Night 1in NY I'm just gonna update real quick before Rachelle gets here, but it is Friday morning. My first night here was absolutely incredible. Well, first off, my flights went VERY well. I got to the airport fine, got my boarding pass fine, got through security fine, both my flights were on time, I got the window seat for BOTH flights which was awesome ('cause that's my favorite seat), and the best part about both flights was that BOTH of my... people-sitting-next-to-me-people didn't want their PRETZELS! So I got extra... sweeeet. So I got to Rochester, and it was ugly.... haha... gray clouds, raining, and like sixty degrees, but that's okay... I kind of missed that anyways, so it was good. I got to the baggage claim, and after a few minutes, I was looking for Sabrina and Hannah, and I finally saw them, and they were smiling and holding a huge sign that said Jeff Carl (huge letters) rocks my socks! I loved it. It was a great start to the night.

We then ventured over to Red Robin. Hannah and I had never been to one before, and I'd have to say without a doubt that it was an awesome first experience. The people were soooo nice and warm-hearted, and the atmosphere was cool too. So it was great. We had an awesome meal and time talking. Then, we zoomed over to Nazareth College so I could see their rooms, so we hung out in Hannah's for a few, then Sabrina and I went over to hers. It was nice, 'cause we got to talk, even though it was only for a few minutes. Then GREG showed up at Naz....

So that was the next adventure of night one. Greg drove all the way from Corning, picked me up in Rochester, and we drove back to his house. I got to say hi to his parents and meet Willy, which was awesome. It was great just getting to spend that time with Greg. Then, he drove me over to Tanya's house just to say hey real quick... so that was nice. Then, he drove me home, and it was so great getting to be home again. I miss this house so much!

After talking to my dad for a few, I decided to just go to bed, since it was already around 12:45am. I called Rachelle to check in with her about today and stuff, and while we were on the phone, Dave got home!! So I then went into Dave's room to see him, since I haven't in seven weeks. We hung out until 3:00 in the morning... haha. oops. but that's okay, 'cause it was one of the only times I'll get to see him, so I had a really nice time with him.

I'm awake now, and I'm so excited. Rachelle and I have some cool stuff planned, and I get to see a few other friends today before I got to FLM (where I'll see a TOOON of friends...can't wait!). But I'll post about today in another entry. I've gotta go get ready real quick!!!

I <3 NY.

-Jeff Carl :)  ¶ 9:17:00 AM 3 Comments

  Flight 823 & 597 to New York I'm leaving today after class to go to New York. I can't wait. This trip is going to be absolutely incredible.  ¶ 8:10:00 AM 0 Comments

  the Rhythmic Operation I kind of maybe sort of had a little taste of the Itunes monster. It got me. I bought one album... which kind of led to buying two albums... then a third... maybe fourth or fifth... well, why don't I just tell you what I will be listening to in the car for the next couple weeks, haha. And I don't care if you make fun of me for my selections. I don't care if some of them are cheesy. I like the music, so I bought it. Not ashamed... haha.

(Album) Okay, so let's start with:

1. Awake by Secondhand Serenade
2. High School Musical 2 Soundtrack
3. It Won't Be Soon Before Long by Maroon 5
4. Hannah Montana 2 by Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana
5. Insomniatic by Aly and AJ

(Individual Songs)

1. Enrique Iglesius' "Somebody's Me"


... so there you go. My new music playlist. haha. I know it's quite random. Everything from emo punk music to dance pop music to disney channel teeny-bopper music. That defines me I guess. I love a little of everything.

Anyways.... just thought I'd share.  ¶ 9:54:00 PM 1 Comments

  100th Post And what a good post it is!! Multiple exciting news.

1. I hung out with a new friend, Lauren, today, which was really fun. We had lunch at the mall, then split for like an hour or two before we met up at the movie theatre on Marco, and we watched The Brave One and ate food. It was a fun time.

2. I start working.... well actually, I have my "orientation" on Sunday. YAY.

3. While at the mall today, in Hollister, the manager came up to me and asked if I wanted to work there. haha.... I thought it was funny.

