Semi-Random Encounters

Last June, I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of the Summer Institute of the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST). The idea was that about 35 junior scholars would get together for four days with 15 senior scholars in rural Washington State. I knew about 8 of the 35 junior scholars and got to know many more over the four intense days. I have a blog post sitting around, waiting to be published, about the overall experience, but this is just an intro.

I had a direct flight from Minneapolis to Portland on a Sunday morning. I got to the gate and was hanging out, doing my readings for CSST with fly fisherman all around me. Then I got up and moved around and who should be there but my friend Dave. Dave and I had met at a conference about a year before and is an absolute riot (although word on the street is that he's serious when teaching). He was filling me in on the hockey tournament he'd been at in Toronto (playing) the night before and we were chatting about other random things. Then I asked where he was sitting on the plane. RIGHT NEXT TO ME.

I should state that we had both booked our own flights and I didn't even know he was even flying through Minneapolis. I also had only picked this seat because the interwebs assured me it was a bulkhead seat. (They lied.) I hate the middle seat. But there we were, accidentally seated next to each other. Dave documented it with this photo and then just sent it to me today.

We both got out our massive stacks of readings and tried to read while it wasn't too turbulent. We'd occasionally talk about the readings or go off on a tangent. Overall, it was one of the best flights I've had. Thanks Dave!

Yet another migraine update

The last time I wrote a migraine update, things were going really well. I had a new doctor and was on steroids to keep my brain calm while my body adjusted to my new dose of topamax. I really liked the steroids. I had almost no migraines while I was on them. But, I had to get off them quickly, and life returned pretty much to normal. Headache of some sort every day, really really bad migraine once a month, and a want to stay in bed migraine about once a week.

A few weeks ago, I went into work despite having a "want to stay in bed" migraine. I knew I shouldn't, but my CHI workshop proposal was due and I'm generally more productive at the office. It was also a group proposal and I was working with other people who I don't know that well and didn't want to let down. If it had been lab mates, I might have filled them in and stayed home, but with this proposal, I couldn't.

I worked all day and in the afternoon, took a quick break to call the headache clinic to leave a message for my nurse practitioner. Nothing was working. Nothing had been working. I wasn't going to last until my next appointment in mid-December. (I hate making phone calls and hate bugging doctors.) So I left a message. On Monday, I got a reply and set up an appointment for the earliest time, November 17. "What do I do in the meantime?" They said they'd get back to me. The next day I got a call back that they wanted to switch my preventative medication to zonegran, another seizure medication. So I'm on that now, ramping up the dose.

In the mean time, that Friday night I worked until 7:30pm, submitted the workshop proposal. (CURSES, Word for crashing an average of once every 5 minutes during that last half hour!) Then Ben picked me up, trying to rush me to my normal urgent care clinic, which closed at 8pm. We got there at 8:03. They were closed. So it was on to the ER and, while I got treated and had no migraines all weekend, I didn't get out of the ER until 2:30am. It's never a good sign when you go into triage and they inform you that they have one patient who's been in the waiting room for 4 hours and the average wait to go back to a room is 2 hours. (I'd taken an Imitrex injection and Zofran, but they just weren't doing the trick, sadly.)

So in 2 weeks when I go to the doctor, high on my list of questions is "what now?" What medication can I have for when I have a migraine and what if that doesn't work?

Now, however, I'm excited that the zonegran is no longer giving me nightmares. And I'm still exceedingly thankful for a medical team that is incredibly responsive to my needs. And insurance. SO THANKFUL for insurance! Without it I wouldn't be able to go to the ER or urgent care, or this great clinic. (Or get any of the medications I take regularly.) Hopefully with all this, things will get back to "healthy" levels soon.

I'm not telling...

I mentioned the other day that I'd gone on a trip before that I hadn't told my parents about. Here is that story.

April 3o and May 1, 2008 there were two MAJOR concerts in England to celebrate the King's Singers 40th anniversary. The first was to be in London, the second in Cambridge at King's College. The year before, dad and I had planned to go. But this was when the dates were unknown and as soon as he found out when they were, he bailed. Teaching or some such nonsense ;) But I had this idea in the back of my head. I had over 100,000 frequent flyer miles. I could go to England on my own!

Thus the scheming began.

Poster from King's College Concert

I hemmed and hawed and finally decided that if I could buy tickets for the Cambridge concert, I would go. (I knew there were still London tickets available.) I called up Cambridge via Skype and they had tickets...good ones, so I started booking everything.

