GIS

I haven't really said much about my job in my blog so far. People often ask me what I do, and I always have a hard time explaining most of it unless they understand acronymns like GIS, DEM, LiDAR, GPS, ESRI etc. And then for the rest of what I do, it's really good to understand what benzene, gas stations and the EPA have in common along with a whole new set of acronymns (PCB, PAH, VOC, PCP, BETX, DEQ, RBC, PRG, MTCA, etc. etc. etc.)

So, here goes for part 1: GIS.

Most of what I do every day is GIS (Geographic Information Systems). What is GIS? "GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information." My job is to display, analyze and sometimes create spatial data - that is, pretty much anything you can think of that has a location in the world. For example, some of our data sets are roads, tax lots, aerial photography, sampling locations, wells, buildings, and rivers. I use specialized software to make maps showing combinations of data (the "display" part),. I analyze different relationships between the data layers (maybe you'd ask "which eagle's nests are within 300 feet of this building" or "which houses for sale that are south of Freemont St, north of Broadway, west of 39th and east of 15th are in the Grant High School district, are within 1 mile of a park, have at least 3 bedrooms and are cheaper than $250,000?" - if you're from Portland you know the answer is "none!"). And sometimes I make new data layers through the analysis of what we already have or by manually digitizing in information (perhaps I'd make a new data set with only the tax lots of the houses meeting the above criteria).

Here's a real-life example: I recently worked on a project where there was a lot of contaminated dirt at a particular site in Washington. A field guy went out and collected soil samples (little jars of dirt) from the surface of the site and sent them to a laboratory where they determined what concentrations of nasty substances were in the dirt. As he took his samples, he used a super-high-accuracty GPS unit to record exactly (within about 1 meter) where he took the sample (creating spatial information). He then sent the GPS file to me, and the laboratory sent me all the contamination information. I joined up the x,y information (where the sample was taken in space) with the contamination information and compared the soil concentrations to standards set by the state (WA Dept of Ecology). I made a map showing where the soil concentrations were still too high, and the field guy directed the contractors to dig out the contaminated areas(analyzing spatial information). This process iterated through lots of times - they dug out a big area and took more samples, I figured out what areas were still too contaminated, they dug out more areas, etc. etc. ect. In the end, the field guy took over 1,000 soil samples. I made lots and lots of maps of the area showing where we took the samples and what areas had been dug out (displaying spatial information).

It can get incredibly more complicated, but that's a pretty straightforward example, I think. It's actually quite fun - I get to use a lot of problem-solving skills in planning out the analysis processes to efficiently get a useful result . And it's quite amazing all the applications that GIS has - cities and counties use it to track their utilities, emergency agencies use it to respond to calls, mapping websites use it to get driving directions, I've used it to evaluate relative rockfall hazards in subdivisions built near steep cliffs, it can be used to track wildfires, and on and on. In fact, if you've ever zoomed around on Google Earth, you've used GIS yourself.

Re: Pre-natal vitamins

I finally found a chewable vitamin that doesn't contain aspartame, has approximately 100% of the recommended daily value of quite a few vitamins and minerals (16 at 100%, 6 at something less), and tastes reasonable! It's Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable Multiple Vitamin and Mineral Formula. It's also not horribly expensive - about $6 for 90 one-a-day tablets. Yay!

Allergies!

I've never had major allergies before. Portland apparently has a very large number of allergens and lots of people here have some kind of allergy symptoms. I went to the doctor thinking I had a sinus infection, but apparently there's something in the air that's giving me severe sinus-pressure headaches that I've never had before. Phooey. I was hoping I'd escape unscathed. It's taking a little while to find some sort of medicine that works and doesn't give me unacceptable side effects. At least I have lots of sick time built up and am not in the middle of any major time-critical projects at work.

It's been a while...

Wow, I just realized it's been almost a month since I posted anything. It seems a little overwhelming to comment on everything that's happened in my life in a month, so I guess I'll just write whatever comes to mind.

