Happy Easter!

While Easter Sunday technically celebrates Jesus rising from the dead three days after his crucifixion, it is also a time filled with bright colors, egg hunts and Easter candy.  Each year the Washington Post puts together a competition for people to create the best Peep diorama boxes.  Check out some of the winners!

Actual Club G

As an undergrad we used to joke that we were heading off to Club G many weekend nights; my poor mother thought for weeks we were going off to some hot new club.  Instead, we were heading to the Gelman Library, the main undergrad library at GW.  Most of the floors had big group rooms and were more for socializing/putting in your required "study hours" for your sorority/frat.  If you ACTUALLY had to study you headed to the top two floors to hide in the stacks.

Anyway, as I am sitting in the library late on a Saturday night, studying for pharm, I am amazed with the number of undergrad students who are here; almost all of the seats are filled in my reading room as if it was a normal Wednesday afternoon.  Dear reader you should keep one thing in mind as I am typing this all up: the only other time I have actually been in a library on a Saturday evening was three weeks ago when I was studying for my first pharm exam.  Who knew the hot spot on a Saturday would be the library?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.  Whatever happened to work hard, play hard?  Emphasis on play hard on the weekend.  It is nice that they post a sign at the door/security post saying that they have the right to take anyone being too disruptive out of the library.

Well back to the grind for me.  

132 days until summer vacation starts (yay for no vacation between level 2 and 3)!!

Doubling Down on Some Erythrocytes

After weeks of getting calls from the Red Cross about making a blood donation, I finally was able to make it to a drive.  The one going on to day was especially for CMW negative donors and until two weeks ago, I had no idea I fit into that category.  Have you ever heard of someone saying they are a "baby donor"?  Yeah me neither.  Basically it means that you have not been exposed to the cytomegalovirus (a flu-like virus in the herpes family).  Most people are asymptomatic and don't even know they have CMV.  One of the reasons why it is so important is that it is the preferred kind of blood for pediatric transfusions.  If young children are given blood with CMN, it can lead to some serious medical complications and even death.

 

While I was answering all of the preliminary questions, the tech asked if I was interested in doing a double donation (I fit the ht/wt/hemoglobin parameters and I also have A- blood).  A double whole blood is where they take two pints of red blood and give you back your platelets and plasma.  The best part is they pump you up with some saline so you do not lose all that volume (things they don't do with a normal donation.  They also use a smaller needle so it is more comfortable.  So in honor of all things SUS this summer, I decided to double down. 

Common side effect of double red donations: tingling lips - think of the feeling you get in your foot when it falls asleep.  Basically the quick and dirty reason (because we all know that you have no interest in the pathophysiology) is because of the anticoagulant (citrate) used during the apheresis collection; it causes a temporary decrease in ionized calcium levels.  The quick fix ... suck on some Tums which worked pretty quickly. 

You also can get kind of chilly as they pump the platelets and normal saline back into your veins (everything goes back in at room temperature which is about 30 degrees lower than your normal body temp), but the fleece blanket came in handy.  And before you ask: no this is not me, no this is not someone who was also donating blood.  He just has the face I would have probably made had I remembered to have someone take my picture. 

Want to learn a bit more about the process, check out this video 

(it was one of the better ones I could find out there).

Best part about the donation ... the snacks you get when you are all done.  This donation center had the best snacks going (trust me I have done this a time or two).

Fingers crossed, it won't mess me up too badly for the Sole of the City 10k next month.

In Honor of Our Last PSYC Clinic!

Well the last eight weeks have FLOWN BY.  Not only does that mean that we are half way through level two, it also means that we all survived our PSYC rotation.  

And now off to start Adult Health I. 

Dementors: A Metaphor for Depression?

Perhaps everyone of my generation is familiar with Harry Potter.  How many of you secretly wished/hoped to get a letter before your eleventh birthday inviting you to study at Hogwards? 