Then I thought it would be funny if I didn't tell my parents that I was going. To understand this you have to understand two things about my relationship with my parents. First, I tell them almost everything. They know what I'm worried about, whether I went to the doctor this week, and who I had lunch with last Friday. That's just who we are. Second, they are not worrywarts. In fact, when I was in Mexico for 3 weeks and our tour guide was getting death threats and Canadians were being held hostage (local to where we were), what was my mom most worried about? That I wasn't wearing my seatbelt in the cab. Because it didn't have seatbelts.

So I knew that my parents wouldn't mind being left out of the loop. And I wanted to do this to see if I could hide something from them. It was HARD. But Simon and Ben got to hear all of my planning instead of my parents.

What I look like after a day of biking

I even went on a 30 mile bike ride through the Cotswolds on my own. Because I could. And because it started in Moreton-in-Marsh, home of Ian Kellam, whose music we often sing in choir.

I concocted a ruse about why I wouldn't be calling my parents that week (which they bought) and let them know via email that they should call Ben if they needed to get in touch with me while my broken phone was being serviced.

I thought you should know my phone died... If you need to reach me you can email me, have Anthony IM me, or call Ben. I should have this all sorted out by the middle of next week...I hope :)

love,

Kate

Then I took off for England. On Thursday, May 1, I mailed them a postcard of the King's Singers concert, confident it wouldn't arrive til I was back on American soil on Tuesday, when they could call me. I got an email on Monday, May 5, entitled "so."

Got a very mysterious card from England.
You sneak!
Love,
Dad

Since when did the British postal service work that fast? But nevermind! I called them from the Newark airport the next day and they were highly amused.

Homecoming

Next week I'm heading to Berea for Homecoming. It's my fifth year reunion! Somehow I volunteered to give a talk and be on a panel, in addition to run/walking a 5K, singing in a choir, and hanging out with some seriously cool kids.

I haven't been to Homecoming since I graduated and I'm looking forward to it. The above picture was taken at around midnight in the campus post office (CPO). We were discussing this event earlier this year at Rachel's wedding. (She's the middle layer on the left.) We all went to the CPO to deliver Rachel's brother J's Birthday gift - tickets to Norah Jones.

This is J. He let us do his hair in undergrad. The girl he took to the Norah Jones concert is now his wife. She rocks. So we forgive him for not taking us.

Next weekend won't be anything like college, but it will be fun to relive some memories. I'm not planning to hang out on the CPO floor at midnight though... that'll have to be another time. Who else is going to homecoming?

Traveling Companions

I was having a discussion earlier tonight with Simon (Simon, by the way, is female and is a nickname...) about travel and traveling companions. We were discussing, in particular, if we would be able to travel together. We met in England, live halfway across the country from each other, and keep planning fantasy trips to England and elsewhere. But we were discussing whether we'd get on each other's nerves. We decided we wouldn't, but not because we're brilliant people or a perfect mesh of personalities. A big part of it has to do with what we've done before in our lives and where (and with whom) we've travelled. So I went through a bunch of pictures and will present them to you now along with some rules for travelling with others.

With Rachel on the top of Monte San Salvatore, overlooking Lugano, Switzerland and Lake Lugano. The secret to this travel arrangement is that Rach and I hadn't seen each other for almost two years and were hanging out in a goat farm in Switzerland before heading to the more touristy areas of Florence and Rome. Also, we both like adventure, aren't afraid of getting lost, and spoke random semi-useful languages. We discovered that part of the perfect travelling duo is making sure that at least one person likes seafood, for when you order what you think is Spaghetti with Meatballs, but it is in fact, Spaghetti with shellfish...

Ben and I haven't travelled extensively together, but part of the key to the Alaska trip was keeping a good chunk of it low-key (i.e. staying in a cabin with no electricity or water in the middle of nowhere). When it rained, I could read and he could walk on the beach. Also, he'd planned 70% of the trip (I planned the part with my friends) so I didn't have to stress about much and could focus on why my parents were so evil as to move me from Alaska to Kentucky. Just kidding. (Kindof. I did call them after we drove by the old house to tell them they ruined my life. I may have been sobbing. My cell phone signal may have then died...)

Mom and I haven't travelled much without the rest of the family either. Here we're hiking, but 3 days earlier, we'd been in Montreal hanging out at a Youth Hostel. I give LOADS of credit to my mom for going on this trip. It was crazy. Something like 9 days, 2500 miles? And in the end she fell out of a tree and broke her glasses and could barely sit in the car. BUT, she's a good person to travel with. Especially once we realized our differences because I was getting grumpy. Namely, I like to take breaks. 100% sight seeing is not my idea of fun, so I'll go out in the morning and evening, but I need a break for my brain and my feet. Taking breaks from hanging with your travel companion is highly recommended. It's ok to not go to every museum, even if they do.

