[theresonlyoneMELLO!]

Here’s the honest truth. I had written a much longer update about my past week, but it just did NOT feel right. And the only reason for that is because of Tottenham Hotspur. All other news in my life seemed paltry when compared to the LILYWHITES crushing the spirits of the Russian-owned Chelsea FC with a win over them in the Carling Cup Final on Sunday.

IT – WAS – HYSTERIA

Most of you know that I am a Liverpool boy, but if I were to choose my second favorite team (and that is an exTREMEly close second choice), it would be my Spurs from London. If I had the opportunity right now to go through an abandoned house with an aluminum baseball bat and destroy everything, I would do so. That’s what their win over Chelsea makes me want to do. I want to let out all my joy by destroying everything. Maybe that’s why Football Firms exist in the UK. Football just makes one want to ascend to another realm when your team wins. Or in this case, second choice.

VIDEO:

PICTURES:

- [MAGIC JUANDE!]

I was rummaging through the dusty old trunk that is my xanga page and reading it was a fresh of breath air (sidenote: my dad’s boss says “fresh of breath air” all the time and doesn’t even realize it).

How can I forget about a site that had such hits as “Mitchell Ouverson”, “Ouverson v.2″, “Green Prayer Cloth”, “In Your Name I Pray…”, “Chinese Mexican”, and “Fever Dream”?

I simply can’t.

Xanga.com/Cmel

- [MELLO!]

Let’s look at the week in review.

It began with exciting news about my trip to Europe this summer.

This is the San Siro, home of AC Milan and Inter Milan football clubs in Italy. Obviously my only goal is to get near any type of football hysteria while I’m over in Europe.

I’m still reeling from the decision to go, but the honeymoon period is just about over and it’s time to start planning ahead for some stuff.

I said in my last post that I’m going to Europe with four friends, when it’s really two friends and two will-be friends. I’ll explain.

Over this past summer I caught up with my good buddy Jill from way back when. She and I have known each other since 5th grade and we used to go to Grace Brethren over in Hope (for those of you who know where that is). Anyway, she’d been out in Grace, Indiana going to school for the past five years and decided to come back home last summer. Over the summer her friend Ashley, from Indiana, came to visit and subsequently we all met. Anyway, fast forward a bit and I hear from Ashley that she and Jill are planning a trip to Europe. The rest is history.

Now here’s where it gets a little confusing.

Jillian and Ashley have a friend named David from college who is coming with us and Ashley has a friend from high school named Ryan who is coming. But it starts to get really confusing because one of them is coming a week later or something. I’m not really sure. And while it’s currently a group where only Ashley knows all the people involved, I’m sure it’ll be a close knit group by July 14.

Needless to say, I’m extremely excited about this whole thing.

Now we just have to start planning the whole thing. That leads me to my next topic from the week.

I heard from Karyn and Dom, my co-workers, that the government has voted on a national rebate of about $165 billion dollars to go out to everyone in the U.S.

SIGN AWAY BUSH! I had no idea about this. Here are the details:

It’s separate from your taxes, so you will receive extra money on top of your taxes for this year. The checks go out in May and they range anywhere from $300 to $1200. $300 to those who made less than $3000 for 2007 and single. $600 for anyone who made more than that during the year and claiming single on the tax return. The higher up it gets confusing but I’m pretty sure that if you are filing a joint return then you get $1200.

As I read about it I came across the reason why the government is doing this. They want an economy boost so they predict that if they give everyone this tax rebate then hopefully that $165 billion dollars will go right back into the money pool, thus BOOSTING the economy. I don’t know about that. I plan on spending it over in Europe.

But hey, it’s perfect timing for me, you know? Europe. COME on (- G.O.B. Bluth).

Everything else that happened is…hmmm. It’s not easy to pose to you all as entertaining, so I’ll just say I had a nice four day weekend traveling to see friends, back again, stacking wood, watching soccer, etc… you know, normal things Carm does on a weekend.

Normal things like this:

Valentine’s Day was hilARious.

- [MELLO!]

