I walked from the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial over the weekend. At the monument it was a good day to go because it wasn’t very hot, 88 tops, and there was a Really strong breeze, especially at the top of the hill. I asked someone to take my picture and I just wanted a reminder but they wanted just so with the Monument in the back, the flags on the side, and the sun not behind me. Well maybe the sun idea is a good one. I walked via the WW II memorial, and asked a park ranger to take my picture there. I think he said the state pillars were arranged by region, because they seemed sort of random. I walked up to the Lincoln Memorial along the reflecting pool, which is dirtier than I remember, with all the geese. Still a nice walk. Half the people were sitting on the steps, so I wove among them. The statue seemed very familiar though I hadn’t seen it since I was 11 more than twenty years ago. Maybe you know this historical tidbit, though I didn’t: on Wikipedia “historian Gerald Prokopowicz writes that, while it is not clear that sculptor Daniel Chester French intended Lincoln's hands to be formed into sign language versions of his initials, it is possible that French did intend it, because he was familiar with American Sign Language, and [Lincoln’s connection with Gallaudet University].” The room to the side with the Gettysburg Address was also familiar, and I peeked around the columns to get a better picture. The columns have deep channels that from a distance look much more like thin lines making the familiar ionic shape. The reason I say this is that I have an excuse for being clumsy. When I was 11, I had a nervous tendency to swing anything around that I was carrying. This included my camera. It connected with that pillar as I was thinking deep and patriotic thoughts, and crumpled. Now I see how it could have got caught in a groove.
From this I was broken of the habit of swinging things, but still have vestiges of nervous energy such as drumming my fingers and getting my neck so stiff I can barely do Yoga. Another thing I gained from that was that either through thinking so hard while swinging my camera, or to reassure myself afterward that something good would come out of difficulty, I memorized most of the Gettysburg address. I forgot how much I love the spoken word and songs. I was there at 4:30 and saw a sign that they were going to have the Martin Luther King speech at 5, so I too sat on the steps to see who would do it. A small Park ranger came out and he gave an intro but it was a recording for the actual speech. I knew only parts of it. The actual speech had more that I had forgotten. It mentioned so many parts of Americana such as the Declaration of Independence and patriotic songs, that all at some point referred to freedom and equality for all people. I guess that going back the same way, I was a little bit inspired, because I was humming that song, ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ with its reference to ‘Let freedom ring.’ Music is powerful and I also thought of ‘America the Beautiful’ because someone just told me that it says and “mend thine ev’ry flaw.”
I am not so enamored of this city right now, heat is corresponding with a low mood. I do not usually mind the subway but it is hard to go from an area with very few people to being squished up with many and staring at everyone’s shoes, and being short, reaching the hand holds. I am getting infected with a spirit of impatience, that makes me try to go through the turnstile as fast as possible, and tense when I have to ask for help with my card. I am not on a roll, I am not overflowing with energy or ideas. I go slowly up the escalator. So it is a combination of nervousness and lethargy. I will try to find things to do to keep busy, and report back on what helps with fatigue especially. I think I will go to bed actually and forget my troubles.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
5 Days of WONDERFUL experience along with Week SixS
Monday, July 12, 2010:
My work were cut short due to my commander’s retirement, I went to Women in Military museum to recognize her longest serve in United States Coast Guard, she served for 22 years in the military. She received an award and her retirement award. Her husband and her children (a girl and boy) received the gifts from her for being there for her service in the military. Then afterward, I went to a retirement party for her and we were at park. We were talking about her service and how she helped the agency, but I am going to miss her since she is not going to be at United States Coast Guard anymore. But I wish her a good luck in her future and with citizen world.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010:
My work is very interesting, because I received the invitation from Mr. Calvin Lederer, Acting Judge Advocate General from the United States Coast Guard. Also, I will have a meeting with Information Technology Help Desk to discuss about shared drive because they set the limitation to 200 GB for all agencies to use, I cannot image at how they can handle the limitation of GB on the share drive.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010:
My work is very interesting because I helped my co-workers with files and nothing related to my major because they need to organize the files for the agency. Also, I am kind to help them with the files and putting into unclassified bags. Another relaxing day for me because there is not too much of projects going on but I am waiting for the appointment with Help Desk related to Shared Drive because I think they need to fix the issues since the United States Coast Guard will have a lot of information. The average files are on shared drive is a lot of information regarding to laws, policy, etc.