Throughout history, authors and artists have used their mental illness to create some brilliant work; Beethoven, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens are just to name a few.  It is well documented that J.K. Rowling suffers from depression and she used her downward spiral to create one of the greatest metaphors for depression ... the dementors. 

These characters:

• Feed on positive emotions and force people to relive their worst memories
• Can fill a person with overwhelming sadness and hopelessness
• Can preform The Kiss, an action which sucks a person's soul away and leaves nothing but an empty shell
• Cannot be killed.  The only way to get rid of the dementors is to conjure a Patronus which is formed by thinking of the happiest, most powerful memory a person possesses.

Check out the full article over at Heart of Glass. 

Pretty Much IN LOVE With the Kid President

The kids (and adults who are really kids at heart) danced and the Kid President's crew put the videos together for two minutes which will only put a smile on your face!!

#EPICFAIL

Dear Mother Nature,

Waking up to 2 inches of snow was not welcomed.  I am ready for warm weather, spring flowers and long bike rides. 

xoxo, Emily (and Bernard)

Meta Picture Monday

DC Beer Festival

Today Tini, Erica and I headed to Nationals Stadium for the DC Beer Festival!  Sadly it was not as warm as it was yesterday, but nothing would stand between up and 75 vendors and over 200 beers.  I got there a bit early to accomplish some studying, but ended up going on a walk around Navy Yard instead.  I would also like to add that this area, the same area where some SUS'ians and I hit up the Snellygaster Beer Festival, was drastically different when I first started biking around here seven years ago (woah baby, seven years ago). 

Erica and I got there as soon as the taps started flowing

 Tini was not far behind.  She had to deal with a malfunctioning/flooding dish washer.  

One of the major highlights was the Traveler Beer Company.  Not only were they handing out some suds, they were also giving out mustaches.  Check out #trvlr for some great pictures.  They were also my new favorite find of the festival.

We also found the Shock Top Car.  

There was a spout coming out of the trunk, but sadly it was not hooked up to a keg.

Photobooth Shot.  We failed miserably at this, but at least one picture turned out well.

The best way to round out all that beer was with a half smoke from Ben's Chili Bowl.  I would totally post a picture, but it kind of looks like a code brown situation, so you will just have to take my word. 

45 Degrees = 45 Mile Ride

Today was one of the nicer Saturdays we have had in a while so Alex and I decided to dust off the bicyclettes and head out for the Mt. Vernon trail. 

One of the coolest parts about the trail is that it takes you past DCA.  There are tons of people who come to Gravelly Point Park to watch the planes take off and land.

 

Half way down the trail you can either break off and head over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to National Harbor (a favorite ride because it houses The Awakening) or you head out to Mt. Vernon.  The Wilson Bridge breaks all kinds of records:

• It is one of only a handful of drawbridges in the U.S. Interstate Highway System
• It is the only bridge in the United States that crosses the borders of three jurisdictions
• It contained the only portion of the Interstate system owned and operated by the federal government, but was turned over to the Virginia and Maryland departments of transportation upon project completion

From there over hill and dale to Mt. Vernon.  In all the trips I have made down this path, we never have time to go in and walk around.  I am sure nothing much has changed since my visit during undergad with Memere. 

Dinner was at District of Pi Pizzeria (lots of 3.141....'s all over the place).  

Alex had a recovery Malbec and I a recovery Allagash White.  

How You Can Help?

So after a week, I hope you have not only learned a lot, but you want to get involved.  Two crazy SUS'ians are heading back out on the road this summer to cycle across the country to raise money and awareness about AH and participate in build days with local AH agencies.  Before each rider dips their wheel in the Atlantic Ocean, they need to raise $4500.

As a result, I am posting their donation pages: 

Click here to donate to Arden's ride and click here to donate to Marcus' ride. 

Fun facts about the pictures: 1) I have never seen Arden with make-up 2) Marcus rode 100+ miles with a flag bigger than me on the 4th of July

Can't decide who to give to?  Just split that donation ... Trust me, every bit helps!!

Both are giving away some sweet poems/prizes so GET TO IT.