A lot has happened since last Friday’s Ice Day (why in capitals Carm?). Let’s do a recap show for you:

Let’s start with the Beautiful Game.

The Saturday prior to Super Bowl Sunday was spent with some good friends enjoying soccer together. That day began with trying to get a cell phone from underneath their apartment’s stove. Wow hahahaha. P.S. The badger above is breakdancing because his club, Fulham, finally got a win this weekend. What a miracle.

As for Tom Brady…

…my prediction about him in my last post was wrong. His legs weren’t broken. But hey, his pride sure was. You can’t deny that the Giants played an awesome defensive game and in the end all of the Patriot’s achievements are now worthless due to the lack of a Vince Lombardi trophy. It currently resides in New York. Enough said.

That was one of the best football games I’ve ever seen. I was in Allentown (in the big NJ) for the game with a ton of my family. What a blast. My uncle almost tipped over backwards in his chair due to hysteria. That about sums it up.

On the way to their house I got lost in Trenton.

Not fun. On the way home I followed a drunk man all the way up route 31. Also not fun. But it beCAME fun when, after he sped away from me once 31 became two lanes, I passed him getting pulled over by the P-O-L-I-C-E. DUI. Enjoy.

I took Monday off…

…which was a premeditated plan two weeks prior to the Super Bowl when the Giants beat the Packers. I was at my relatives’ house for that game too and I’m 100% sure I said, as Tyne’s field goal soared through the uprights to seal the 23-20 win, “I’m taking off the Monday after the Super Bowl.” Apparently, from this picture (which was the first picture that came up in Google Images when I typed in “Super Bowl Monday), the army takes Super Bowl Monday off too. That dog’s taking off too.

When I came into work on Tuesday most of the kids jumped on me about my whereabouts the day before. Much to my chagrin they asked questions like, “Were you drunk Mr. C? Yeah, right. I bet you were. Your eyes look bloodshot.”

The rest of my week was pretty normal, especially at work.

That can be a good thing really. But honestly, besides the occasional headache over the kids, it was pretty good. The comic above cracked me up. That was probably one of the highlights of my recent workdays.

The end of the week yielded a trip to Europe.

Wow, that was so abrupt.

A couple of friends of mine decided that this summer they wanted to go over to Europe for two weeks to explore France, Italy, and possibly Greece and Switzerland. After a week of praying and thinking about it, I finally bought the ticket on Friday. It was pretty intense too. I had to make sure I had enough coming from my tax return before I purchased anything. Turns out that I’m getting back $860 and guess how much the round trip ticket was? Exactly $860. Yes, no joke. Then, right after I bought the ticket, I rechecked the flight number and all their economy seating tickets were sold out. So…I possibly bought the LAST one? Wow.

So from June 29 to July 14 I’ll be in Europe getting lost with four friends.

What a week. I think I’ll do these week recaps more often.

- [MELLO!]

No no, not a snow day. An ice day. Ohhhhhhhhh…

The local area got peppered with ice for a good portion of the morning. SO good of a portion that in fact it strategically rained ice from 7am to 11am. HA HA HAAAAAA. Perfect for no school. And by no school I mean no work.

Sometimes I wonder if I am more like an adult or a child at my job. After a year and a half of the same job, I am still unsure.

I mean, for example, this morning I got up at 6am to watch television and eat cereal. Ok, so the television wasn’t Digimon and the cereal wasn’t Fruit Loops, but what it was wasn’t much more mature. It was the season four premiere of LOST and two bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And a banana.

All of the above was excellent though.

And I will here and now tell you that LOST is the greatest television drama I have ever seen. In fact it is SO good that it trumps about 99% of all movies I’ve ever seen. The storytelling is impeccable, the setting is the most mysterious location on earth, and the themes are easy to relate to even though they are staged on some god-forsaken island hidden from history, human knowledge, sea-faring folk, and satellites.

This weekend I’m headed to all sorts of places as soccer games ignite Europe and the Giants break Tom Brady’s legs in Arizona.

Let’s hope so at least. For the legs that is. Breaking.

- [MELLO!]