12/31/2007 The reason that that is the title of this post is that I didn't feel like thinking of something interesting to label this post. It's just a random update from me. Vacation has been incredible so far. I've hung out with more family and friends than I know what to do with, and I've loved it. It's been so absolutely incredible to see everyone. It's been very emotional in a way. I don't mean that in that I've been crying every night or anything, but things in my mind have just been very contemplative as I've been home. You know, you see all these people you haven't seen in months, and it's interesting to see how people have changed (or haven't). I don't know. Change is good, but sometimes it can be sad in ways. Anyways, it's been so fun being here. It makes me really excited to move back home in March (which is looking like that's officially going to happen!).

I'd update more, but I'm officially 110% exhausted. Sorry.

Jeff Carl signing off.  ¶ 12:13:00 AM 0 Comments

  To Be Jolly What a Christmas. It was incredible. I won't go into too much detail, but basically, it was just an amazing, relaxed, fun day with the whole family. These past few days have been incredible, just spending so much time together. It's just again so weird that these are the times that will be fewer and fewer. It's sad, yet amazing to think about how powerful these times are now. Every time we hang out now as a family, it's awe-inspiring. Every breath is a walk down memory lane. Every laugh is absorbed for future comfort. Every smile is remembered. Every connection is strong. It's amazing.

Anyways, this year's Christmas was a little different in that for the five Carl kids, we all agreed to pick names this year, so that we could spend MORE for a nicer gift for one person as opposed to spending less on four siblings. My person was John, so I got him a pair of Abercrombie jeans which he loves. The person who had me was Laura, and she and Dar got me two gift cards, one to Best Buy and one to ITUNES. WOO HOO! I love that. Pavel, John's Russian friend who is visiting with John got me two amazing, very nice drawing pads for my architectural designs (which he discovered I like to do and asked me to help design a house he wants to build in real life... wow). Uncle Tom got Ryan and me an XBOX game, and my Aunt Linda and Uncle Joe got me a Visa Gift Card. The drum roll occurred, however, when it was my parents' turn. There were five gigantic bags, all matching, and we (the kids) didn't know what they were or anything. We each had to open the bag at the same time, and it was incredible. At first, we were like... "umm....oh" 'cause there was just a huge towel inside each bag, but hidden in the towel for John, Laura, and Me, were envelopes. Basically, to sum it up, David and Ryan got XBOX 360 Elites with the whoooooole kit (XBOX live, controllers, rechargeable batteries, cords, etc...), and John, Laura, and I each got a huge APPLE gift card!!!! and turns out, my parents' gift to each other is an Apple as well, so there will be five new Apple computers/laptops in the family. It was breath taking when we saw what it was... totally unexpected. God has blessed us so amazingly, and it is incredible to see how he is working right now.

So that was my Christmas. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to get my new Mac.


-Jeff Carl  ¶ 12:30:00 AM 2 Comments

  Tis the Season Wow. I'm tired. It's a little after 2:00 AM on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, by the way, everybody. Today was really fun and full. I have a head ache, runny nose, and a closed throat (from asthma due to too much talking loudly/laughing uncontrollably), but it was completely worth it.

First of all, for once in a long while, everybody is officially home. Dad, Mom, John, Laura, Dave, Me, Aunt Linda, Uncle Joe, Uncle Tom (and John's Russian friend Povel) are all within one state. AMAZING!

Today started with a casual breakfast then church, which was really fun since I haven't actually been to NBC since August. Crazy, huh? I had such a fun time seeing everybody. It was soo good to be in that building.

Afterwards, I hung out with Ben and Ryan for an hour or so, then when we got home, we had lunch. After lunch, around 2:00pm, we had the start of Aunt Linda and Uncle Joe's wedding reception, with a small crowd of close family friends. It was really fun. Everyone was here.

After that party, John, Povel, Laura, Dar, and I went to Bath to the famous Chad + Kasey Snavely Christmas Eve Eve Party. This was my first "Eve Eve Party invitation". haha. I'm movin' up, as John put it jokingly. It was so fun though. There were a lot of people there at times, but the end was really fun, 'cause it was quieter and more relaxed. I enjoyed it a lot and got to see so many people that I haven't seen in awhile, like Evan, the Bests, some people from my church, college friends, family friends, etc.

Annnnnd.... now it's 2:22 AM. What a day. Well, at least I get to sleep in tomorr--- well, today.

I doubt I'll update before Christmas, so without any more delay, Merry Christmas!

Stupid Santa, Rudolph, or whoever.... Yay for God. God is amazing, and he blesses us so abundantly. Let's not forget why Christmas exists.


-Jeff Carl  ¶ 2:12:00 AM 2 Comments

  Belong I am home. I can't even explain how good it is to be home again. This is where I belong. I'd love to travel the world throughout my future career, but there will be no place in my entire life that matches just exactly how I feel about my home of 17 years in New York. It makes me sad to think that someday, we'll officially move out of this place, but man, I can't explain how much I love it. (oh, p.s. we officially don't have Kitty Carl anymore. I found that out as I arrived today. My mom told me she finally got someone who would take care of her TODAY! Soo... I just missed saying goodbye to her by hours. It's really sad, yet she really needed an official home. I loved her, but oh well. Just one more thing to add to the ever growing list of new chapters of life.)