4. Ryan went on another friend adding spree for my myspace, and someone messaged him that lives in Naples. Apparantly he's the production manager of a Haitan television show down here. He heard my music and wants to play one of my music videos on the show, which is apparently called MTD (Music Talent Discovery). Oh, and since I don't HAVE a music video for any of my stuff, he said that they could probably help me make one! Here's one of the messages he sent Ryan:

"Yeah, i live in NAPLES
I'm the production manager
i'm in my space at least once a day
so you can email memy show call MTD TV SHOW
Music Talent Discovery
its on Comcast CN35
that could be channel 10, 23, 35, or 80 depends on where you at.
its on every Sunday @ 3:00PM
its a Haitian show, I mean we do it for the haitian community, so we speak mostly creole in the show.
but still a lot of Haitian love those type of rhythm song your brother sings.
It would be a huge step for him.
tell him about our conversation
if he's ok with it
mail me then i'll give you my phone number then you can call me, and i'll have you guys come down in Naples then we can talk some business
cool?"

HOW COOL is that? So exciting. I don't even know what'll come of it. I just think that's so cool. Anyways, so that's some of my exciting news. :)

Only five more days until NEW YORK! WoO HoO.

-Jeff  ¶ 11:31:00 PM 3 Comments

  Rejuvination Okay, so today was great. I'm updating quickly, since I'm going to bed soon, butttt lemme give you the rundown.

Woke up, took a shower, went to classes. I gave my English presentation today (with my partner, Chris), and that went incredibily well (we got A's), so now I'm really happy that I don't have to worry about that.... not that I was worried, 'cause we were definitely prepared for it, but it's just nice to not have to deal with knowing you haven't gone yet. Sociology was also wonderful as usual. My government class was boring as usual, but hey, at least nothing BAD ever happens in that class. Anyways, overall.... great day academically.

Came home from that, and I hung out and watched Oceans Thirteen which was cool, even though I've already seen it. At 4:00, I had to leave to go get Ryan from school in Naples, so I did that (and talked to Rachelle on the way to/back). Once we got home, Ryan changed, then we turned around and went to church for a new program starting on Wednesday nights called Ignite. There are some different small groups (prayer time, "classes", the youth program, a children's program, etc...). That went incredibly well. My parents are involved with the teen program, and they're trying to start a music and drama team. We weren't sure what the reception would be like, but it turned out to exceed our expectations. The turnout was great, and the kids were allllll soooo absolutely excited about the new ideas and were even contributing their own ideas already. It was incredible.

After that, we came home, and I decided to do some excercise again. I went to the excercise room in our building, and did some stuff, then my dad showed me some stuff, then I went to the pool to do some laps, which is always incredible at night, because I'm the only one down there, it's dark, peaceful, and so serene. I love it, and of course... it's so refreshing. I proceeded to go upstairs afterwards and talked to my mom for a bit, had a healthy snack, then put a load of laundry in before coming into this room, sitting down at the computer, and writing this entry. Oh, by the way, if you haven't noticed, I'm starting the health thing again. I'm not saying I'm going to go psycho on it right away, but I am definitely revamping things, that's for sure. I've just let Satan get ahold of me in the way of slobbery/laziness. I've fallen to the temptation of junk food so many times, and I'm sick of it. Sugars/Starches/whatever are the MOST tempting things, but also the most unfullfilling /unsatisfying. So, I'm going back to the major reduction of sugar, lots of fruits, veggies, water, and consistent excercise gig. I'm so excited. Already, I have such a feeling of victory and motivation. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I've just been so encouraged lately with a lot of things.

I also, as part of that encouragement, have PLANS!!! (woohoo) for tomorrow evening with two girls from my Sociology class. One of them lives on Marco and the other in Naples, but we're gonna go see a movie, and I might invite them over here to do swimming or whatever. We have things to do, especially since we're right on the beach. I am excited to actually do something with new people. That is a huge answer to prayer.

