I Should Have Brought a Horse and Rowel Spurs

This morning I rolled out of bed and did battle with the public transport system so I could catch a bus to Sacramento.  Now you might be asking yourself, "Emily, why are you going to Sacramento?".  In one word: Jack a.k.a. the Captain from SUS '12.

A few miles outside the city we passed through Yolo County.  

I took a picture of the sign because who would ever believe this was a place.  

As we came off the highway, I saw what could be the set of an old western movie, a.k.a. Old Sacramento, but more about this later.  First stop: Brunch at the original Capitol Records office.  Yes, who knew their first office was in Sacramento?  While there, I stuffed my face with what could have been the best French Toast I have EVER eaten.

Fully carb'ed, we headed back to downtown to the California State Railway Museum, which is a MUST for every train lover out there.  On our way over we got to wander around Old Sacramento which is 28 acres of historic waterfront filled with history, museums and kitschy shops.  Apparently once a year they shut down the area, cover the roads with dirt and bring in actors to give you the feeling you are in the Wild, Wild West.

While at the museum we were able to see tons of model trains and a history of the railway system in the US over the last 200 years.  Fun fact: the railway has 27 types of china, with each line having a distinct pattern.  We even got to take a dance video with the lost golden spike.

Then over to the Crocker Art Museum to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit

It wasn't all paintings.  Jack posed with a BOMB statue made of coffee maker parts.  

Last stop on the tour of downtown was the state capitol building.  While this is not a picture I took, it was taken by a friend 12 hours after I left the building and is way cooler than mine.

One last picture to prove that Jack and I actually spent the afternoon together.  

Epic Walkabout

There is no better way to kick off your morning than to enjoy an awesome, hipster made cup of coffee. I was not meeting up with the crew until later (some had to hang back to get some work done) so I went on a walk about of their new 'hood.

For a couple of days I have been hearing about a beloved lunch spot Bacon Bacon where, you guessed it, everything is made out of bacon.  You could smell the place from around the corner and I can tell you that this place did not disappoint.  Apparently they also have a food truck, but last Thanksgiving the engine caught on fire and pretty much burned to a crisp (pun DEFINITELY intended).  Thankfully they are working on getting the new one up and running.

With all of the adults working today I decided to head out for a walk which turned out to be quite the tour of the city.  The quick and dirty version:

A walk through the Mission

Checked out some street art

Headed over to Golden Gate Park where I hopped on a swing

Hitched a ride to the beach

After dinner we headed over to the magical Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar (another place I have heard rumors about).  The Fairmont Hotel converted their indoor swimming pool into a tiki bar and lounge.  There is a band which is floated out into said pool, they play their set and are then "brought back to shore".  To make things even better, a rain storm goes off in the pool once the band is on dry land.

And perhaps the best part are the drinks (which are STRONG)!
I will say the plastic coconut is WAY lame compared to the ginormous pineapple you get.

Drive About Town

After a slight delay in AZ, tons of catching up with Perer and Joan and being up for 24 hours, Alex and I poured ourselves into bed last night.  After a couple of sleep we decided to make the most of the car we rented to get us from San Jose to San Francisco.

Over the years (since Peter and Joan moved to CA) we have slowly been checking off the hot tourist spots.  As a result, we are always trying to find some new things to throw into the mix.  Before we headed out, I did some googling and discovered the 16th Ave Tiled Steps Project.  The community came together to design and tile the 163 steps.

At the top of the steps there is a path which takes you up one of the original sand dunes of the city.  We were glad we "hiked" to the top because the view was BOMB!  You could see all the way out to the ocean, as well as to downtown/the Bay.

Highlights from the rest of the afternoon included Coit Tower

The New Mint and the Old Mint

On a tourist note: You cannot take a tour of the new mint and while you can walk around the old one (the mint which survived the great earthquake of 1906) there is not much to see a.k.a. not worth it

Wanderlust

Just hopped a plane and am SFO bound for one last week of freedom 

before a world wind semester begins!

Meta Picture Monday

So You Want to Plant a Garden

A couple of years ago I had a small garden plot in DC and fingers crossed I will be able to start one up in the garden box in front of my house this spring.  The question becomes not only what to grow, but when to start seedlings inside and when to transfer them into the ground.  I stumbled upon this site, the Sprout Robot, the other day and thought I would share it with you.  All you do is put in your zip code and they tell you when you should get things going.  Voila!

