Winter comes to Washington!

Today, the temperature dropped from 50 to 10, I'd say - on my trek home from class, the first snow flurries were flying. Winter is officially here! I'm in the crunch of finals - just three exams and two papers left, and then I'm free for four weeks. I look forward to the break.

I've been taking part in the holiday festivities around the city this week ... I was in the White House Tuesday night seeing the decorations. My good friend Jen e-mailed me last week with an extra ticket - epidemiology or the White House? Hmm ... I didn't take too long to decide! I felt like a dweeb because I showed up directly from my afternoon class. Everyone was dressed in cocktail dresses for the most part, and I came in jeans and cowboy boots. Oh, well - the president is from Texas, right?! My favorite decoration of all was the gingerbread house. Jen and I got the inside scoop on how to get in to the Secret Service from one of them standing guard over the gingerbread concoction ... he looked pretty thrilled to be there!

Last night I was at the Capitol watching the lighting of this year's tree, a fir from Olympic National Forest in Washington ... the kids that flipped the switch were cute, as well as all the handmade ornaments on the tree. Some of the politicians could use a little help on public speaking, however!

I didn't make it to the White House tree lighting because the free tickets were long gone when I called last week. However, my friend Beth went, and she said Eartha Kitt performed a fairly audacious rendition of "Santa Baby" and was dancing seductively with none other than Santa himself ... apparently, the camera panned in to President Bush, and he had a look of genuine horror on his face! The Secret Service also banned her from taking in her apple. She asked for how long an innocent apple had been on the security hit list, to which the man replied, "Well, ma'am, if the president ends up with a black eye because of your apple, that will be my problem." Hmm ... anyone think that security has gotten a bit out of control?!

I was very happy to see my friend Nadiv from AmeriCorps in town last weekend - he was interviewing for residency at GW. Thanks for calling, Nadiv! Philly, here I come ... !

And lastly, my health tip for the week ... I went to a public health grand rounds lecture this week featuring Dr. Harold Freeman, medical director for the Ralph Lauren Cancer Center and professor at Columbia University in New York. He spoke on the topics of poverty, disparities, and access to health care. During Q & A, he stated that most cancers could be averted quite easily by watching what you eat, drink, and avoiding smoking, etc. He stated, "Avoiding most cancers is quite easy. If you own your mouth ... you own your life." Nothing like a prevention one-liner!