June 16, 2004

I spent the workday today in Berrien County; more specifically, Stevensville. I was an observer at a tabletop exercise that the Berrien County Health Department hosted. Police, fire, emergency management, and EMS were among the groups talking about a pretend scenario involving intentional contamination of food. I hung around the law enforcement table the most trying to learn how they go about investigating health-related complaints. I was struck by how little they seemed to know about public health. With all of the planning that has been going on, I assumed that they knew what public health would be able to contribute to an investigation involving sick people, but it took their county emergency manager to say that the health department should be called. That is what exercising is for though; to learn how to interact with all responders.

I was reading the NYTimes Magazine today and read the interview done with Rebecca Walker. Before I go on, I just want to say that I have read almost nothing about her other than this interview, what I read in a quick internet search, and the title of her book, "Black, White, Jewish", when I saw it on a shelf. Her answers to the interview questions left me feeling angry. This is how the article ended:

Q: Are you saying that artists can actually be nice people? Walker: I am at a point where I want to explore the possibility of being a writer who is deeply mindful of the importance of taking care of people, and holding them in a way that isn't harmful. I don't know if it's possible, but I am going to try.

What does that mean? Is she going to look into being a good person and see if she can fit it into her hectic life as a writer? Maybe check some books out on the subject? Wow! That is either the confidence of an amazing artist, a large ego, or someone who hasn't had much luck in relationships. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say it is a humble comment coming from the latter situation.

June 13, 2004 It's a nice, muggy Saturday and I spent much of it reading my new book, "Dot in the Universe" by Lucy Ellmann. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and will probably finish it this weekend. The first part was HILARIOUS! I have yet to pass judgement on the second and third parts. Dan is grilling up some kabobs in his new charcoal grill. I'm thinking about grabbing a beer and going out to check his progress. Here are a couple of shots from the backyard, where I was reading: The back of the garage The neighbor's weathervane. I just thought it was kind of cool. A quote I saw on the internet: 'Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it was a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secret of the universe.' Lex Luthor, Superman

 

May 21, 2004 Genessa Shirey became Genessa Doolittle yesterday! My friends, Terry and Genessa, tied the knot at about 3:30 on May 20th, 2004. He looked handsome, she looked beautiful, and the reception was a ton of fun! A lot of Calhoun County Public Health Department folks were there and all of them danced it up. Dan, Sandy, Tim, Deb, and I also hit up the PacMan game before the reception. We found out that Sandy and Deb were pros at it and had even discovered the "Golden Path" back on the Atari system. We were truly in the presence of greatness! As for the reception, Dan and I got pretty loud and rambunctious. I can't help it! Weddings are so much fun that I forget my manners! Here are some shots from the reception.
Genessa and Terry Doolittle at the Front Table	The first dance
Karen and Joe	Karen and Vicki
Olivier, Kristin, JoDee, Dan, and Amy	The cake cutting
Amy, Dan, and Joe at the bar upstairs	Genessa dancing it up with friends

May 15, 2004 Genessa, Kristin, and Olivie came over yesterday evening to watch the Pistons game with Dan and I. We had fun, but the Pistons lost. I couldn't believe it! They HAVE to win in New Jersey tomorrow; they're down 3-2 now. Here are some pictures from last night.
Olivie and Dan making noise and driving our downstairs neighbor crazy	Dan and Me
Genessa and Me	Kristin and Olivie playing up married life for the camera

May 10, 2004 I got this in the mail yesterday. It is a picture from a brochure advertising Alumni Day at my grad school.

We're getting fat! Time to get outside more or jump up and down inside more! I read a cool article in the NY Times this weekend about a game called "Pac Manhatten." People play the roles of PacMan, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde and run around the New York City trying to collect points (if you're Pac) and eat each other. We should have one in Kalamazoo! People communicate to the runners (Pac and Ghosts) with cellphones. They update their positions and then are directed by their teammates to the locations where they want to be. I subscribed to the newsletter so that I can get info about starting up a city PacMan.

Dan shaved his head!