Housing and Health

While most of us would not see the connection, the two are actually more interrelated than we realize.  The last year of grad school I spent a lot of time looking at the impact of social determinants on health (lack of affordable/safe housing is an example) and was where I figured out that I wanted to work in an FQHC. 

Some quick stats:

• Studies show that 84% of U.S. homes have a bedroom with detectable levels of dust mite allergens. Many of these have levels that can contribute to allergies or asthma. (Arbes et al. 2003).
• Exposure to dampness and mold in homes is estimated to contribute to approximately 21% of current asthma cases in the United States. Annual cost: $3.5 billion. (Mudarri and Fisk 2007).
• Children in bad housing have increased risk of viral or bacterial infections and a greater chance of suffering mental health and behavioral problems. (Harker: 2006) 

 

Want to test you knowledge on how housing and health are related? 

Click here to try out the Jeopardy powerpoint I put together for the SUS crew!

A Picture Paints 1,000 Words

 Upworthy posted this picture a few weeks ago and pretty much explains itself.

How Policy Can Help AH

One of the B&B Alumni posted an article, Strategies Detailed to Remedy DC's Affordable Housing Crisis, which gives some insight into what happens when gentrification occurs and gives a few policy options which may help increase the amount of available affordable housing.

One of the major drivers of rent prices in urban areas is walkability which means neighborhoods have to be safe, walkable (duh) and have grocery stores/banks/restaurants within a couple of miles.  Unfortunately in order for urban areas to become more walkable (i.e. gentrified), contractors are demolishing cheap housing, thus pushing lower income individuals out of areas they have called home for decades.  They then have to go out and find new housing which will probably be more expensive and more inconvenient to work/grocery stores/etc.

The current public policy landscape, especially in DC, is doing very little to protect these already vulnerable populations.  Chris Leinberger offered up some possible policy solutions:

• Offering standard tax credit and vouchers from the local government in lieu of increased tax revenues from other parts of the walkable urban district
• Participating in federal government programs associated with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods, the next generation of the department’s Hope VI programs
• Instituting inclusionary zoning to require affordable units within a district with higher walkable urban infrastructure investment
• Implementing fee capture upon resale of any market-rate unit within a district with such infrastructure investments
• Allowing ancillary units in for-sale housing (i.e., “granny flats”) to expand the housing supply
• Encouraging employers to locate in transit-oriented developments in order to increase tax revenues in those districts.

None of these policies will be put into action, let alone be brought to the table, until policy makers are made aware of the AH crisis we have in this country.  Unfortunately, important issues like this will not be brought to the table unless constituents call/write/email/fb/tweet their law makers at a local, state and policy level.

So what are you waiting for - become an AH advocate and start spreading the word!!

What is Affordable Housing?

Affordable housing is defined as:

housing in which a renter/homeowner pays no more than 30% of their annual income on housing

An estimated 12 million renter and homeowner households now pay more then 50 percent of their annual incomes for housing, and a family with one full-time worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford the local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.

The lack of affordable housing is a significant hardship for low-income households preventing them from meeting their other basic needs, such as nutrition and healthcare, or saving for their future and that of their families.

There is NOT ONE COUNTY in the US where an individual can work 40 hours per week at the minimum wage and afford a one-bedroom apartment at the local fair market rent

To see how large the affordable housing crisis is worldwide, 

check out a video from Habitat for Humanity

Have some extra time, check out this NY Times Editorial on Affordable Housing.

Welcome to AH Week

So over the last few months, I have compiled several affordable housing articles, and in an effort to clean up my blogosphere, I am making this Affordable Housing Week.  Stay tuned over the next five days for some articles which may your introduction to the Affordable Housing (AH) crisis in the US or add to what you already know!  Rumor has it that there is a Jeopardy game on Thursday.

Pain is Temporary, Pride is FOREVER

In true SUS fashion we had white board describing what we would be facing today (good thinking Krisitn), including an early morning and bins out time.  

We all headed to the metro and headed down to the National Mall.  