I am also officially payed up with my dad, so I am no longer in any kind of debt regarding my car, cell phone bills, or whatever. Not to mention, I apparently had way over calculated what I owe my dad, so it turns out I still have a LOT of excess money that I thought was going directly to my dad, so that is a huge excitement. Not in the sense that I'm going to throw it all away, but certainly in the sense that it's a huge stress reliever.

I'm excited for tomorrow. I'm waking up early to work out with Dad. Then I have an Algebra class which I'm looking forward to, so that I can find out what I got on my test that I took yesterday. Also, my parents, Grandaddy, and I are gonna play tennis at the club at some point, which will be fun, and I'm sure we'll take a dip in the pool afterwards. And of course, as I mentioned, I have the plans with two girls from my college class tomorrow night. So I hope everything'll go well.

So yup... things are going great right now. I leave a week from tomorrow to go up to New York! I am so absolutely excited for that. It's going to be so amazing to reunite with my friends. I am still on the waiting end of the Abercrombie situation, but I will keep any readers of this updated as best as I can in regards to that. I hope everybody is doing well. I miss you guys! Stay strong!

Refreshed, excited, happy, and ready,

Jeff Carl  ¶ 10:53:00 PM 3 Comments

  a Glass of Ice Water What is more refreshing than just a nice glass of ice water? Honestly. It doesn't matter whether it's a hot day or a freezing day... ice water just always is amazing. Yay.

So I had my interview today at Abercrombie and Fitch. It went incredibly well as far as I'm concerned. So there is good news and bad news. The good news is that based on what I gathered from the interview today (consisting of about 8 aspiring employees), I'm fairly confident I will be one of the selected ones for the job. The bad news is that the hours are really minimal. However, that is just the hours that they GIVE you. You can do other people's shifts if they want time off, and you can do as much of THAT as you want. So you can gain a few hours by that. The other option is for me to get a second job at the mall that would hopefully coincide with the Abercrombie job. Who knows though, maybe I won't even get that job. We'll see. We find out sometime this week via phone call. Pray about it.

That awesome interview, however, was followed by a long car ride home filled with a huge sense of loneliness. I'm so glad my friends up north still talk to me, 'cause if they didn't then that'd make things a lot worse. This job could be one of my only other chances to meet people my age, so I really hope it works out. However, to clear my head, I went on a long walk on the beach near sunset. It was beautiful. I concluded my walk with doing laps in the pool. It was wonderful spending time by myself in silence.

I watched Bridge of Terebithia today/night. It was absolutely amazing. I loved it.

I'm going home soon!  ¶ 10:38:00 PM 3 Comments

  Say what? So... funny story. I had to drive Ryan to a birthday party in Naples today at the bowling alley. It was pointless for me to return home then go back to pick him up like an hour later (since it's a half hour drive), sooo I decided to kill some time. I decided to go to the huge mall called the Coastland Center Mall. I was by myself, and I had never been there before, so I didn't even know where to start, 'cause I had no idea what stores it even had.

Turns out, it's a very upper class mall in the sense that it has ALL the stores. Not just Old Navy, American Eagle, Hot Topic, and FYE. It's got the Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch as well. And not just those, it has a Nine West, Express, Godiva, and stores that carry Gucci, Versace, Dolce, and Oakley. Sooo I was very excited about all this. Anyways... I ended up buying two pairs of jeans and two long-sleeve shirts from Hollister, and then I made my way over to Abercrombie & Fitch and bought a bathing suit.

When I was checking out, the cashier was like, "Hey, if you're looking for work, we're hiring right now." I actually am looking for a job, so I was like.. uhhh, okay. So I went to the back of the store and filled out a computer application. The two cashiers that had told me I should apply seemed really nice, so that was cool. Anyways, tonight, not even a day later, I got a call from Abercrombie saying that they'd like to consider me.

