1. subtle good morning message 2. blue sky on my early morning run 3. my most prized (or at least, most-used) possessions-- i feel like i look really different from this photo, even though it was taken less than 2 months ago!

yesterday was my long day at school, and after classes, i went to an event at Tulane's uptown campus to see a documentary called "Triumph at Carville." Carville was the national leprosarium and was fully operational for over a century, and it's located here in Louisiana. it officially closed in 1999 but there are still a few patients living there even today. The last director of Carville was on hand to answer questions and talk about his experience there. he talked about the special challenges of leprosy-- it's slow to grow in a lab, and cannot be cultured. no one really understands its spread, or why some people are more prone. it takes five years to grow within the body & show symptoms, so there's a long lag time between exposure & the signs of the disease. most of all, most people think that leprosy is an ancient disease & no longer a problem.

he also talked a lot about their experiments and research at the leprosy lab in Baton Rouge. one reason why leprosy is especially prevalent in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas is that it is carried by armadillos (and they most likely both carry and transmit the disease to humans, although no one really understands how). he talked a lot about "armadillo culture" and the many ways that humans & armadillos interact (!). in order to study armadillos in the lab, they used to hire high-schoolers to catch armadillos and pay them with 6-packs of beer. at some point, they decided that that practice might introduce some potential liabilities, and now they pay good old boys in the Texas panhandle $75 per armadillo. that's public health in the south y'all. 

and as if all that wasn't enough, after that, i had my first meeting as a member of the NAAF NOLA communications committee. which was great-- lots of friendly faces & interesting women. good, long day!