I really like the songwriter/singer Bebo Norman. And not just because he's from Georgia, though it seems like a lot of the artists I like are from Georgia, even though none of them sing country music (I really, really dislike country music). I like that he tries to sing about things that are real, things that he's experienced himself, and things that are deeply true about God, and I like that he is a good poet as well as a good composer. I was listening to some of his songs the other day as I was working at home (another story in itself) to finally finish a very time-consuming and mind-numbing project. One song (Home is Where You Are) is about his mother and how deeply she has affected his life. Another song (All I've Sown) is about his grandfather's deep love for his grandmother who has just passed away and talks about what amazing joy and fullfillment there is in the relationships of family. I think that in all my thoughts about having children sometime in the (hopefully) near future, I sometimes forget about the deep joy and love that many people have expressed about their children - perhaps because I've not yet experienced having them myself, although I do have great examples of that love and joy in both my and Chad's families. I hope that when we do have children, I don't forget that joy in the everyday chores and tasks that come with being a mother. Even more, I hope that I can find more of the joy right now in my everyday life, both the "good" and the "bad" - in washing the dishes, deadlines at work, watching our herbs grow, dealing with micromanaging and passive-aggressive project managers, great conversations with Chad, dinner with friends we're getting to know better, dealing with anxiety, paying the bills, etc. etc. etc. I know that in everything there is a bit of Jesus waiting to be found, noticed. I know that I can rejoice in my struggles because in my weakness, He is strong, and He is shaping me. I think most of the time, I just don't remember that those things are true and I don't live in/out that truth.

I am excited that three of my friends from college have just had their first babies, and all are healthy and recovering well (2 C-sections!).

Enough thoughts for now. Perhaps I'll write more often. :)

Home again

I was in Redmond, Washington all last week for work. It was okay, not terribly exciting, but it was nice to have a little free time in the evenings to relax and not feel like I should be doing something useful. I went shopping for clothes a couple times (which I very rarely do, since it's more of a struggle than fun, and I often feel like I'm trying to find something that looks the least bad on me out of the possibilities - thus, my summer wardrobe in particular is shrinking as I notice another stain, hole or general fadedness in yet another short-sleeved shirt). After two evenings of shopping, I ended up with a shirt I can wear to work, a pair of shoes, and a frivolous shirt (aka, I can't wear it to work and it wasn't cheap, but it actually looks good on me and I like it - doesn't happen often so I took advantage of the opportunity!) That's probably on average one item for every 1.5 hours of shopping. No wonder I don't look forward to it...

I also got to have dinner with Garrett (friend from college) one evening, which was great. I really enjoy seeing good friends and catching up on their lives. I'm excited that Mary (one of my college roommates and Garrett's fiance) will soon be in WA, too, and hopefully we'll get to see them more often, since it's only about a 3-3.5 hour drive to get there. Unless you're trying to come back to Portland on Friday at about 3pm, and then it's actually a 5-6 hour drive. (Ugh.)

It's nice to be back home. I spent yesterday mainly relaxing and enjoying being with Chad again. I've had a cold (or some kind of upper respiratory ailment) for about 3 weeks now, and I will be glad to be done with it, hopefully soon. We were planning to go to the beach today with Chad's family, but I had a stomach ache this morning, probably from too much drainage ending up in my stomach over night, so by the time I felt good enough to brave the 2-hour drive on somewhat windy roads, it was a little too late to go. Bummer. But maybe we'll make it out there to celebrate our 3-year anniversary next month.

Next weekend Adam (Chad's college roommate) is getting married! We're excited to see him and meet his fiance, and it will be great to see some other friends and visit Tech, too. Maybe we'll venture into the neighborhoods south of campus and see if we can find the street corner where we got engaged. :)

Pre-natal vitamins

Anyone have advice or other information on taking/not taking prenatal vitamins, when to start and stop, what they should have in them, or what brands are good? It seems like there is a lot of contradicting information out there. The only thing I know is that you should take folic acid before getting pregnant and at least for the first few months.

Hyperventilation and the aftermath...

