Saturday, November 18, 2006

More busy weekends!

The weekend of Veteran's Day, my high school friend Clay visited from DC. We hung out with some of his friends in Atlanta, went to the Georgia Aquarium (home to 4 young nurse sharks and 5 beluga whales), and went hiking.

The leaves were in the middle of changing colors - this is at the Centennial Olympic Plaza across the road from the aquarium.
Holding up boulders by the Chatahoochie River

The week of November 13-17 was the EIS fall course. We all had to give a presentation on a research project (I presented my Niger work), which was actually more fun than advertised, and had some instruction on scientific writing and forensic epidemiology. It was so much fun to see classmates again, as everyone was back from all the places they had dispersed to. Once again, there was something social every night.


On Friday, my classmate Jim held a "leather" party, which was much fun! I had a lot of fun breaking out the black leather pants. Here are Jim and I in our leather (yes, further confirmation than I am really short).

This is my friend Meredith- she finished the EIS last year in the immunization branch, and joined the malaria branch when I did. She's like my big sister and her office is one door down from mine. She is absolutely wonderful!!
Shua is one of my EIS classmates (based in DC) - so much fun to see him again!
EIS gals

This is Jamie - he just finished the EIS in the malaria branch (2 years ahead of me) - he's now a malaria liaison in DC. I miss him, so it was nice to have him in town! Yeah, he's really tall!



Wednesday, November 08, 2006

November 8

After two weekends of traveling, I'm back in Atlanta for a couple weeks. I went to Nashville the last weekend of October and got to catch up with some fun folks, and meet others. One of my favorite Vanderbilt residents just had a son, so I went over to meet him - what a handsome little guy! Driving through the mountains between Nashville and Chattanooga with all the leaves changing was just glorious! No pictures though - a little hard careening around mountain passes with a camera in one hand. :)

When I got back to Atlanta, I had a little pumpkin carving party. The EIS officcer in the parasites branch has two adorable little boys, and one of the pumpkins was almost as big as them!
This past weekend, I was in Kansas City for my roommate from medical school's wedding. Since I got in on Friday, I got to help decorate for the reception. The flowers were beautiful! That's me clowning around with the rose in my teeth. :)
The groom (Shawn) and the groom's cake (with the cake's baker) - no, that's not a cooler full of beer on the table next to the wedding cake - that's a cake! It's all cake, icing, and candy. Even the labels are edible. Amazing what can be done with fondant!!!
Medical school roomies - Hilary Ann, Yen-Lin, and I all lived in a 400 sq foot dorm suite for two years - and we're still friends!! Hilary Ann was absolutely lovely! She is now an emergency room physician, and Yen-Lin is a pediatric radiation oncologist in Boston.The Sunday morning brunch - left to right - me, Yen-Lin, her husband Dai, Shawn, Hilary Ann, and Hilary Ann's mom.

Next up: visiting with a good friend from high school this weekend, the fall EIS course next week, BOTC the weekend after.... oh, and I have to figure out what I'm doing for Thanksgiving!! I'm really looking forward to seeing all the EIS officers who have been dispersed around the country back in town again. There should be more fun party pics. :)