April 28, 2004 My computer is free! Finally free from a nasty virus! The virus hid the contents of my C drive and then, when I downloaded an anti-virus program, it would pop up an error message every second or so. I'm not quite sure what happened, but it looks like my new Norton Internet Security software did the trick. Work is moving quickly. I have a ton of projects up in the air; it's a lot of fun. I'm learning GIS right now. We just got ArcView, an ESRI product. Me and Diana are working on getting a data bank established that will allow people to get to data they might need for their programs. Here is an interview I did with myself.

March 28, 2004 It was another busy weekend! Dan and I drove to Detroit Saturday morning to see "Miss Saigon" at the Fox Theater. Dan's Shrine high school buddy, Al Gillespie, played the male lead, Chris. Al gave us two awesome comp tickets and we watched him do a great performance. It was the first time I had seen the play and my first time in the Fox theater. Then, we went to Mario's for dinner. It's a really nice Italian place downtown. We were meeting up with Al and some other high school connections after Al finished the second show, so we killed some time at the Majestic, ANOTHER great Detroit spot. We hung out with the Shriners a bit at Al's hotel and then called it a night. Here are some pictures from Dan's master class performance with Martha Masters that he did earlier this month. Click here to watch a short clip of him playing. The movie is dark, but you can hear his song well. We also went to Martha Masters' concert the night before. She was great: a great performer and a really nice person.

March 6, 2004 It's Saturday! No plans, just relaxing. March 4th was my Mom's Birthday. We went to Burdick's in downtown Kzoo and then went over to a fairly new bar/restaurant called North 11. It has a huge martini list and a cool bar area. I had a lot of fun and I think my parents did too. Last night, I met up with Annie and Tom downtown to walk around the Art Hop. Dan met up with us a little later. The Art Hop happens the first Friday of the month. Businesses downtown stay open and show artists' work among their merchandise. There are some finger foods and a lot of Franzia box wine (yeah, they don't skimp on the liquor) and a good number of people show up. "Climb Kalamazoo" had a keg of Bell's beer one time and I was so disappointed that they opted for the Franzia this time! That stop was what made my Art Hop last time. Bring back the Bells! (And work on that website!).

February 15, 2004

Dan and I celebrated Valentine's day with dinner at Damon's. We ordered the bigger ticket items and used the winnings from the Superbowl squares to pay -- we won 48 big ones in the 4th quarter! Dan also made me an awesome breakfast in the morning - gingerbread pancakes with lemon yogurt topping, fresh fruit, and Canadian bacon.

Lyrics to the Sting song, "Dead Man's Rope," that plays the most often in my car:
An excerpt:
"All this wandering has led me to this place
Inside the well of my memory, sweet rain of forgiveness
I'm just hanging here in space

The shadows fall
Around my bed
When the hand of an angel,
The hand of an angel is reaching down above my head."

It's a moment of recognition. A moment that can happen anytime during any day. Awareness of something outside of yourself that is more important than the problems of the day.

January 30, 2004

It's almost Superbowl weekend! Dan and I are going to Detroit for the game. His friend, Pete, is having a party and he has a 55 inch flat screen t.v. Aw yeah! I'm looking forward to beating Dan's friend Chris in Ping Pong. I destroyed him on his own table the last time we visited and it will be fun to destroy him again.

Click here to watch a short film of Dan getting ready for Superbowl weekend:

I hung up the pictures I got last weekend. They look pretty nice.

January 28, 2004

It's still snowing! I have had to wipe the snow off of my car three different times today. It took me an extra 45 minutes to get home today because of a couple of wrecks on I94. I94 is TERRIBLE! Accidents happen all of the time and usually around the same area. Here I am in the traffic jam...not happy.

At work today, I got the schedule for all of the emergency preparedness exercises that Calhoun County will be doing this fiscal year. There are a ton! The tabletop we did, "Bioterrorist: Attack on Food", was wonderful. Everyone got a lot out of it and we've found some things to work on.

Here are a couple of shots from around the apartment:

Dan at the new computer desk

January 22, 2004

I got a bunch of picture frames at a fabric store today. So, now I'll have to work to filling them with portraits. I started with my Mom today. Here's the picture I came up with.