New MANS Community Health Chair in Town!

Today nursing students from twenty-four different Maryland institutions came together for the 33rd Annual MANS (Maryland Association of Nursing Student) Convention.  A few days before the Convention, I decided to throw my hat in for the Community Health Chair, a position which helps put together health fairs and projects, distributes community health project ideas to other schools and helps come up with a project for the Annual Convention.

Well after some campaigning this afternoon, and a short two minute speech about my background (service-learning and advocate background, MPH, lots of time working with and educating the community) and vision for the next year, the House of Delegates voted me into the position.

And here is the motley crew 2013-2014 Board of Directors.  

Review Finds NP's Care Equal to Doc's

From time to time I find articles all over the web and put them into a "remember to post later" folder.  This is one from those archives and discusses a literature review which found that:

"expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners would not diminish quality of care"

The review found:

• NPs provided care that compared with that of physicians in terms of patient satisfaction, time spent with patients, prescribing accuracy, and preventive education
• NPs were capable of successfully managing chronic conditions in patients suffering from hypertension, diabetes, and obesity
• Three analyses found NPs rated favorably in achieving patients' compliance with recommendations and reductions in blood pressure and blood sugar
• A 2003 review found NPs were more likely to work in underserved urban populations and rural areas

There is lots of other good stuff in the article so check it out!!

Sausage and Lental Soup

One thing I love about the fall and winter is that I can make soups/stews and freeze a lot for nights when I get home late from class.  Lentil soup is BY FAR one of my favorite things to make.  Here is a basic recipe that I follow (I am not always one to follow a recipe to a "t" so things can change slightly from batch to batch). 

Ingredients: 

1 cup dried lentils 

2 cups chicken broth

12 ounces sausage, browned

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery 

1 medium onion chopped

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed

Several sprigs of thyme

Directions

• Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Rinse your lentils under cold water, and place them into an empty slow cooker. 
• Brown sausage the onions and add to slow cooker.  Add beef broth, the entire can of tomatoes, garlic, thyme, carrots and celery.  
• Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.  Pour in a bowl and serve with some homemade bread.  

 

A Spoon Full of Sorbet

helps the medicine go down!  Or can you substitute the medicine with a spoon full of sorbet?

Indulging yourself in some Influenza Sorbet may do just that.  Kelsey, former Pittsburgh Health Corps compadre/med-student extraordinaire, posted an article about this homemade dessert inspired by a drink her grandmother made for sick family members.  The ice cream contains cayenne pepper, ginger, Maker's Mark bourbon, honey and orange/lemon juices.  

My only question is: "do you have to have the flu to to enjoy this?"

No Me Gusta

Spanish to Emily English Translation: This weather is WAY too cold for me!!
To al my friends in single digits, come visit me where it is "warm".

Addendum:  Okay so maybe I have no right to complain when I get screen shots like this where the absolute value of their temperature matches my own.

Meta Picture Monday

Run. Run Dance. Run.

With the thermometer hitting the low 60s, it was time to head out and soak up as much sun as possible before the temperature PLUMMETS in 48 hours.  After some google searching I decided upon the Gunpowder Falls State Park.  Located about twenty miles north and east of my house it made for the perfect urban escape.  The park was established in 1959 to preserve the Big and Little Gunpowder valleys and the Gunpowder River.  Today it is one of the largest state parks in Maryland, is sprawled over two counties and has over 120 miles of trails.  Apparently there is a pretty solid paved bike trail, but that will be for another day.

At the trail head there was a map of several different trail options, so I thought I would head out for the 4.5 mile loop through the wetlands.  Now one would assume wetlands to be flat and I was presently surprised horrified when I turned the corner and greeted by a huge hill.  After that hill and the next one I decided to head back and try the trail which ran along the river (along the river always means flat).

Things were good ... the sun was shining, there were tons of people on the trails and I felt pretty BA as I was passing people right and left (they were walkers, but I will take it) and nothing was going to stand in my way.  And that is when I jinxed myself.  Standing in front of me was a large mud puddle with little room to pass on the side so I had two options: 1) try to go around it on the slipper bank 2) trudge through said puddle.  I decided through the latter.  About anther 100 feet I was graced by another puddle (below is said puddle).  

