Nada Surf

I went to this show on tuesday. I skipped classes and put off studying for a chemistry test. and guess what. It was totally worth it. Although it almost didnt happen. Between forgetting my wallet, calling everyone i knew to see if they wanted to bring my wallet to nashville, and driving to murfreesboro to borrow a friends ID. It worked out and i got into the concert for free. It was amazing. Soo so amazing. Seriously one of the best shows i've ever been to. I had never been to a concert of one of my favorite bands. i usually just tag along with people who go to concerts of their favorite bands which i happen to know of. oh man. i loved every second of it, i was dancing and singing and smiling like a crazy person. I am a happy girl.

Austria

So i've been back for a week or so. And i miss europe. and not being in class or working and just singing and hanging out with some cool people (emphasis on some) I have aproxametly 1,000 pictures from this trip soo this is quite an abbreviated version of the trip, and i have stories galore. But here are a few highlights, (many more of them are on facebook)

This is where we stayed. It was adorable and had a beautiful view of telfes (which is the town where we stayed)

This is a church where we practiced and had our final concert. right down the road from our hotel.
This is what the cities looked like. I loved it, you could walk everywhere and thier were Strassenbahn (street cars)
Their were musicians everywhere we went. I could do a whole post with photos of them. I thought it was so cool that the cities were filled with all this music.
German men. i love this picture
us singing, one of the few pictures where i;m not cut out of the choir (since i stand on the end)
Singing in a church.
Practicing with the german choir, this was our choir director joseph, we went out and partied with them the last night.
Alright now for all the fun pictures of people. and good times yayayayay.

Donkey Ball, or around the world ping pong, which we renamed Danke ball. (because danke sounds like donkey and danke means thank you in german.
Dinner in oberamagou, with our tour guide. can you guess who she is. (left to right) Tour guide, Josh, Me, Christopher, Jana, dan
Our choir before the tour of the neuschvanstein castle, this was actually my favorite tour, it was such a beautiful castle, and i could understand our guide, and she wasnt boring. yes.
Me with a goat.
Can you find me?
ME and dad.
At the top of the alps, this was my favorite day, we went up the alps in a gondola, and hiked around up there with a bunch of cool people. This is christopher and mark (mark is sitting)
On top of the alps
The End.

Home

I have just returned from austria. It took two bus rides, numerous shuttles and three flights but here i am. after 24 hours of traveling (we left two am (no sleeping) on wednesday night/thursday morning and returned 7pm on thurdsay. with time change. with out it, we got back 1 am fridaymorning. whatever. it was exsausting and fun. It was an absolutly incredible trip. I'll try to go over it day by day with pictures when i download them. I'm both sad and glad to be back. Sad because what an amazingly beautiful country, the alps, rivers, glaciers. and the trains, gondalas and such. I'll miss how everyone takes care of the environment, how you greet everyone you pass, how you dont need a car to get everywhere. How clean and beautiful everything is. I cant wait to go back, i'm already making plans for that, except i also plan to know a little more german (Sienna, i have a little better idea of what you went through) and to be in a little better shape, It was rough running up and down the alps all day, well more like walking. But i am glad to be back. Back to cold sodas and telivision and english, yes spoken english, english menus, mmm large soda;s with ice. Cereal and milk for breakfast instead of meat sandwiches. My bed that is long enough. I met some incredible people on this trip, who i hope i will continue to befriend and some people i hope that i will never see again and should probably never EVER leave the country again.
So i'm still a bit jet lagged. i have no idea what time it is, and my ankles are still a little swollen. (weird) I have taken thousands of pictures. that i have not yet down loaded. THey'll be up in afew days i think. But for now. Here is my home.