I have a job interview on Tuesday, and it's looking pretty optimistic that it'll become a reality. I just love the fact that the term for employee there is model. I guess that'll be a good thing to add to my true-statements-but-in-reality-not-so-REAL-but-still-sounds-good list: Valedictorian (even though it was out of three students, including me) and now Abercrombie "Model" (even though it just means employee, basically...haha).

...so that's my funny story. Didn't see that one coming.

-Jeff  ¶ 9:49:00 PM 5 Comments

  charge complete Okay, Saturday, September 1, 2007. My day was awesome. Woke up at 11:00 AM after having an awesome time talking to Rachelle the night before (we pulled another talk until 3:00 in the morning things...we do that quite frequently for some reason). So yeah, 11:00 AM, my dad wakes me up and says, "Jeff, just letting you know that pancakes are gonna be ready in a couple minutes if you'd like to join us." So that right there was the sign to how my day was gonna go. haha

After breakfast.. or lunch I guess, my mom gave me a muuuuuch needed haircut, so it's a lot shorter now than it was, and I really like it. However, I think I might actually experiment with some "goop" stuff, 'cause it's at a pretty good length for that. So I was really happy to get my haircut, especially since I was sitting in front of a seventh story view of the Gulf of Mexico cascading onto the beaches of Marco Island, sprayed with palm trees and blue skies. Not too shabby at all.

After my haircut, I took a nice warm shower which of course felt amazing. I swear I could take a shower for 4 days straight and not stop enjoying it. After my shower, I sat down at my new keyboard and worked on one of my new songs (called "Live to Die"), and I'm absolutely in love with this new song. It's a fast, upbeat, catchy song (hopefully...haha).

So yeah, I worked on that song for awhile. That's when my parents called me to go. We went to Naples for the night to hang out. During our restaurant searching, we found this awesome restaurant called Remy's Bistro, a local Italian restaurant. It was absolutely amazing. I partook of classic Italian white bread dipped in my first course of Cream of Asparagus and Chicken soup and then my entre of Chicken Marsala Fettucini, which was the best tasting pasta I've ever had. So after stuffing ourselves, we went to see Ratatouille, which was awesome... again. haha. It was really funny, because during the movie, the rat's name is Remy, and at the end, at the restaurant, the overhang over the door thing says Bistro on it. Remy's Bistro... sound familiar? haha yeah, that's what we thought.

On the way home, I got to talk to one of my best friends, Evan, while gazing outside of our car window at the night filled sky, flashing on and off due to a lightning storm going on. It was a spectacular sight. Once we were home, I played keyboard shortly, then proceeded to the lanai to chat with my mom. An hour later, my dad joined us, and we ended up talking for even longer. It's been awesome getting to be with my family so much, especially after a past year of basically seeing my parents about 5 minutes per day.

So after the normal people went to bed, that's when I decided to call Rachelle, and as I said, we ended up talking until like 3:00 in the morning, which was really fun of course. Eventually I went to bed, slept like a rock, woke up the next morning, and went to church. Church went very well. After church, we went to the island club to eat a wonderful lunch, then hung out here at home for a bit before Ryan and I went to youth group, which was fun. This weekend, we're going to Orlando, FL for the Rock the Universe festival at Universal Studios. It's gonna be really fun, 'cause we're gonna go to Islands of Adventure for half the day, then go to Universal for all the concerts and stuff at night, then spend the night at some nearby church, go to a service in the morning, then go back to universal for sunday as well. So it's a Saturday, Sunday type thing, but I'm really looking forward to it.

After youth group, I came home, played keyboard (suprise suprise), watched a movie, went for a late night swim with Ryan which was astonishing as always, then watched another movie (Meet the Robinsons....LOVE that movie, as does Rachelle. We pretty much are part of that movie). So that is where i am right now on Sunday nig-----Monday at 2:00 AM, writing this post (again, talking to Rachelle... haha).

So, as explained, life is amazing right now. It'd be hard for it to get much better. My spirit is just so refreshed and alive. I feel like a new person, honestly. God is so good to me.  ¶ 2:00:00 AM 2 Comments