Another picture of my Mom on the site for the trip company she works for: Adventures in Good Company. She's about halfway down the page.


January 18, 2004

Today, I spent six hours working on the music cabinet project. I sanded the whole thing, cleaned it up, worked on the castors (which were made in Meriden, CT and are leather!), and put the first coat of stain on it. It's looking pretty good. I just have to figure out what color to paint the "bad wood" on the sides and on the doors. I think I'll be done with it in another week or two.

Dan is in Detroit tonight for his Dad's birthday. I don't have to work tomorrow (MLK Day) so I'm just hanging out late night.

January 15, 2004

I made dinner tonight! Spicy Thai Chicken. It was really good (not to brag or anything). In other news today, me and my co-worker, Kristin, are hosting the department's first tabletop exercise, "Bioterrorism: Attack on Food." We'll have 40 people around the table from police, fire, EMS, hospitals, emergency management, and health to go through a scenario involving a terrorist act. It's a pretty big production and it should be fun.

January 11, 2004

Sunday morning...my favorite morning! I've spent most of it playing around with the new camera and reading the New York Times. Dan bought me a subscription to the Sunday Times for Christmas!

I've been working on fixing up a music cabinet I bought from Heritage Salvage Company in Downtown Kalamazoo. Here are the "before" pictures:

I'll have to cut shelves for the inside as well. I'm going to strip the legs also and then paint the other parts. This is my first project like this...it's a lot of fun.

I'm going to experiment with ways to display the pictures I take. I usually display chronologically, but I thought doing it by person might be cool too.

January 10, 2004

It's the New Year and Christmas passed as well. Both were fun and relatively stress-free. I came down with a really bad cold on Christmas Eve which wasn't much fun, but it didn't keep me from doing most things. The apartment looked nice with some minimal decorations and I had 5 days off over that three week holiday stint.

It's Saturday today and Dan is already working on cooking his second meal of the day.

I finally bought the digital camera I have been eyeing for over a year! It's the Sony Cybershot and I love it so far. I'll have better pictures to share on this site now. It also records little movies so I'm anxious to see how those might work on this site as well.

Here are some pictures that I took with my Sprint Treo that I have for work.

December 18, 2003:

I'm bored! I'm bored! It's the after-five 'o' clock boredom that I first learned about when working in Detroit after undergrad. There's no homework to do or looming midterm to take up my brain space. There's free time during the week! Great! Now I have to figure out what to do with it. Here's my preliminary list:

Read Do the website Take a class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Practice Piano Volunteer somewhere Do more work, but make it background reading and epi stuff so I don't lose my skills. Exercise

It's a little scary, but reading for work actually sounds really appealing right now. I stopped at a woman's poster at the APHA conference and talked with her about a certain statistical technique. I've been reading up on it today and time has kind of flown by. I don't get to do much epi at work because the emergency preparedness stuff takes up most of the time, so getting to look at epi articles is nice.

Anyway, the big event for tonight is going to Sam's Club with Dan. He wants to get some Christmas gifts for his family.



December 17, 2003:

Today, I went to training for the Michigan Disease Surveillance System. It is a system that includes the Notifiable Disease System and will include other moduls in the future such as TB, STDs/HIV, Syndromic Surveillance, Emergency Room data, and Nurse Triage data. It is pretty cool and I'm looking forward to using it when it starts up officially in February. Being a local epidemiologist is difficult a lot of times because there really haven't been epids at this level before. So, many people don't know exactly what their role is and what kinds of data they like best. I think having access to this system will make my job a lot easier. I have also been working on getting data protocols down on paper. Yesterday, I worked on our protocol for handling suspected health event clusters such as cancer clusters. There isn't anything on this so I'm using CDC documents as guidance. Clusters are a touchy subject. The guidance is sure to emphasize that handling a perceived cluster (which may not really be present) is just as important as handling a real cluster. It's interesting stuff because it highlights the dual role that local health departments play: they must evaluate the health of the community using numbers and "hard" data, but they must also foster relationships with its citizens.