As much as I would have love to stomp through the mud/puddles and please my inner child, the thought of landing on my derriere and getting covered in mud held me back.  In between the puddles, I did find some time for a dance video. 

Along the way I saw a bunch of signs for the Heart Smart trail.  Upon some research when I got back to my casa I found that the program:

"is intended to encourage people to take the first step toward a healthier lifestyle. Walking can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, improve blood pressure control, decrease the risk for type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer and help control weight. Heart Smart Trails are generally 1-mile in length or less and follow a hard surface, level path. Bronze medallions are embedded in the path every 1/10 of a mile so walkers can keep track of the distance they have traveled."

At the end of the trail there was a great water hole - something I will have to remember for when the weather gets warm.  

The rest of the hour was a run/walk combo depending on the terrain.  Before I hopped in the car, I dunked my feet in the water to try and get as much mud off as possible.  Another successful day!

Hitting the Pavement

Another beautiful Saturday here in Charm City.  After 13 hours of sleep last night (migraines + sinus infection = a long week) I was ready to tackle the world.  There are very few moments in my life where I get excited about going for a run, but today was one of those days people.  To change it up I headed down to Ft. McHenry for a run.  The four mile run was a slow and steady one, thank you blocked nasal passages, but I got 'er done.

HELP Course Wrap Up

While the last two weeks were not exactly what I had expected, I am coming away with a lot of new knowledge which hopefully I will never have to use.  One of the hardest things about the course for me, besides the 9-5 hours, was the fact there was no finite answer to questions posed and situations presented.  Instead this class forced us to think about different disaster scenarios and taught us to ask the right series of questions while considering limited monetary and personnel resources.

A few of the major take always:

• COLLABORATION is key. While this seems like a no brainer it is many times not actually practiced in the field. As a result, services end up overlapping and the simplest of ideas can be thrown to the waste side. 
• Always start with an initial assessment. Again it seems like a no brainer, but this is another thing that can be forgotten.  Thankfully everything I learned in undergrad/grad school was centered around this concept which means it is usually the first or second thing I bring up in these scenarios. 
• More water is better than cleaner water and sanitation is better than clean drinking water in preventing disease (two things that are practiced in opposite in real life). Sanitation is just not sexy and as a result it is harder to get funding. 
• Always think about security. One of the guys at my table is active serving military and he was constantly thinking about how the population we were serving and the NGO workers would be protected. 

Here is the motley crew who were trapped in the same room for 80 hours over the last two weeks - still smiling until the bitter end. Also I did not take this picture, I am mearly using the one taken by the professor.  There are some people missing due to flu which is hitting the rest of the country.

The only thing that stands between me and the official end of the course is a 2500 word paper

Don't Forget to Pack a Doorstop

This morning's session was all about personal safety and apparently the is a trifecta which you have pictured below. 

In one of the conversations we were asked besides clothing, a passport and a map hat would we bring with us on a trip.  Some of them were quirky like a single Cliff bar, some of them were from the military guys like a knife and 550 cord, some would bring a gift they could give to community leaders and of course there was duct tape. After working thorough his assignment the speaker said two words: door stop.  Hello BRILLIANT IDEA. While some people stick a chair under a door handle, it is a much better to jam a door stop under the door (thank you physics). 

Biggest risk factors for problems with personal safety: alcohol/drugs were involved, people were alone, people were in an area they were not familiar with (usually a dangerous area)

Biggest cause of death of Americas when abroad: motor vehicle accidents

Despite how hard you try (no map, walking with a purpose, etc.), the locals will know you are not from the area. For example:

• You are in DC and do not follow the unwritten rule of stand right walk left when you are faced with an escalator. 
• Similarly tourists are the only people who wear sneakers outside the gym. 
• Shen abroad many times your walk will give you away.  One woman spoke about how her co-workers could identify her from down the road because she walked way to fast and with too much of a purpose (keep in mind that this is the only way you will survive in NYC) 

#Bullying

Note: This somehow turned into a GARGANTUAN post so you might want to grab a beer, make some popcorn or run to the bathroom.  

Over the past year bullying has come to the forefront in local, state and national news.  About this time last year, my attention was brought to The Bullying Project.  While I was never able to find it in theaters, I know that it helped spur on a national discussion (there may or may not have been few tears).