ANYWAYS, well the last couple days have been a blur of excitement. It's been incredible, fast, exhausting, but amazingly fun being in Florida with Rave. We did everything we had wanted to do, so I'm content now. haha. We had been anticipating it for awhile now, so it's good that it's finally happened. It was incredible. We have spent the last two days traveling, so I'm exhausted from that (one more thing to add to how amazing it is to be HOME). We left Marco Island yesterday morning, drove to the airport, flew to Atlanta, then to Dayton. Thankfully, there were no issues, so it was smooth traveling. Once we got to Dayton, we stayed the night at one of Rachelle's parents' friends' house. This morning, we went left, stopped by Rachelle's very nice, new apartment, and then we did a little Christmas shopping, and finally "officially" left at around 1:30. We only made one real stop on the 7 hour drive home, so we made pretty good time. Again, VERY smooth traveling. It was nice. Thank you, God. :)

Said goodbye to Rave, then spent awhile talking to Mom. Haven't seen Dave yet, but I'm excited to. I've just been in awe of everything. I see all these things that bring back all these memories. It just seems weird that I could feel this way after only being gone 5 months. I mean, I've lived here 17 years, and it's not like I've been gone years. I guess the situation just has given me a little more perspective I guess. It's insane.

I can NOT wait to see all my friends and family. This Christmas break is probably going to be one of the most insane one's I've ever had. We'll have a household of 11 people or something. It's going to be carazay, but we've done worse, so we're ready. haha. It'll be magical.

I'm just happy if you haven't noticed yet. Just ask Rachelle about the last... say 10 minutes of the car ride. haha. I was flipping out..... in a good way. :)

Can't wait to see you guys.

Always,
Jeff Carl  ¶ 10:54:00 PM 1 Comments

  Deep Breath Well, it's almost 3:00 AM on Fri---Saturday morning. I'm kind of relaxing still getting ready for four weeks of insanity. I mean, believe me, these last couple weeks have been hectic with finishing up classes and stuff, but I have a feeling these coming weeks will be worse. However, I mean worse in the sense of business. Of course, they're going to be a million times more fun than finishing college.

Rachelle's flying in today around 3:45pm, if all goes as planned. I'm praying there will be no weather issues. Unfortunately, the one weekend she's coming down is forecasted to be crappy weather (which'll be the first time in like 3 months), but oh well, just having her here will be fun. She said that as long as it's warmer down here than it is up there (which it is), she'll be fine. haha. Sweet. So that's from today through Wednesday. Then she and I are flying from here to Dayton, and on Thursday, she and I are driving from Dayton to home in NY.

That'll be the beginning of my Christmas break which I'm positive will go by instantly. It's going to be two and a half weeks of just craziness visiting all my friends, family, church friends, etc, filled with birthday parties, Christmas, Christmas Eve parties, surprise events, get-togethers, band reunion, New Years Eve parties, wedding receptions, and whatever else. WOO craziness.

Then, I'll fly back down on the 5th of January. Sabrina might be coming down on the 6th to visit me here in FL until that Friday, the 11th, when I'll take her to the airport so that she can head back north. While I'm dropping her off, I'll be picking up Greg from the airport so that he can spend a few days down here (until Tuesday, the 15th). After that, my insanity will be done. I'll have a week break or so until my dad and I go into high gear with college visits and stuff. CARAZAY. That'll be interesting.

Anyways, just thought I'd update for no apparent reason. I guess it's been awhile, so that's reason enough for me.

Hope everyone's doing great, and I can't wait to see you all.

-Jeff  ¶ 2:47:00 AM 1 Comments

  Semester Wrap Up Wow.... one whole semester already coming to a close. It's a good feeling. Today was our last day of classes. I had an English final today, have an Algebra final tomorrow morning, have a Sociology final on Monday morning, and my last final (Government) on Wednesday. After that, it's only a couple days before Rachelle arrives for her visit. I'm really excited. It's gonna be a fun few days. Not to mention, the trip back to NY with her will be interesting as well, I'm sure. haha.

Oh yeah, and new news of the night.... Greg is coming to visit me in Florida in January! Even though I'll be seeing him over Christmas break, I'm totally stoked for him to visit me down here too, especially since he's going to be living in Italy for the next several months anyways. It'll be a nice last visit with him. Talk about weird. Being friends since two, and now everybody's growing up. That's a whole post for a whole other time, but anyways, I'm excited for him to come (especially since he and I have been planning his visit to Marco Island ever since I can remember).

As for the new phone, I love it. I keep finding out little new things here and there. I downloaded the game Collapse, though, and am completely addicted. It's really fun. Not only do I love the phone itself, but of course, I'm so happy actually getting to use it for the more important reason of staying in touch with people. Already, I've reconnected with Greg, Sabrina, Rachelle, and my really good friend Amber too. I miss everybody. I can't wait to see them all over Christmas break.

Anyways, like I said... Algebra exam tomorrow, so I better head to bed. Goodnight. =)

-Jeff  ¶ 11:45:00 PM 3 Comments

  Phone Revival
I finally got my new phone, the Verizon Voyager!!! It is amazing.

I have been phoneless since October 28th, when some gimpster decided to steel my phone, not return it, and put $200 worth of crap on it. Anyways, he's sadly realizing now that his phone no longer has service, and I have my number back.... mwa ha ha. (evil laugh...)

haha.... anyways... there is one dilemma though. I obviousely lost all my own stuff that i had on the phone (ringtones, messages, pics, contacts, videos, etc...)....

Soooo I need contact info again. If you haven't already seen my away messages, facebook, or myspace, here's one more form of communication: send me your cell/home (or both) number whether through e-mail or whatever else (so that not anyone can read it).... that way, I'll be able to call you again.

Thanks. Looking forward to future conversations.

-Jeff Carl  ¶ 11:15:00 PM 2 Comments