December 9, 2003:

Seven months out of school, six months into my job, and a couple of weeks from Christmas. The work atmosphere during the holidays isn't one of productivity. I have felt a bit affected by the slump and am trying to get over it. I am chairing a regional surveillance group and am trying to help the group focus on its purpose. People seem to be interested, but then don't provide much feedback and don't participate in dialogue at the meetings. I can sympathize with teachers when they ask a question and get blank stares in return.

It has also been three and a half years since I graduated from Kalamazoo College. I have been going through my old pictures and getting them in a scrapbook. I found a batch from freshman and sophmore year. Here are some of a great friend, Kathy Quinney, and other friends.

Tomorrow, I have a Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Training in Grand Rapids. We're required to write a plan this year and I'm assuming this training will help us with this. Who knows? Lots of trainings in this gig.

November 11, 2003:

It's November and just a while ago, it was August. Soon, it will be June again. It's cold again. The car was covered in frost this morning and I scraped it off with a good-looking scraper. I'll park in the garage from now on.

I like work and wish I could work more hours without losing steam. There is so much to do and all of it is interesting. The things that bothered me before, like having to do the budget, don't really bother me anymore.

Last Friday, Dan and I went to Ginger Hentz's home for a bonfire. Heidi, Brigette, and Larry Anderson were also there. I really had a good time. It is nice to get along with your co-workers and find them interesting, inspiring, and funny.

Tonight, I was reading over some things I wrote back in 2000 when I was working in Detroit. Some poems and little starts of stories...they weren't that bad. I remember the space they came out of; work wasn't challenging. That's not a problem these days and I think my creative impulse suffers for this. Ah, to live the tortured artist life! Such good things to look back on, but less pleasure in creating.

October 19th, 2003:

99 cent tacos are no more. The Mi Ranchito deal of the century has been discontinued. Tacos now cost 2 dollars each. And so ends a Dan and Amy Monday Night tradition of 99 cent tacos followed by dollar draughts at Damon's for Monday Night Football. Tonight, we had a couple of Coors Light at my place and watched the game on my tv.

Other events of the day: a pretty good day at work. I worked on the School Nurse data (lice and minor treatment - I threw in a microscopic picture of a nasty lice), got a Mutual Aid Agreement through the Board of Health meeting.

Also took a long bike ride in the dark and smelled the decaying leaves and watched my shadow travel as I passed under street lights.


October 18th, 2003:

The search for a couch has ended! Hallelujia! I found a new couch on sale for a nice price and it will be here this next Saturday. All right, good stuff, no more thinking about dimensions and fit and corners. Tilda, who helped me at the store was great. It turns out that her daughter-in-law is a hot shot epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and got her PhD from Johns Hopkins.

Other things that happened today: I took a bike ride, swept the apartment, did some general cleaning, did some ironing, and mourned the younger version of myself while listening to dance music in the car. I thought about the not-so-long-ago past where I'd dance all night long in a crazy club with crazy people. It was great and I gave a little thought today to how that doesn't happen anymore. That level of outward energy doesn't happen too much. Yeah, you'd feel pretty bad the next morning, but it was usually worth it.

October 17th, 2003:

The first day of the website makeover is complete! Spaghetti Sauce had a great run!

I have been without internet since I moved to my new place in Kalamazoo, Michigan. New Haven, Connecticut and Yale University are memories now, and good ones. My friends, the school, the city, and the fun parts of the East Coast. I had a really great time out there.

Kalamazoo is my home, again. Work occupies a large corner of my brain. Being 25 years old and the enormous number of changes that could potentially take place occupies another chunk. Making my apartment presentable occupies yet another part.

The name of the site, "3 feet of visibility", is something I came up with after doing a free association exercise. Words that came up included, path, walking, building, change, scaffold, work plan, links, expanding, reaching, stacked, structure, grow ... lots of words about transitions. I thought about how you can never really know what is going to happen in the long run. You only really know what's going to happen for a short amount of time out. Like driving in the fog with three feet of visibility. Fog isn't scary though, just a part of the trip.