For the last few years I have a Sunday tradition of grabbing some coffee and a device with the Internet and opening my google reader.  You see my sole motivation is to check out said reader is that the new secrets are posted by PostSecret, an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.  Seriously a highlight of many Sunday things  (I am a very simple person here my friends).

This is probably one of my favorite postcards I have ever seen and secretly I hope that it was sent in for me (but that is a WAY long shot I know!)

Over the years the last thing listed on many of the posts was listing of events where Frank Warren, the founder and holder of all the secrets, does a live presentation and gives people in the audience a chance to ask questions and share some of their deepest secrets.  A couple of years ago he came to GW and I was able to score a ticket - you could not imagine how excited I was to finally be able to go to an event.  Sadly we ended up having a sorority event that night and I had to give mine to a friend.

Fast forward to two Sundays ago and I saw there was going to be an event in Baltimore; this one would be focusing around bullying (see people ... all the rambling comes together).  Even better, the event would be held in the eclectic American Visionary Art Museum and there would be a guest appearance by the ADORABLE Mrs. Debbie Phelps aka Michael Phelp's mother.  To do you one better, you could tour the museum for free before the event.  So basically this was the only thing getting me through my eight days of 0900-1700 classroom lectures and group work.

While driving over to park I stopped by Federal Hill and got a great shot of the Inner Harbor 
(if I do say so myself).

So I showed up about an hour early so I could run around the museum to see if the inside matched the crazyness of the inside.  Sure enough, it did.  The outside of the building and surrounding art pieces are all made up of glass mosaics and with the sunsetting the whole thing was pretty magical.  The picture on the left of the building does not do it justice, but you can see on the right how many smaller pieces make up the facade.  

Frank Waren was the first of the three person panel to speak.  Not only did we learn that in each book he has published he hides one of his own secrets, we also learned that the below secret (which was posted a few weeks ago on the PostSecret blog) was Frank's.  

The one profound thought from the second speaker, who shared his own story about being bullied as a child, was that "those who hurt, hurt."  Because of what happened to him as an elementary school age child, he has spent his life working to right social inequalities and currently he works with Baltimore's prison population.  After several sessions with some of the hardest criminals the city has to offer he came up with the above thought.  He has found that many of those who are currently serving decades/life sentences were bullied and abused as children.  It makes you wonder, and maybe confirms, the impact the cycle of violence has on the most vulnerable populations.

As soon as Debbie Phelps stood up I knew that I wanted to be best friends.  For years she worked as a teacher and a principle and saw that one of the problems with bullying was that none of the students wanted to be seen as a snitch.  During her tenure in the Baltimore City Public School system she has worked tirelessly to empower students to either stand up for themselves and/or for those around them.  By her last year as Principle she had students telling her exactly what was going on/what would be happening and had some great stories about students who stood up to their bully.

As I have read along with the PostSecret blog I have always wanted to send in a secret, but the problem is that I could never think of something to send in.  As I read the different secrets, every now and again I can find one or two I can relate too.  At the end of the event we were all given an index card and were asked to write down out six word memoir as it related to bullying.  

One of the most profound moments of the evening was when the mother of Grace McComas stood up and told us her daughter's story.  Grace was bullied by her peers at school and the use of social media has made it easier than ever to spread messages of hate.  This has become a greater problem because for the first time bullies can remain relatively anonymous and with the click of a button, the message can be sent to/seen by hundreds of people.  Despite her parents trying to get help and meeting with the school, it was too much for their daughter to handle; unfortunately, she committed suicide a little less than a year ago.  Unfortunately the laws have not caught up with technology and even though they had proof of the bullying it was not enough evidence to stand up in court.  After she shared her story you could hear a pin drop.  You hear about these things happening in the news, but here was a woman sitting six seats away from me.  Until she shared her story I thought she was just another fan of PostSecret.  

So congrats on making it to the end (so basically my mother and maybe my grandmother).  For those of you who made, I hope that this was something that made you think either about your own actions and/or those around you (or inactions); I know for a lot of us in the audience we left doing some introspection.  As a reward for finishing the whole post, I will take the first person who emails me to the American Visionary Art Museum.  Just make sure you get here before June 8th because that is when my Groupon Expires.  

As a final note I should mention that not everything on the site is doom and gloom.  In fact are downright HILARIOUS.  Apparently the #1 secret sent in is along the lines of the one below.  Who knows ... maybe it is yours too!