Kate, Keith, and I were part of a larger (9 person) trip to the American Choral Director's Association annual convention in LA in 2005. Because we love to travel and can get around, we started rebelling against the provided bus service and took the subway from concert to concert. Not only was it faster and easier, but we got to see more awesome concerts that way. (And get Eric Whitacre's autograph.) But a big part of that was the fact that we all thought, "subway? that sounds cool. let's go" instead of "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Public Transportation!!!! SCARY!" If any of us had been like that it would not have been as fun to hang out.

I've been on a 90 person trip to Italy and Switzerland. It was fantastic. But, that said, at the time I barely knew most of the 89 other people. Cool thing about the trip? Getting to know some folks and hang out more. Convenient thing about having 89 other travelling companions? If you get annoyed with one or two, you can go hang out with others. However, this is probably not a likely scenario for most of you.

Finally, there is the option of travelling alone. I love it. I've been to England twice for visits on my own (after my semester abroad) and have travelled around the US and Canada alone as well. When I lived in England, I took my Easter holiday and wandered through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland before meeting up with a friend in France. (Why is there no picture of Liz here? Because I am a slacker, obviously.) My favorite thing about it is that I am in complete control (other than the weather, museum schedules, train time tables, etc.) So if I want to bike for a day, I can. If I was going to bike and wake up and decide I don't want to do that, I could hang out at a library. It's all up to me.

That said, if you are venturing out alone I have some suggestions. First, get a good guidebook. Not the one your aunt loves or that your grandma has sitting in the attic, but one you look at in a bookstore and like. One that reflects your tastes in restaurants and museums. Second, bring a journal. This serves two purposes, you can write in it AND writing in it can keep you occupied while you wait for meals. When I travel with someone I never keep a journal. When I travel alone, I write page after page. Third, get a sim card and a local mobile phone. It's amazing how much less scary situations can be if you have a way to communicate. Finally, have a plan or keep in touch with people. The day I went bicycling around the Cotswolds (above) the guy from the rental shop knew where I was biking and had my phone number. I think Ben also knew what I was doing. My parents didn't know I'd left the country, but that's a story for another time.

Twitter

I was talking to a colleague the other day and we started talking about conferences and the people we know. I realized that I know a lot of people in the HCI (Human Computer Interaction) community because of twitter. I use twitter far more than Facebook now, in part because of the lack of pretense that my data is private. I have a large, close community on twitter and communicate with people frequently through that medium. In addition, I have used twitter information to meet up with some HCI researchers. I see you tweet that you're in Minneapolis, I'll probably say, "hey, what's happening? we should meet up." I've also gotten to know a number of researchers more in depth than I could have via blogs or at conferences.

During conferences, twitter often becomes a lifeline. I can instantly post notes, get in touch with people, and have discussions about research. Going through my followers list I kept saying, I didn't know her and then we met at a conference, I met him at a conference and then added him, we presented in the same session, etc. It is fascinating to me how important these ties are, especially with other grad students. Knowing other grad students at other institutions and being able to immediately contact them and draw on their knowledge makes me a better researcher. (e,g. HELP. I need to find a paper comparing instant messaging to face-to-face communication.)

These connections have done many things for me. I've found roommates for conferences, planned group trips, and found collaborators. And tonight all of us HCI researchers seem to be on twitter to discuss politics.

Going back to old favorites

I regularly return to books and TV shows that are part of my past. There are familiar friends and faces. Books that I have memorized passages to, TV shows where I hear the dialogue and visualize every move the actors make. I sometimes feel silly returning to these, especially children's books. I don't tend to carry around Anne of Green Gables to read on the bus or at the doctor's office. But recently I went back to several books I hadn't read in over a decade.

Now some of you have probably never read the Anne of Green Gables series, and for that I feel sorry for you. I reread several of the books in the series every few years, but the first book was one I never particularly liked. Unlike millions around the world, the childish, rambling, daydreaming Anne was not as interesting to me as the Anne in book three. While Anne of the Island will forever be my favorite, it was nice to the back to the whole series; to read the books in context. Similarly I just read three of Madeleine L'Engle's Austin books. these are books that I normally read one at a time spread throughout the year. I know every twist and turn, but watching the family grow up instead of reading the books individually makes a difference. if I had copies of all that the Betsy-Tacy books, I'm guessing I would be reading those too.

