Time seems to be going by faster. It seems like I'll blink and the 12 weeks will be over. Today as a light day for pictures. I spent the day with my head full of data.
I went to work and started my day with my coffee mixture and a slice of banana bread. Ann brought some tiny bananas in to share. I had one in the morning and the second on my way home. She brought 4 and I gave 2 away to others and since nobody wanted the other 2 I ate them. They were little 2 bite tiny bananas.
I spent the morning sorting and cleaning data in between a webinar and a conference call. The webinar dealt with Intimate Partner Violence data. It was interesting. The conference call was with the CDC project coordinator (I have her title wrong but that is kindof what she does). That was interesting also. I then sank back into data.
Lunch was a non-exciting affair. Ann and I had to run a copy of the Hawaii Sexual Health Survey to Venie (the STD branch) so we walked over to the Health Center to drop that off. We then walked to the cafeteria at KCC just to get a little walking in. We each grabbed a veggie burger. Add lettuce, tomato and hot sauce for me :) We went back to the office and I ate my veggie burger and some buttercrunch lettuce with ginger dressing. It was even a somewhat healthy lunch. I shared the box of chocolates Jeff sent with the ladies at work. They are not huge candy eaters so there are lots left.
The afternoon was spent recoding, rerunning frequencies and clarifying data. It seems like the more we sort and look at it, the more we find we need to do! The frequencies created some interesting questions. I need to learn more about SPSS. I can calculate some of what we need by hand but I don't know how to do it in SPSS yet. I'm going to look it the tutorial and also ask Ann tomorrow to see if some of what we need can be done via SPSS before I spend a lot of time on doing it without the computer. Also, we need to run some cross-tabs which I know nothing at all about how to do in SPSS. So tomorrow should be a good learning day. I'm also going to be working on a specific table tomorrow, creating it and plugging in the data. Ann wants a rough draft of the data report by Monday. I alternate between thinking SURE! and thinking "OMG, there is NO WAY. I'm sure my brain will deal with it better tomorrow after I've learned a bit more of the data analysis stuff for SPSS. I am probably going to dream about denominators and data trends and frequency tables tonight...
After work I chatted a bit with folks from home then set about deciding what to take to work tomorrow. There is a coffee and snack gathering to welcome Terry (new branch chief), me, and some others. So since it is Tuesday evening the farmer's market was open (2nd week for the Tuesday evening additional market) so I went there. I got a small watermelon (I think at home they call them personal size) and a small cantaloupe. I'm going to slice them into bite size pieces and take those tomorrow. I figure if there is any left I won't mind eating on that for a bit.
I also picked up dinner since I was there. I opted for mexican. I had a burrito plate from Zaratez. It is called Zaratez Mexicatessen. Hehe, I like the mexicatessen part. I got the burrito plate because I was hungry but it turns out the burrito would have been enough. I got the carnitas burrito which had both good and bad qualities. Good - It was HUGE so you definitely got full. Good & Bad - it had lots of the same rice and beans as on the plate (so you don't need to get the plate if you just want to have some of those) but the rice and beans were BLAND. The pork was quite spicy, which was good. Almost too spicy for me but I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy. Bad - the pork had a lot of chunks that were just fat, or pieces with a tiny bit of meat and lots of fat. I don't like fat so I just opened the tortilla and ate the filling with a fork, that way I could pick out the pieces that were just fat. Regardless, I still got full and had burrito left. So I'd say still worth the $8. I would have been aggravated if I had gotten tacos and just a small amount of meat and it had been mostly fat chunks though. There were some sizeable chunks of diced raw onion which would overpower a bite. I like onion but it had a LOT. So... it was good but I doubt I'll order it again.
I also got a priority mail box today to start working on packing up the items to send home. I am very excited to hear what people like and don't like. So I'll work on sorting and getting stuff ready to ship then read a while. Susan loaned me a book called A Close Call: Saving Honolulu's Chinatown by Nancy Bannick, Scott Cheever and David Cheever. There is apparently something going on in Chinatown this weekend so she brought me the book. (Sorry the pic is sideways.)
I'm going to read it after I finish my current book I am readying: Grave Dance: An Alex Craft Novel by Kalayna Price. It is a light read, #2 in the series. Right now with my brain on data overload I need light and easy. I just finished Blood Song: Raven's Shadow Book One by Anthony Ryan. It is an EXCELLENT read and very inexpensive (only $1.50 on Kindle). I enjoyed it immensely. However, I switched to something light while I am doing all this intense data crunching.
I am learning a LOT at work. I am so glad I did this internship. This data is very interesting and I'm enjoying working with it. What I am learning about SPSS and data analysis is so helpful. I feel this experience is significantly increasing my skills and knowledge. This afternoon I feel a bit overwhelmed just because I need to know more about SPSS, but I know that I'll work on that tomorrow. The time frame is also a lot faster than what we do in class, which I am enjoying and adjusting my brain to handle. Seeing all the cut backs in staff at the State Health Department here, in Kentucky and on the federal level I am very worried about finding employment when I am finished with school. There are jobs out there, but it just makes me nervous to know that public health is a big area for cutbacks. A lot of public health is prevention, which if it is successful you don't see the problem. This is the "Prevention Paradox" and is one reason public health gets cut cut cut when money is tight. When some major catastrophe, epidemic or something is rampant then people again see the value of what we do. I really want to do a Ph.D but don't want to keep adding school debt. I'm going to continue looking for assistantships and opportunities. Maybe I can find a fellowship that'll allow me time for classes while getting paid to keep expenses under control. It's a lot to think about.
Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa
P.S. - I am still grinning like an idiot every time I think about getting to see the Alice in Wonderland ballet before I leave. Happy thoughts!!!!!!
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