My work were cut short due to my commander’s retirement, I went to Women in Military museum to recognize her longest serve in United States Coast Guard, she served for 22 years in the military. She received an award and her retirement award. Her husband and her children (a girl and boy) received the gifts from her for being there for her service in the military. Then afterward, I went to a retirement party for her and we were at park. We were talking about her service and how she helped the agency, but I am going to miss her since she is not going to be at United States Coast Guard anymore. But I wish her a good luck in her future and with citizen world.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010:
My work is very interesting, because I received the invitation from Mr. Calvin Lederer, Acting Judge Advocate General from the United States Coast Guard. Also, I will have a meeting with Information Technology Help Desk to discuss about shared drive because they set the limitation to 200 GB for all agencies to use, I cannot image at how they can handle the limitation of GB on the share drive.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010:
My work is very interesting because I helped my co-workers with files and nothing related to my major because they need to organize the files for the agency. Also, I am kind to help them with the files and putting into unclassified bags. Another relaxing day for me because there is not too much of projects going on but I am waiting for the appointment with Help Desk related to Shared Drive because I think they need to fix the issues since the United States Coast Guard will have a lot of information. The average files are on shared drive is a lot of information regarding to laws, policy, etc.
Thursday, July 15, 2010:
This day kept me busy by adding more requests to database, 192 requests! but finally i have more works to do. I also have a meeting with my co-worker and a team member from different agency within USCG. The meeting inspire me because another member that have same point of the views about SharePoint but if the agency want to use it. Then I am their helper with the requirements for SharePoint. Also, I like to help and make the federal agency to be a better organization.
Friday, July 16, 2010:
I will meet with another deaf professional and have a chit chat with. Also, I will be working on database and hopefully, I can meet with more deaf professionals.
Take Care,
Kevin
Monday, July 12, 2010
Short week, lots to do
Last week was another busy one, even after the long weekend. I participated in a conference call on Tuesday that introduced the new government healthcare website. If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to check it out: www.healthcare.gov. It explains the new law well, but it also has a customizable insurance options selector that is pretty cool. Eventually, it will have the plans from the state insurance exchanges posted on it, so you can just enter some information and the website will choose specific plans that would benefit you. It even has a special section about how health reform will affect people with disabilities. On Wednesday, I started a new project working on part of AAPD’s website. I’m editing a page that explains Health Reform from a disability perspective. It’s been interesting to learn how to use our Content Management System, which is something I’ve never done before. I’ll post a link to the site in a couple weeks, after I finish. Wednesday night’s pizza party was, as everyone else said, not an ordinary pizza party. It was a great opportunity to meet successful people in the disability community while eating some truly delicious pizza! On Wednesday, Mat McCollough came to HQ to present at a brownbag on Professional Communication. I found it really helpful – my job here includes a lot of emailing, and it was great to get an in-depth lesson on how to make the best impression and get the best results during electronic communication. I worked a lot on my DMD project last week as well – I think I’m making some progress there. Finally, on Friday, I went to a briefing by the Alliance for Health Reform on health reform implementation – I actually met another Vassar student there! Though I did a lot of interesting work this week, I was definitely ready when the weekend came. On Saturday, I met two other interns in Georgetown (I live pretty close to there), and we got food and played a game. It was a fun way to relax after my long week. Sunday, I watched the World Cup finals with my sister and some friends – all in all, a great week!
week seven
To reiterate what Ericka said in her blog post, you call this a pizza party? Last week, the AAPD interns had the pleasure of meeting Wade Henderson, Dick Thornburgh, Ralph Boyd, and Jonathon Young at a so called Pizza Party.
We all had the pleasure of listening to them speak about their careers and how they reached the positions they are in today. And what they had to say had a great impact on how I view what is left of my college education and my future goals. Jonathon Young told everyone that he started his undergraduate education studying engineering and somehow ended up working with Tony Coelho, and it got me thinking, where can political science and communications lead me? Like most of the congressional interns, I also see law school in my future, but what’s to say that won’t change tomorrow or the next day.
Throughout this internship, my thoughts on my future career path changed almost every day, and it will probably change again as soon as I finish writing this blog. For some reason every job in DC seems intrigue me in some way or another and I feel like I’m in elementary school again. Well, I guess this is better than not knowing what to do at all! I’m excited to see what else will pop up in the near future that will once again grab my attention, and I hope that there will be more opportunities like this in the remainder of the summer.
We all had the pleasure of listening to them speak about their careers and how they reached the positions they are in today. And what they had to say had a great impact on how I view what is left of my college education and my future goals. Jonathon Young told everyone that he started his undergraduate education studying engineering and somehow ended up working with Tony Coelho, and it got me thinking, where can political science and communications lead me? Like most of the congressional interns, I also see law school in my future, but what’s to say that won’t change tomorrow or the next day.