This is my old dock...it is now gone and a new monster of a dock is in its place, no damage no missing planks...no character. Good bye old friend.

magnetic resonance imaging

Today i got an MRI, weee. it was pretty cool. There were signs everywhere like this, like "the magnet is always on" or DANGER magnet!, i wonder what would happen if you went near the room with a lot of metal on. I had to fill out a form verifying that there wasnt any metal in my body, no implants, shrapnle, etc. but it really made me wonder...had i ingested anything metalic recently? ha I got to wear a cool hospital gown. crap its horizontal, i'll fix that later. All i have to say is its a good thing i'm not clausterphobic, cause its a pretty narrow tube that you have to lie in for like 30 minutes. i got to listen to music, and i fell asleep at the end of it. Its a lot of vibrating and kind of sounds like a jackhammer with different rhythms. fun times! Well i must take a nap, i've got a sleep over with nate and david tonight, and that means little sleep! so i've got to rest up!

summer life

I've finally come to grips with the fact that my blog is not going to be as cool as anyone elses blog, by cool i mean not as eloquently written, or as picturesque, and not as interesting becasue my summer life is very very dull and ordinary. But it is my life and my story so i will write it lest i forget it. So here it is.. A glimpse into my day. Today i did two things...thus is my week. It will be my last week of freedom before all of my work, volunteering and schooling start up again. Boy summer did fill up fast. Anyways back to today. I woke up, not on my own accord but my mom coming in informing me that 1. demolishon in our kitchen started today and 2. i had a doctors appointment with a geneticist. So i proceeded to shower and i made coffee and as usual forgot about it until much later (normally i remember right when my head begins to twinge a little or i snap at someone) So after i was showered and dressed i sat down on my bed and thats where it all started. the beginning of the end. I opened the case of the first disc of the first season of grey's anatomy and slipped the disc straight into my computer. I watched it until i remembered my coffee, which was when my mom told me it was time to go to my doctors appointment, we had to go early to pick up some paper work. Doctors appointment, 3 hours of my mother and i talking about my family history, everyone in my families medical history, all the aches and pains i've ever had, all to see if i have a connective tissue disorder...which i dont...but do. I get to go get an MRI on friday. Which i think is totally kick ass, never had an MRI before. Its to check my spine, no need to worry i am fine, this is all just to make sure i am fine and will continue to be fine. I learned quite a few things today. 1.everyone in my family lives really long 2. my armspan is shorter than my height, which should be equal (check it out, its cool) 3. there are three types of connective tissue (colligen, elastin, and fibrillin) 4. i have really stretchy skin. overall a pretty cool experience, that hopefully i will never had to repeat, but will on january 7th. yay. its amazing how busy geneticists get. weird. so i get home at about 5, i shelled some peas that we had picked earlier that week when we picked strawberries...mmm. i like shelling peas. so tasty. ate dinner and then resumed watching greys anatomy, and i watched the entire disc, today. 5 episodes. that show is like crack. i know i should stop watching...but i just...cant. i love it so much. and now that i've finished it, i think i will go to bed. ALSO...i found this picture and love it. yeah i'm a dork...whats it to you.

home

Yes i am finally home again. "the zoo will be closing in 5 minutes, the zoo will be closing in 5 minutes at that time all doors and gates will be locked" i hear the familiar voice of the man at the zoo calling out while i sit in my living room, signifying that it is 5 minutes till 5 o clock. The Norfolk zoo is just across the river from my house, and everyday at 4:30, 4:40, 4:45, 4:50, 4:55, and 5, i hear that mans voice. yes familiarity. it is so nice to once again be at home, to hear the trains, sirens, and yes of course the man at the zoo, once again. Home is never quite what i expect. i always expect eveyone and everything to be exactly the same as the way i left it, and of course that is not the case. For example. i came home and the kitchen is now in the dining room. my kitchen is being remodeled, how kind of my parents to wait for me to come home to do it, (why not why i was away at school?) so now the refridgerator, the oven, dishes, tables and various other kitchen like items are moved into the dining room, in boxes and paper bags, its amazing how much you can fit into cubards. and we have a week until they demolish the old kitchen. Good bye red countertops and green lenolium floors!! but only a week with the kitchen sink, so we have a week to make all of our food for the next month. (or so my mom thinks) should be quite exciting. and it cant be nearly as bad as when we remodeled all the bathrooms at once. when all we had was the kitchen sink. oh that was a bad time. Its been so great to see my dear friends once again, and of course i havent seen everyone yet, since i've only been home since monday, and not everyone is home yet. I will update this with more details and pictures later, with stuff about chicago, pictures of my friends and where i live. etc. But right now i must go to choir practice and learn 10 songs well enough to perform them, in one month, in austria. (with a choir that isnt very good, i hate to say it but its true) i have a feeling i will sorely miss covenant chorale after this rehearsal.

i am so proud

My dear brother has finally graduated.

