Locked Out

So this actually happened Tuesday, but it needs to be shared.

First of all, I need to mention that I moved here with two of my girlfriends from home, W and C. We met in undergrad and have lived with or near each other throughout our four years at K College and then stuck close for the two years after college. As fate would have it, we all separately applied and were accepted to programs in DC. It has been such a blessing to have my girlfriends here with me. I don't think I could do this alone.

On Tuesday night, the three of us went to Foggy Bottom to have dinner with another of our girlfriends, J, who has been living here for the past two years. This was our first time out, seeing as I had just arrived Friday, and W had just arrived Monday. We had a great time catching up with each other and caught a late bus back to Glover Park, where we live. We arrived a little after midnight tand found that none of our keys worked on our door. We were in complete disbelief, so we got the attention of our concierge (we have a concierge...), whose key also did not work. We kicked, banged, pushed and pulled the door in vain until we convinced the concierge to let us try breaking into our apartment through the window.

We went around to the front and C climbed up on the iron fence to reach the window. She was able to get the screen up but couldn't get enough leverage to slide open the glass. W came from the lobby with a bar stool, which we tossed over the fence. W hopped the fence and slid the chair up against the wall, climbed up and got the window open, but couldn't get through the window on her own. The ground was unstable and the chair needed to be steadied, so I hopped the fence, but got hung up by my belt! I was dangling from the fence by my belt, until the sharp metal tore through the leather and dropped me!! The concierge shined a flashlight, and C braced the stool while I knelt on it and gave W a lift through the window! W made it in, problem was, the door didn't work from the inside, either! So now, she was locked in, and we were locked out! It was such a scene! I wish I had been watching it all unfold, how ridiculous! Also, we live across the street from the Russian embassy, who I swear is watching us all the time (and probably reading this blog, too). Hope they got it on video!

We ran back around and tried everything that came to mind. We tried credit cards, laminated maps, bobby pins, anything, but to no avail. We did make a little progress with the bobby pins - got the knob to turn at least, but the door still wouldn't open! Finally the concierge called the maintenance guy, who she only THEN informed us lived an hour away in Virginia! C had to work the next day, so she went to sleep on the floor outside the apartment. W wouldn't rest, and I had run out of ideas. The door was impenetrable, and we couldn't figure out how to get the knob off - there were no screws!! Then I remembered I had a smart phone. I started googling door knobs and researching their mechanisms, meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, W was doing the same thing from her laptop. A while later, I could hear her moving around in the apartment again, and the knob slowly started coming out of the door towards me! I sprang up and ripped it off, and all I could see was W's huge grin through the hole in the door! We had done it! We went to town on the lock mechanism with a pair of tweezers (didn't have a screw driver small enough and couldn't find my eyeglass screw driver) just about the time the maintenance guy showed up. We saved him so much work! The knob only came off from the inside, so he would have had to break in anyway. All he had to do when he showed up was replace the knob.

By the time this ordeal was done, it was close to 2am! Oy vey! We were so proud of ourselves. The concierge was impressed and couldn't believe our tenacity. What an experience. Welcome to DC, right?!

I resisted the urge to take pictures throughout the events of the evening, but I did go back the next day and take a pic of the windows and fence. We're the second floor window, and that's the fence from which I was dangling.

We're *lucky* that W left her window unlocked that day, although the next day I heard about the Georgetown Cuddler -- a guy who breaks into apartments of women while they're sleeping, mostly through windows, crawls into their beds and cuddles them... JUST cuddles, and then runs away when the women wake up. No joke! And this is happening in my neighborhood. Great. Keeping those windows locked, and praying the door knob works so that we never need to break in again!

New Beginnings

Hello, Blogosphere. It's been a while.

I'm no longer in Auvergne, as my old blog's title "Nessages from Auvergne and Beyond" may have suggested, and I'm no longer even in Detroit. I'm in Washington, DC, starting a new chapter. Time to blog again. New beginnings, new blog.

The summer after I graduated from K College, a random google search lead to me to the homepage of Georgetown University's Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Master's Degree program. I fell in love almost immediately - it seemed to perfectly combine my interests in holistic approaches to health and healing with my academic background in Science. I had always told myself I wanted to work for at least two years before going back to school, and I still had a couple of requirements to fulfill before I could apply to the program, so I started working downtown at the Women's Hospital, snuck in a few courses at Wayne State University, and took the GRE. Two years later, here I am, about to start my first class at Georgetown University tomorrow morning.

But what is CAM and why would anyone want a degree in it? CAM is exactly what it sounds like - nonconventional methods for dealing with disease that are either used alongside or in place of conventional medicine. Examples include acupuncture, massage, herbs and supplements, and mind-body interactions.

For those interested, the mission of our program is as follows:

"The intense consumer-driven interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), and the increasing clinical integration of various CAM modalities, has led to the demand for well-informed and properly trained health care providers and scientists.

The goal of the innovative Complementary and Alternative Medicine Master of Science degree (CAM-MS) in Physiology is to provide advanced study in the science and philosophy of predominant CAM therapies and disciplines. This program offers an academically rigorous graduate education in CAM anchored in state-of-the-art biomedical science. Our objective is to educate open-minded health care providers and scientists eager to explore the state of the evidence in this field with objectivity and rigor. Graduates receive an M.S. degree in Physiology."

So where does my interest in CAM stem from? I have my own personal experiences with CAM, but at large, it is a rapidly expanding field that is becoming increasingly important as people continue to desire something more from their healthcare. The medical field must adapt to the evolving needs of its patients, and in my opinion, the integration of CAM modalities and mainstream medical practices are the future of medicine. It is therefore our responsibility as scientists to critically evaluate the safety and efficacy of CAM practices and to start implementing them alongside conventional medical practices to improve the overall physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the patient. Rigorous scientific research is absolutely necessary in order for CAM to gain support amongst the medical community and public alike.

What do I hope to do with this degree? My intent in completing this program is to give me a unique set of skills that will serve me in pursuing a research career in a CAM related field. Whether I do that as an MD, PhD, or both is TBD. Let's see how I do in this program ;)

The purpose of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family while I'm away, as well as to share my new knowledge and hopefully spark interest in an exciting new field. Oh, and don't worry, there will be plenty of my random little anecdotes along the way. Thanks for tuning in. Feel free to post questions or comments. I'll try to update this blog at least once a week.

V