Living the Dream

I'm a big of this idea, although I'm still trying to figure out how the whole things works...

I'm living in 'The Loft' with KJ and Brandon, which means that life is always an adventure. We've had several so far, including a trip to Percy Priest, weekly Nashville dinners, and most recently a camping trip to Florida. The only rule? No complaining. Both Brandon and KJ are copious documentarians of said adventures, and the pictures are all over the facebooks.

I spend about 2o hours a week at Lwala Community Alliance, this sweet non-profit that works with a health clinic started in Kenya by two brothers from the village of Lwala who went to med school at Vandy. So far I'm doing mainly office work, but I love it. I'm also looking for some kind of paying job here in the Nash, so far no luck, but I will not complain about 20 hour work weeks.

One of my summer goals is to read a lot, and with only 20 hours of work, that has not been difficult. Right now I'm in the middle of Pillars of the Earth, an Oprah Book Club novel about the building of a cathedral during the reign of King Stephen in medieval Britain. Love it - great easy fiction. In case you have any doubts, Brian is reading it too. To balance that I'm also reading Desiring God, by John Piper. It's challenging me to personalize what it means to be consumed by a search for joy in God. I have a feeling it's going to be life changing.

But that's enough on me, I want to know what the rest of you are up to!

Freakin' Florida!

Brant, Brandon, and I had been thinking for a really long time that we wanted go camping over Memorial Day weekend just to get away and be manly. First idea was the Smokey Mountains, then the Grand Canyon was thrown out there but that is way too far and too much money for gas. In the end we decided on Florida! Pensacola, FL is only 7 hours from Nashville and has all the beautiful white sand beaches and clear water that Florida has to offer. The trip was awesome and we pretty much had the beaches to ourselves both days (Sunday especially because a storm hit). Go ahead and take a look at our incredibly heterosexual pictures from the weekend on facebook! Another fun fact about our trip is that over the weekend, 6 of our 7 meals were either peanut butter and bread or PB&J. It was fantastic!

All three of us are leaving Nashville this weekend to see our families. I'm leaving to go home after work on Friday, so I'll probably get home around 10 or so. Saturday I'm hanging out with Kristin and Jon all day (Jon is driving down from IL to go to the Cards game with us) and I think it will be a super fun time. I also plan on re-planning my life this weekend which is always fun! Then next week I have to bunker down for the start of Orgo, but once the weekend hits again we will be living it up Nashville style at the CMA music festival downtown. Its going to be epic. I have now been at work for an hour and done absolutely nothing, so I am going to go read a scientific paper or something. Bye!

Life in the Nash

Ok, for one, Andrew I am so glad you had this idea! I think this is really great. So as for life in Nashville...I'm working in cancer biology research, which means a lot of antisocial people with iPods. My work is redundant and often unsuccessful. We still eat at the BYX table in Rand! My day is 30% actual work, 70% Facebook. I'm living in a converted single car garage attached to a 3 bedroom house. The main house is called "The Plantation", and Brion, Jay, and Brandon (Goodman) live there, and I'm in the, "Slave Quarters". :) The boys just moved in last week, so life is just getting rolling. Tomorrow we're having a Memorial Day BBQ with burgers and brats and wiffle ball. :) Today we went to church, had lunch at The Local Taco, and then laid around and watched the Braves game all afternoon. I am SO grateful to be free of the stress of school and just slow down and relax and enjoy life. It is an incredible feeling!

First Post

So, this blog was created in an attempt to keep everyone connected over this really long and arduous separation Vanderbilt masks as summer break. I want to know what's going on in everyone's lives in full gory detail and I'm clearly not the only one. Slash I love all the tools Google has to offer and Blogger is the new frontier. Slash you can have up to 100 authors on one blog so why wouldn't we take advantage of that? So add a little (or a lot) to the blog whenever you get the chance and feel free to add pictures and video. And go ahead and invite more people, because I def did not go through my entire list of contacts.

I'll start things off by saying that...I'M WORKING FOR A CERTIFIED COUGAR. A full on "I tan every week," legit leopard print wearing, mother of two, cougar. After our first meeting, she asked if it was inappropriate to meet at her house. "Of course not." I think at one point while I was there, as I was showing her something on my computer, she might have tried to share a seat with me. Stay tuned...(p.s. it really is a legit internship despite the cougarness of the whole situation)

In more important news. I've been able to spend lots of time with my lovely girlfriend (Ana) after 4 months apart. It's been amazing just enjoying the little things in life like trying a new froyo place tonight or reading together at a cafe on a rainy afternoon. She's really into cooking these days, which I'm not upset about at all. She recently acquired a homemade carrot cake recipe from this really old, little mexican lady that we know (so it has to be amazing, right?). This is the first time that recipe has been shared with someone outside that woman's family so it's kinda a big deal. In any case, I'm really hoping to try it out soon. Ana's little sister says it's amazing.

Well guys, I'll let y'all do some of the talking to, but I'll share this quote that I read the other day:

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

Hope to here from y'all soon! Be safe everyone.