Tuesday Tunes!

Spring is in full swing here, and as I've been trying to spend more and more time outside walking in the warmer weather, I've been on the lookout for music that matches this significant uplifting of my spirits. Here's a few songs I've been enjoying!
1. "Summertime" - The Mowgli's
2. "Bounce With Me" - Ben Drake, John Clay, & Josh Radden
3. "Words I Never Said" - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey
4. "Nothing Without Love" - Nate Ruess
5. "High Society" - Betty WHO

Also, there's the Hamilton: The Musical soundtrack, which I haven't included above because otherwise this Tuesday Tunes would be 30 songs long, but is a complete goddamn masterpiece through and through. Happy Tuesday, friends!

Review: The Ghost Map

Second post this month?!? I bet you thought you were going crazy. But, I just couldn't wait to share a little bit about this book I finished over the weekend. N understands my profound love of all things infectious diseases and epidemiology and very astutely Googled "best epidemiology books" while looking for a gift for me last year. The one that had the best reviews was The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, which I later opened up, complete with nerdy squealing, as a Christmas gift. N wins all the Christmas present points for this one.

The Ghost Map tells the tale of one of the worst Cholera epidemics to ever hit Britain, and the story of how, eventually due to this outbreak, it was discovered that cholera was transmitted by drinking contaminated water. It seems like common sense now, but Johnson talks at length about how the leading theories at the time were basically that all disease was transmitted through air, and the way you knew this was the case was how bad it smelled. Now, we're talking pre-running water Victorian England here where people were chucking their waste out the front window down onto the street, so with a little imagination, I'm sure you can guess just how bad it probably smelled everywhere in London. If smell were truly a representation of disease, surely...everyone would have been dead or heading there. And then it talks about Dr. John Snow, now known as the father of modern epidemiology, who had just that thought and put it to action. In the end, with a little help from a local reverend, Snow not only managed to prove the waterborne theory, but discovered the source of the outbreak, how the water had gotten contaminated and by whom. Finally, Snow truly revolutionized the way we understand disease spread by mapping the span of the outbreak in a way that hadn't ever been done before. Overall, I would highly recommend this book. Even if you're not a public health person, it's an incredibly fast-paced and addicting read and not that this makes any difference, but you'd probably win a bunch of points in my book!

And happy spring, friends! Hope it's starting to warm up where you are!

Spring Break

I work in infectious disease outbreak management and due to several high-profile outbreaks in my area in the last few weeks, I have been working 10-12 hour days for nearly the past month. Feeling thoroughly burned out on work and desperately in need of time away from my job, I took yesterday and today off and N and I went on a little mini-spring break to St. Louis. I didn't appreciate how good vacations, even small ones, feel when you've worked your ass off leading up to them. College finals have had nothing on my level of stress this past month. I want to share a little of our fun break with you all, but first, an outfit post!

Dress: JC Penney;
Cardigan: The Limited;
Boots:Payless;
We didn't have a lot of time and had a lot of things we wanted to do, so we tried to pack in each day with as much as we could. The first night, we stopped by the Schlafly Tap Room. Schafly is a St. Louis-based brewery, and they make one of my all-time favorite pumpkin beers. Of course, we weren't there to try beers we already liked, so between the two of us, we got flights of all their drafts and casked beers and made a go of it! Their Tasmanian IPA and casked Coffee Stout were definitely my two favorites.
The next day, we had packed the City Museum, the Arch, and the City Garden into our day's plans. The City Museum is a discovery center/museum playground type location, came highly recommended from a few friends, and did not disappoint. I would highly recommend it if you're ever planning a trip to St. Louis and make sure to pack some sneakers! We walked to most of our destinations since our hotel was relatively close, but this day, I hit a personal high of almost 23,000 steps!
The last day we went to the famed Forest Park. Larger than Central Park in NY, this park houses the Science Museum, History Museum, Art Museum, the grounds of the 1904 World's Fair, the Municipal Theatre, and a ton of other cool attractions. We only had time to explore the science museum and history museums and do a little walking around the park before we had to leave, but I think you could make a day of this place and it would be well worth it. We enjoyed this amazing sunset while leaving and came home exhausted but feeling twice as relaxed as when we started.