Throughout this internship, my thoughts on my future career path changed almost every day, and it will probably change again as soon as I finish writing this blog. For some reason every job in DC seems intrigue me in some way or another and I feel like I’m in elementary school again. Well, I guess this is better than not knowing what to do at all! I’m excited to see what else will pop up in the near future that will once again grab my attention, and I hope that there will be more opportunities like this in the remainder of the summer.
July 4th
The weekend of July 4th started off with a 8 and ½ hour drive to myrtle beach south Carolina to see my family and meet Justin’s family. We left Washington D.C at 5:30 pm that Friday and made our way down 95 as fast as I could, don’t get me wrong I love Washington D.C but I need to see some sand, sun, and ocean a little vacation never hurt anyone, everybody needs to shift into neutral and recharge the batteries. I was in Myrtle for 3 days then I drove to Georgia to see some of my friends that wasn’t such a bad drive it was only 5 hours and my roommate matt rode with me so it wasn’t bad at all. The drive home was interesting because I stopped at south of the boarder in South Carolina and bought 162 dollars worth of fireworks to shoot off when I got to my house. Best 162 dollars I’ve ever spent on fireworks that is I got a 30 min show for 162 dollars which isn’t a bad deal my friends were happy because my town did have that many fireworks because it rained on the 4th. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off from work so I could spend so more time with the parents but as fate would have I had a mandatory meeting to attend back here in Washington D.C so Wednesday morning I left around 6 am because it is about a 10 and ½ hour drive my house in Georgia to D.C but I made it back with no time to spare. I parked my car at South Hall and Matt and I booked over to K&L Gates to make the pizza party on time.
Shopping for Food in Washington, D.C.
I have tried to shop at different food stores while in Washington, D.C. in order to compare prices and the variety of goods available. I must admit I enjoy more eating out than shopping for food or preparing it. As you can probably guess I like to eat what other people cook. I must confess that I am not a good cook. I do love to visit the supermarket’s fruit and vegetable sections. I have been to two different supermarkets and I noticed how expensive some of my favorite fruits are when compared to home. When I go shopping for fruits at home I love to look at their colors and smells. When I buy them I love their texture, the juice and their consistency in my mouth. Some of my favorite tropical fruits are pineapples, mangos and guavas. In D.C., I have seen lots of bananas, all of the same kind. I also saw some pineapples and mangos in the supermarkets I visited, but there were no guavas. What attracts me most about guavas is their smell. I just love it. The kind of bananas that I like from Puerto Rico I did not see here in the supermarkets, they are smaller in size, wider and taste different, like a mix of apples and bananas at the same time. In Puerto Rico we call them “manzanos”.
Sunday I reminded myself that I had to go food shopping. As convenient as CVS is, that does not constitute food shopping, I needed to go to a supermarket. So I went to “Trader Joe’s” where I found some reasonable prices and a certain variety of fruits and vegetables. Granted some things were way over-priced, there were not as many tropical fruits as I can find at home, but some bananas and mangos looked nice. Their prices were too expensive and I decided to wait until I go back home again to have them again. Nonetheless, I was able to find reasonably priced popcorn, peanut butter, cereal bars and some different brands of cereal. I was able to get a bit of breakfast food for a good price and I actually do not have to cook what I bought. Great!
Sunday I reminded myself that I had to go food shopping. As convenient as CVS is, that does not constitute food shopping, I needed to go to a supermarket. So I went to “Trader Joe’s” where I found some reasonable prices and a certain variety of fruits and vegetables. Granted some things were way over-priced, there were not as many tropical fruits as I can find at home, but some bananas and mangos looked nice. Their prices were too expensive and I decided to wait until I go back home again to have them again. Nonetheless, I was able to find reasonably priced popcorn, peanut butter, cereal bars and some different brands of cereal. I was able to get a bit of breakfast food for a good price and I actually do not have to cook what I bought. Great!
Speechless
DC is giving me writer’s bloc. I’ve been trying to write a blog post for a week, and yet its still 1:30 AM on Monday morning and I am speechless. My friends back home have probably fainted from the shock of the previous sentences. I am never without words, its why I’m an English major. No one ever wants to sit next to me at the movie theater because I won’t shut up. I’ve always got something to say…except for right now. Tonight I spent two hours on the phone with my friend Melissa brainstorming, pleading with her to give me some ideas so I could go to bed. We finally settled into a discussion on the anniversary of the ADA and what its passage has meant to me. I decided the answer was pride in the disability community. I hung up ready to write the best, most amazing blog post EVER, bar none…except as I started writing I realized I already wrote about disability pride, a few times in fact. Gulp. This is going to be a long night.