My TV series of choice is, of course, The West Wing. watching new shows is interesting and amusing and something I do often (perhaps too often), but most shows don't have the gravitas of The West Wing. I started a self-imposed ban on West Wing marathons last November. A one-year ban. Partly to see if I could do it, and partly to stop myself from enduring the teasing from my non-West Wing obsessed boyfriend. I did it. But in the meantime I got addicted to several more new shows so I don't know if that was a net gain.

Escape into the familiar past is nothing new, for me or most others. Recently, I've probably been delving in because the worlds in these books are so very different from my own, i.e. no one is working on a PhD in computer science in any of them. So, I've 'fessed up to some weaknesses, what are yours?

Another November, Another month of blogging

Yay! It's November again and so I'm going to attempt again to blog every day this month. The rules are the same as last year: I have to exercise for 30 minutes before I can blog. Yeah, that is pretty much the only rule. Another interesting thing I have planned is writing most, if not all, blog posts with my voice dictation software. That would make things easier on my wrist and also give me more of a chance to try this software. I'm also contemplating switching to the new version of voice dictation software so this would give me a chance to figure out if that's what I want.

As always, suggestions for posts are always welcome. And we're off!

Happiness is not a violin playing goat, but it is music

Today started off a little rough. I was worried I'd end up in urgent care because I'd had a migraine for between the last 3-5 days depending how you determine a migraine. My bus route is screwed up because of light rail construction, so my 25 minute bus ride now takes 35-40 minutes. Then I got a flu shot (thankfully I didn't have to wait in line for 2 hours!).

I got into the office about 15 minutes later than usual and started talking to someone instead of just checking email and google reader, like I usually do. Still, I had a chance to read one blog before my 9:30 meeting. What blog did I pick? The King's Singers blog, a random collection of the King's Singers daily musings while on tour. Where did Paul run today? What does David think about the view from the hotel room? etc. Each of the guys has a day that they write and they write 1-3 paragraphs on a topic of their choice with or without pictures. (Sadly the RSS formatting is pathetic, i.e. non-existant, and the feed is such that you get the 25 most recent posts EVERY TIME THERE IS A NEW POST...but still I subscribe, which paid off today). So I clicked through to the post, to avoid the poor formatting, and saw a post from Paul.

'Always live life to the full', that's my motto! Rather than spending a couple of relaxing days at home with my family, today I am in Minneapolis, speaking at the Music School Covocation at the University of Minnesota. I am of course extremely honoured to have been asked, and am delighted to speak with faculty members, students and members of the local community about my work with the KS, embracing the theme: 'Engaging Audience and Community: A King's Singer's Perspective'. It'll be a full day, coaching a massed choir, consisting of high school boys from the Twin Cities, and my presentation, followed by a reception. Then tonight, I'll catch a flight at 2145, and arrive home at midday on Thursday, just in time for this week's concerts in Chelmsford and Cambridge. I'm really looking forward to a quiet day at home on Sunday.....

WHAT? I jumped up. Minneapolis? Today? School of Music? That is literally a 10 minute walk away from my office. I typed school of music convocation umn into google. It started at 10. I ran to my 9:30 meeting. Then off across the mighty Mississippi to the School of Music.

It turns out that the Convocation is a big event. Last year's speaker was Marin Alsop. This year the program included the department chair, a student speaker, the Graduate Student Trombone Quartet, Alexander Fiterstein (a new faculty member) on clarinet, and a massed choir including the University men's chorus and several local high school men's choirs. The massed choir had rehearsed with Paul beginning at 8am. I'd never heard Paul talk independent of the group or a group interview so that was fun and he got a chance to do some Q&A too.

I caught up with him afterwards. He was initially surprised to see me, but not really ("I should've known you'd be here.") and we got a quick chance to tak before he was rushed off to chat with VIPs and I went back to being a CS student.

So that was fun and all...

Then I was late for my bus to choir. I'd been working in the lab and talking to Mikhil about papers that talk about the power of IM/Email/Social Media over face-to-face contact. I was looking for these because Paul was talking about this during his talk and the fact that people need to do studies to show the value of face-to-face contact. (I don't think he knows my research area.) But I was late, so I was aiming for the 6pm bus, not the 5:30 or the 5:45 I'd planned. So I headed for the bus and popped in my headphones. My ipod was on shuffle and it was Paul's voice with the King's Singers on the most recent album that was playing as I waited at the bus stop. Then I looked down the street. No. Seriously? Yes. It was Paul, walking down the street, towards me. He stopped to talk. (Note: I did not stop him, he came up to me.)