It seemed like it was going to be a perfect day for a graduation. a little overcast but warm. That was until i stepped out of the hotel to get into the car, and the lightning flashed and water started to pour from the sky. Fantastic, i had left my jacket in the car, so i was going to have to make a run for it. So once in the car my dad and i starting making our way to MTSU, and as usually we took the longest most round about way of getting there, what a great time to take a tour of murfreesboro! rushing around in the rain. Eventually we got to the conference center, around 25 minutes late, but no worries graduations last like 2 hours anyways. We barely missed any of the speaker, George S. Clinton. Then finally what we had all been waiting for the calling of names and giving of degrees. It all started with the School of applied science, where numerous graduates had RN written or sew on their hats and robes, symbolizing they had just become registered nurses. then the distance learning degrees, the liberal arts college, and then at last the college of communications, the one my brother would be graduating from. So it went, the speaker reading off name by name, from A to Z through each college, a process that seemed to last an eternity, then at last, DEVIN JARED LAMP, i had forgetten that my brother had a middle name. but alas We stood and Screamed and waved our arms! YES my brother had finally finished college, after 6 continuous years of education. he had made it, and with a pretty damn good degree. I smiled my face beeming with pride. Done at last!
siblings!



Please stop taking pictures.
AH yes then we went to dinner at BC Mcneils, a very fancy nice restaurant, mmmm. where dad continued to take an absurd amount of pictures. but all the food was absolutly fantastic.


Ah then we had some fun times at the hotel with the fam. games are a way of life in the lamp/cessford family. Dice cards, you name it we'll play it. unless spelling is involved.



then gifts were distributed this bling necklace my brother is wearing aparently was one of my grandpa lamp's treasures, he wore it all the time. which is quite odd. since my grandpa did not live in the hood, nor was he a player. i find it quite hilarious.

free...

GREAT NEWS! i have survived and finished my sophomore year of college. all day friday i proceeded to pack all of my things into bins and suitcases. Stripping the room bare of all personality. Saturday morning my dad came up to help me load everything up and we put all my things into storage and filled the car with all of my crap. i had no idea how much stuff i had occumulated over the past year. it was ridiculous. I kept saying, "well i think thats it! no wait i forgot out this box, or that suitcase."
I am now reveling in my freedom, no classes no papers no tests. Simply waking up when i want/ when my parents yell at me. going to bed when i'm tired. Going to shows and hanging out, I'm loving it. I'll be travelling for the next week with my family Up to chicago. i have no idea what we'll be doing or where we'll be going. But hey thats the way i roll.

Free Cone Day!

Free Ice cream! Ooooh yeah. Once a year on April 17th Ben and Jerry's does free cone day, i think its their birthday or something to that effect. Either way it was awesome, our hall went down and had a blast. I ate two, and alisha now has the record with 5 ice cream cones.

I WANT SUMMER

I want to see these kids.

So the year is coming to an end and i want to go home. I'm sick of school food, i long for my mom's cooking and a kitchen when i could cook if i so desired. I desparatly want to see my old and dear friends. I want warm weather, beach and cook outs. I want lazy days! 2 weeks left...thats all.

and this girl!

Bro Time

I went to go spend easter break with my brother in murfreesboro, and it was pretty awesome. The usual late nights, movie watching of normal breaks plus the added bonus of a show or practice every night and delicious neat pizza.
Drew, Casey, and Trey at lunch!
YEAH!
rock on, name on the marque!
The Ascent of Everest. They were incredible as usual
Oh yeah we had a juice party, getting our drink on!

4S Wins Again!!!

Last Night was Carter Live! (our dorms sorry excuse for a skit night) needless to say no one wanted to do it but all the halls came up with ideas the night before. I came up with ours and it went a little something like this... President neilson-me, is introducing a speaker in chapel and there is a student day dreaming about what if fairy tales were musicals? it was absolutlly awesome!!!! and WE WON SECOND PLACE!!!