Two weeks ago a very bizarre thing happened to me. I went to the gym over my lunch break, did some cardio and some free weights (arms). I remembered as I was doing the free weights that, during my personal training sessions that came with our signing up for the gym, the lady had told me that breathing properly was important, and that you should breathe out while you're "doing the exercise" and in when you're getting back to starting position. So, I did this. I felt a little weird after the first exercise - my fingers and nose were a little tingle-y, and I thought maybe I needed to rest for a minute and just get some good regular breaths in. I finished up the other two exercises and still felt a little odd.

At this point, I started to worry and wonder what was going on, so I sat down on one of the chairs near the entrance and focused on taking deep, regular breaths. I felt a little better and decided I should drive back to work (about a 5-7 minute drive) and maybe sit at the front desk for a few minutes with the receptionist to make sure I was okay.

I guess I must have panicked at some point while I was driving, mainly because both of my arms started going numb. I was on the freeway at that point nearing the exit I needed to get off on, so I drove up the ramp and parked on the side. I realized that I needed some medical help, but by that point, my hands were contracted into tight balls and I couldn't move them. I waved out the window and yelled for help, and someone stopped and called 911 for me. In the meantime, my toes, calves, stomach, lower arms and probably some other things tensed up so that I pretty much couldn't move. The guy who called 911 came over and talked to me and I realized that my jaw was stuck, too - I sounded like I was mentally handicapped or something as I tried to talk to him. As I talked and told him what had happened, my muscles began to uncramp, and by the time the ambulance arrived I could at least move my legs a bit, although my left hand was still pretty much stuck in a ball. The paramedics asked me lots of questions and took my blood pressure several times. By then I was feeling mostly better and was able to move again, but I opted to go ahead and take the ambulance to the hospital to find out what had happened to me and to make sure nothing was horribly wrong. I left the key to the car with the paramedic and someone from my office came and took my car back to work for me. By the time I got to the hospital, I was pretty much back to normal, except for being shaky.

Somewhere in there I managed to talk to Chad, and he figured out how to get himself to the hospital. We only have one car, so his co-worker drove him back to our house, and he borrowed a car from one of the guys who rents out our basement to drive down to where I was (I work about 10 miles south of downtown, where he works).

After waiting a couple hours in the emergency room, the doctor came and asked about what happened. Pretty much immediately he knew I had hyperventilated and that nothing else was wrong with me. I felt more than a little silly. But when I looked up hyperventilation online after I got home, I found that only in very severe cases do people get tetany (which was lots of my muscles seizing up), and that it really is a good thing to go to the ER if it happens to make sure nothing else is wrong. Apparently, although it certainly feels like something is very wrong, there's no permanent physical damage done by hyperventilating, and it's pretty much impossible to die from it.

So physically, I am fine. But I am having some troubles with the emotional side effects. The day afterward, I was on edge and anxious all day long. Driving will sometimes make me begin the panic process. I went back to the gym a week later, and it was hard. I kept having to keep myself from giving over to anxiety about having the whole thing happen again. It's really frustrating - it's not something I can get through by thinking rationally; I realize the whole time that my thoughts are irrational, but yet I don't have control over them. Thankfully, I've found some things that help me to cope whenever something triggers the panicky feeling - like praying out loud, or calling someone on the phone and talking (which regulates my breathing). I haven't hyperventilated since then, and I think that talking with people about it and time will also help.

I talked with a co-worker yesterday when I started feeling anxious at work, and it turns out she has had some of the same aftermath to a scary physical situation. I am so thankful to have someone at work who understands and can help me do some physical things that calm my brain.

The brain is such a weird thing - you'd think that you should be able to control it by thinking things that are true and reasonable, but alas, it is not always so.

Re: Children and Working

Thanks to everyone for your comments! It is really helpful and encouraging to hear your thoughts about yourselves and other moms who stay at home (or don't). I don't know many people in Portland who have small children right now, except for some of my co-workers whose ideas and attitudes I don't necessarily trust to be the best.

What I am thinking right this moment is I would love to stay at home and maybe do something like tutoring or (like Katie) teach an hour a week or something. Of course, there's no baby on the way yet, and there will be much prayer and consideration given, so we will see what happens! I mainly want to make sure that my brain still gets stimulated in the science-y problem-solving type of way, at least moderately every once in a while. (But from what I read on everyone's blogs, the problem-solving part happens at least fifteen times every day!) It's great to hear that there are lots of possibilities for friendships with other moms through groups/organizations/etc.

