the field of research and decided that working with Team Fox is the perfect fit for the winery," said Donna Boots, President of Indian Peak Vineyards. Dannebohm was diagnosed in the summer of 2012 after numerous medical tests and four years of unexplained fatigue, muscle cramping, mental fogginess, weakness and shaking. The winery, at 2200 feet elevation on the western slope of Mount Lassen in Northern California, has pledged to donate 60 cases of wine to the Fox Foundation for its various fundraising events. Additionally, through May 31, the winery has pledged to donate $3 for every bottle of their best selling dessert wine to Team Fox. Donna's Dessert Wine was the silver medal winner of the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and the 2009 Finger Lakes Wine Competition in the state of New York. Made from Syrah, the wine is a mixed vintage port, aged for one and two years in oak. This wine has been described as, "a very rich wine, full of a harmonious blend of black cherry, plum and a hint of brown sugar." For more information, visit the winery's website at www.indianpeakvineyards.net. A 'raise' for Social Security recipients By Jennifer Cooper Social Security Manager in Redding As we ring in a new year, we can expect to see a number of changes. Social Security is no exception: in 2013, people who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments will see their benefits increase. Beginning in 2013, a 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) was applied to all Social Security and SSI payments. The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker in 2013 is $1,261 (up from $1,240 in 2012) and the average monthly Social Security benefit for a disabled worker in 2013 is $1,132 (up from $1,113 in 2012). These changes were reflected in SSI payments dated December 31, 2012 and Social Security payments dated in January 2013. For people who receive SSI, the maximum federal payment amount has risen to $710 (up from $698). Other Social Security changes in 2013 are worth noting. For example, a worker now pays Social Security tax on up to $113,700 of annual income (up from $110,100 in 2012). A worker earns one credit after paying taxes on $1,160 in earnings in 2013 (up from $1,130). As always, a worker may earn a maximum of four credits each year and a person generally needs forty credits (or ten years of work) to be eligible for retirement benefits. To learn more about these and other changes for 2013, visit the Social Security website at www.socialsecurity.gov, and read our fact sheet about the changes at www.socialsecurity.gov/p ressoffice/factsheets/colaf acts2013.htm. Have a news tip? Call 527-2151, Ext. 112