I'd like to interject at this point to mention how WEIRD it is that I was listening to him sing on my ipod and he came up and talked to me. VERY STRANGE. So we talked about his day and what an hono(u)r it had been for him to come, about the fact that he hadn't seen me around the school of music (because I'm studying computer science), about where I was headed (choir), about his crazy schedule (meeting the dean, coffee with Philip Brunelle - Paul: he's the director of ... me:I know who he is! I'm going to choir with him right now ... Paul: he only got 2 hours sleep last night. he was in seattle.), about good choir directors, and about the hope that he could get some sleep on the plane (I am SO jealous of the flat beds in business class). All that in 10 minutes!

Then my bus came and he had to get back to the hotel for his 30 minutes of free time before heading to the airport to jet back to the UK. (He'd said earlier in the day that he wouldn't hide me in his luggage so that I could go to the concerts this weekend.) So with a quick hug, we were off, me to choir and him to England (eventually). And now it's almost 11pm and I should head to bed and wonder...when is the next time I will have a day that unexpected and surreal...in a good way?

Migraine Update

For those of you following the long saga that is my migraines, I thought I'd give you an update. Today I met with my new neurologist and things are looking up. (Lots of potentially boring details ahead! Feel free to skip this post if you don't care.)

First, the clinic was good. I got checked in and then got called back by a nurse who asked if I'd turned in my paperwork, and that was it. No weight check, no blood pressure check, no med check. Everything was done by the doctor. Very impressive. My only qualm with the clinic is that the waiting room is not at all friendly for photophobic migraineurs. Lots of windows and lights, with no dark places to hide.

The neurologist was great. She is the first doctor I've met with who's acknowledged that she has migraines. She was impressed that I'd brought her headache diaries from last summer and from March through today of this year as well and had looked over them before coming in to meet me. She thinks that my problem is rebounding off my medications...i.e. that I am taking too much of my abortive medication which makes my headaches more resistant to it and then creates more headaches. (That's kindof a simple description of rebound, at least, similar to antibiotic resistance, in a way.) So she wants me to lay off my abortive of choice, which is currently eletriptan (relpax). Then she upped the dosage of my preventative medication, topamirate, but that's a gradual increase, to ease me up to 200mg from 100mg. Hopefully that will kick in in 4-6 weeks, but it will bring me up to the maximum dose for migraine patients (still far below the dosage given to prevent seizures, but more on that some other time). In the mean time, to keep my head calm, I'm taking dexamethasone which is a steroid/anti inflammatory. It should keep the my blood vessels in my head small, as opposed to large, as they are when I have a headache. Side effects include being "wired" or "bitchy" (quotes were my docs). So the idea is that temporarily, the steroid will keep my head in check while the topamax kicks in...then the topamax will keep doing it's job and I'll be better off.

Then, once my migraines are down to isolated attacks (i.e. not daily), we can start isolating incidents and finding triggers, which my neurologist says she really enjoys doing. This is something that should lower the number of migraines even more and/or put them within my control. So right now, I know that I can choose to drink a coke, but I'll get a migraine. So there's no one saying that I can't drink a coke, but I know I'll pay for it. But I don't know what many of my triggers are, so I'm looking forward to discovering them, so I don't randomly get floored by attacks right and left. One of her guesses as to why I've been having a rough month of it, other than the rebound, is that I'm affected by barometric pressure, and we've been having a lot of storms lately.

Another problem I've been having is that I've been having trouble sleeping because of my pain levels. My solution, unendorsed until recently, is to take half a benadryl in order to kick the pain (and any nausea) and sleep very thoroughly. The neurologist wanted me to move to melatonin for regulating my sleep (especially when on the steroids) instead of benadryl, for now, so that's another switch as well.

I have another appointment in 6 week, this time with a nurse practitioner, but someone who the doctor works with and someone who specializes in headaches as well. This is also an improvement over my last doc who said he'd see me 4 months later after changing all my meds.

Some of you may read this and think that it sounds like a lot of drugs, and I suppose it is...but I was already taking 11 pills a day. So a total of 4 more isn't that many... especially when 8 of them will all be the same drug, just distributed throughout the day.

I'm looking forward to this new regimen and found that today was better than yesterday, so hopefully that trend will continue. Even more importantly, I finally feel like I have a medical team that is willing to work with me on my terms, so I'm ecstatic! I'll hopefully have a good update in a few weeks.