Because of day light savings things were still pretty dark when we popped out, but was awesome to see day break.  Man I love DC!

Quick picture at the start line and then we were off to our corrals to wait for the start of the race. 

Jay and I headed off together and to kill some time we took a dance video.  45 minutes after the official start of the race we our group made it to the start line and we were off!

Here we are at mile 4 heading back over the Arlington Bridge.  As you can see it was a chilly and overcast morning.

Mile 8 had a BANGING (literally) group playing.  

2:26:45 minutes later (the official time was 2:32, but I stopped to say a quick hi to a friend I had not seen in years on the side of the road) I finally reached the end of the course!

I Feel So Close To You Right Now

A whole bunch of the SUS crew was reunited last night at my house and in true fashion the first thing to do was form a giant cuddle.

 

While only 10 SUS'ians could made it to DC, 

Meghan made sure  everyone was represented by a cupcake.  

It was good to see we still can snack like we are biking across the country.  

Here are just a handful of the goodies.

Carbo Loading!!

During some of the LONG, LONG, LONG rides this summer we had hours of time to kill in between hosts.  Unfortunately when we got west of Louisiana the towns became further and further apart and there was less opportunity to stop and smell the roses.  I was frequently know for my hot seat questions which ranged from favorite color to best vacation spot, what's your family like to if you could be a vegetable what would you be and why.

One of the frequent questions I loved asking people was what would your last meal be?  My answer would be my mother's eggplant parmesan, a Malbec and lavender creme brulee.  For some reason this would get people talking about favorite foods and what they would consider to be their signature dish.  One hot afternoon (the ride into Amarillo to be exact - the ONE day out of the entire summer I COMPLETELY forgot to blog about) Steph asked me about my signature dish; for some reason homemade butternut squash ravioli just rolled off my tongue.  I promised her we would one day make homemade ravioli (something that is on her 30 Before 30 List).

Well with all that back story, today was the day we would cover my dining room in flour and bang out some homemade ravioli.  What better time than the day before the big half marathon (marathon for Steph).

Start will flour wells and eggs

Roll the dough back and forth a whole bunch of times

Add some filling and voila ... TONS and TONS of ravioli!!

Pinterest Score

One scoop brownie mix, one scoop cookie dough ...

ONE AMAZING MUFFIN!!

My Life is OVER

Today Google announced that it would be getting rid of Google Reader because membership has been declining over the past few years.  How am I going to keep track of the 52 blogs I am subscribed to?  Any suggestions will be welcomed.  

Happy Pi Day!!!

#popewatch

So the new pontiff was chosen moments ago.  The media has been all a buzz with Pope Benedict's resignation, speculating whether or not one of the eleven US cardinal frontrunners would be chosen to lead the Catholic Church's 1.2 billion followers, etc.  Social media has also been a buzz, with pope jokes and well crafted memes.  My favorite status was from a undergraduate friend:

And now we wait to see which Cardinal will have the ability to exercise papal infallibility.

Trip to the Country

Every once in a blue moon, much to my parents chagrin, I make it back to the hamlet (seriously my town is so small it is considered to be a hamlet) where I grew up.

The Village Green still stands, albeit much smaller than it started, in the middle of town.

I can still give directions by referencing the 500 year old oak tree

(despite living there my entire life I have NO idea what any of the streets are named)

Swiped from the internet, but how AWESOME is this picture

When I go to the deli to get a BEC (bacon, egg and cheese) the guys and Denise ask how everyone in the family is ... I will probably run into a few townies who volunteer at the fire department with my father.  You know the usual small town kind of stuff.

"Downtown"

I have one or two short runs this week before the half on Saturday so I figured I would head down to the Sutton Clock Tower.  Truth be told I never knew it had an official name until this afternoon.  The clock was originally build for Mrs. Sutton who missed the ringing church bells of NYC.  The clock to this day still works and is looked after a group called the Clock Winders (again this is a small town and you cannot make stuff like this up).

Totally swiped this from a Google search too