Sitting here pulling my hair out and listening to the Glee album on repeat, I’m wondering if its possible I could really have absolutely nothing left to say about the disability experience. If its really a simple enough issue to have fit into a mere five weeks of blog posts? Yes. No. Maybe… I have no idea.
Part of me wants to write that disability is no big deal. It’s a simple fact of life. It is not a singular identity, but a difference in experience. That the ADA has uncomplicated the issue of disability, to show our community as fellow human beings unfairly segregated, de-humanized, and shoved aside. That with the anniversary approaching, people with disabilities are people first, and appreciated as important members of society.
The slightly louder part of me is saying no; that the issue of disability rights is so entangled in the very principles we value as a nation. That this is a marathon, not a sprint, and as such the ADA cannot be applauded as the finish line, but should be heralded as a sign of the strength of our community in the miles to come. And the reason I am running out of writing material is not due to the simplicity of the issue, but all that I have left to learn. This summer has certainly been a great education in the vastness and diversity of the disability community.
The really sleepy part of me is saying maybe and I have no idea. That at the end of the day I have enormous pride in the disability community. That the ADA broke down barriers to facilitate my pursuit of a happy and successful life, and also resulted in a pride that fuels my actions. But I also do not allow myself to be only a person with a disability. Disability is part of my life, but it is not all of it. And in the end the only way to reconcile these two aspects of myself is to stop asking yes or no questions, especially if I want to get to bed anytime soon!
Besides my writer’s bloc, this week was pretty awesome. As a couple of people wrote about, we had a star-studded pizza party on Wednesday evening. Like Ericka mentioned, I generally think of pizza parties as pretty chill, but of course AAPD never does anything halfway! It was more like a networking extravaganza, with several leaders in the community present to give us advice and also hear how our summers are going. Thanks to Yoshiko Dart, PJ Edington, Ralph Boyd, Dick Thornburgh, Wade Henderson, Jonathan Young, Mat McCollough, Andy Imparato, and all the others who took time out of their busy schedules to share their experiences. Mat also hosted a presentation on Thursday about professional communication and using communication strategies to reach consensus. The presentation was very helpful for professional development and I’ll definitely be applying the skills to my internship.
Sitting here pulling my hair out and listening to the Glee album on repeat, I’m wondering if its possible I could really have absolutely nothing left to say about the disability experience. If its really a simple enough issue to have fit into a mere five weeks of blog posts? Yes. No. Maybe… I have no idea.
Part of me wants to write that disability is no big deal. It’s a simple fact of life. It is not a singular identity, but a difference in experience. That the ADA has uncomplicated the issue of disability, to show our community as fellow human beings unfairly segregated, de-humanized, and shoved aside. That with the anniversary approaching, people with disabilities are people first, and appreciated as important members of society.
The slightly louder part of me is saying no; that the issue of disability rights is so entangled in the very principles we value as a nation. That this is a marathon, not a sprint, and as such the ADA cannot be applauded as the finish line, but should be heralded as a sign of the strength of our community in the miles to come. And the reason I am running out of writing material is not due to the simplicity of the issue, but all that I have left to learn. This summer has certainly been a great education in the vastness and diversity of the disability community.
The really sleepy part of me is saying maybe and I have no idea. That at the end of the day I have enormous pride in the disability community. That the ADA broke down barriers to facilitate my pursuit of a happy and successful life, and also resulted in a pride that fuels my actions. But I also do not allow myself to be only a person with a disability. Disability is part of my life, but it is not all of it. And in the end the only way to reconcile these two aspects of myself is to stop asking yes or no questions, especially if I want to get to bed anytime soon!
Besides my writer’s bloc, this week was pretty awesome. As a couple of people wrote about, we had a star-studded pizza party on Wednesday evening. Like Ericka mentioned, I generally think of pizza parties as pretty chill, but of course AAPD never does anything halfway! It was more like a networking extravaganza, with several leaders in the community present to give us advice and also hear how our summers are going. Thanks to Yoshiko Dart, PJ Edington, Ralph Boyd, Dick Thornburgh, Wade Henderson, Jonathan Young, Mat McCollough, Andy Imparato, and all the others who took time out of their busy schedules to share their experiences. Mat also hosted a presentation on Thursday about professional communication and using communication strategies to reach consensus. The presentation was very helpful for professional development and I’ll definitely be applying the skills to my internship.
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