The month of birthdays

For some unknown reason, the Young family has a habit of having birthdays in May - actually, the later 3 weeks of May. (I suppose when you have six children, it's pretty easy to get a birthday cluster.) Birthdays in the Young family mean that everyone gathers at the Youngs' house at least for dinner, and if it's a child who is having the birthday, there is a party (sometimes on another day) as well. And, interspersed is also Mother's Day, which is, in the Young family tradition, the day that the children spend all day doing things for Mom Young. The Birthday Month officially started on Thursday, my father-in-law's birthday; tomorrow (three days later) is Mother's Day; next week (three days after Mother's day) is my sister-in-law's birthday (the second youngest) - and she is also having a party two days after her birthday; the next week (seven days after her birthday) is my brother-in-law's birthday (the very youngest); then three days later my mom's birthday (but she doesn't live close); and the next day is another brother-in-law's birthday (the 3rd oldest). (And if that wasn't enough, a week later is my other sister-in-law's graduation party.)

May in Portland is also (often) the beginning of begin able to be outside and do yardwork in pleasant weather, go hiking, soak up the sunshine, and generally do lots of fun things with friends because it's not raining out (at least too much) anymore. Upon this sudden break of beautiful weather, I am finding that I really want to do all the lovely outdoors things that are just not fun when it's chilly and raining. However, I am also finding that, on average, every three days I need to drive to my in-laws' house to do some sort of celebrating, and I need to either have gone shopping or done some other preparation beforehand. I have to say it's frustrating, because I really love and enjoy my family, and I want to honor them and celebrate each of their lives on their birthdays (and Mother's Day), but I also am itching to be outside! And I think even if the Birthday Month was January or February (when it can be truly dreary here), I would be a wee bit weary of all the celebrating by the time it was over! Ah, well! I am truly thankful to have so many wonderful people to be celebrating about.

Today Chad and I spent mostly working in our yard. We've been weeding and putting down bark for several weekends now. It's great to be outside, but I do feel like this project is taking a while! Our lot is incrediby tiny (0.09 acres, I think - better measured in square feet), and our "yard" has no grass - all bushes and flowers and other pretty plants. (The only grass we have is the 1-foot-wide strip between the sidewalk and the road.) It has been fun to see what flowers popped up in the spring and what kinds of blooms the different plants have. Now I just need to learn what to do to keep them all alive!

Children and working

Chad and I have been talking a lot about having children. I don't know much about children or having them, but I suppose that neither does anyone when you get right down to it, until they have them. One thing I've been contemplating is whether or not I would want to at least attempt to work one day a week, or something like that, once we do have a child. We won't really need the extra money (and I wouldn't be generating much extra anyway), but lots of people that I work with now talk about how their wives "just want some adult conversation" or work just for the social experience. So, do you get bored or lonely when you're a new mother (or, only have one child) and stay home with them all day? Or is there plenty of work to be done caring for your child that you wouldn't have the time to work one day a week anyway? Or are there so many other fun and useful things you can do with your time with your child that you wouldn't want to anyway? Or would you not want to leave your child with someone else one day a week, even if you were bored and lonely?

My first attempt at blogging...

I've never really been good at keeping a journal or keeping in touch with people, so I suppose it will be interesting to see how disciplined I can be at keeping up with blogging. But, after seeing that most of my Caltech girlfriends have blogs and keep in touch that way, it's defintely worth a try! I guess partially it means I have to come up with something to say, which is sometimes difficult. But I think my two largest obsticles are remembering to sit down and type and then actually forcing myself to take the time to do it. The great thing is, though, that I'm actually writing to people I know and not just to the world at large (although I suppose some members of the world at large might accidentally happen upon it).

I think I will try for at least one post per week, and I'll set my Outlook calendar to remind me on Friday evening at 5pm so that I'll have to whole weekend to do it. Anyone have any other suggestions for getting started?