Erin McElvaney

Hey all, I'll be leaving for a journey to Italy and perhaps various other places in about a week.  I've spent the past week in Baltimore, after having spent 5 days in Vegas and 4 previous days celebrating my 'break up' with IBM.  I quit my full time job as a programmer there and my last day was September 1st.  You can see photos of my Quitfest Celebration.

I'll be going to Ocean city for a few days this coming weekend, and then I fly out to Europe.  I'm not sure exactly when or where I'll fly, considering the strange one-way ticket I bought, but I should hopefully know some time tomorrow.  Check out http://www.airtech.com.  Has anyone else ever used this?  It's a bit of a risk but I'm in a risk-taking mood lately ;).

Anyhow, I plan to first make my way to Rome where I'll visit my cousin Renee who is studying there for the semester.  She's offered a free bed and an extra key and I've managed to locate free wifi in one of the parks in Rome.  I also plan to visit Cinque Terres again shortly after arriving, and also exploring the regions of Tuscany, lake Como and the Dolomites, Umbria and the other hill towns of central Italy, the Amalfi coast and Capri, and Sicily.  I may also venture into southern France and Barcelona if I decide to stay long enough.  Nothing is set in stone, however!  It's going to be a full blown adventure.  I'm going with my small suitcase / backpack and day pack, equipped with some pants, some shirts, a few pair of shoes, a couple of Italy guide books, my earplugs and eye mask of course, my spirit and my curiosity.  I can't wait to see the beautiful towns of Italy again, and I'm so excited to be going back!  If you know anyone traveling there in the next month or so, write me and let me know.. maybe I can rendezvous with some other fellow travelers ;).  Yes, as of now I am going alone.

As a part of this adventure, I plan to write some while traveling.  I am bringing a laptop for the first time on a trip. It will be heavy and ridiculously annoying but I refuse to pay 4.50 euro for 30 minutes of internet time in a cafe.  Plus I hate their keyboards! 

The site I will be updating to is a little endeavor that myself and a few others (Irene, Jessica) had planned on starting back in the beginning of summer.  It hasn't really taken a good form yet, but I have content so I need to start writing!  Please, do me a favor and link to the website here: www.anticipatetravel.com.  I need to increase my google page ranking there...

There are two prototypes in the works right now, but hopefully within the next week we will narrow down the format to one of our content managers and then that link will be pointing to it.  What you'll see as of (today) is the first prototype.

I will be writing about my travel experiences, including packing tips and what I'm bringing on this trip, my trip's on-going itinerary.. perhaps with a little map or something :).  I also plan to write little articles as I go, so keep an eye out.  I know a lot of people are jealous that I could quit my job and just go to Italy for a month or whatever, and I'm sorry.  I just can't stand the thought of going back to a job like that, much less without having at least traveled some before recommiting to that lifestyle again!  Maybe on this trip I will begin to figure out what it is I should really do as a career.  I know some things I'd LIKE to do, but I also know people don't really get paid for doing those things.  Like.. traveling for fun.  So if you have any suggestions, let me know. 

I'm going to be going as budget as I can while still enjoying the cuisine and sleeping in hostels (not camping I don't think.. no sleeping bag here!).

So anyhow, check my site out as I go.  Anticipate Travel

In high school I had an English teacher who impressed upon us the significance of what he called "the ultimate wow."  The Ultimate Wow is the experience that occurs at the apex where anticipation and the act anticipated meet.  His most illustrative example was that fleeting moment just before a first kiss.  You've waited all night, all week, or all your life for this first kiss and here you are, inches from one-another's face, leaning in slowly, lips pursed, eyes closed, and *freeze*.   This is the Ultimate Wow.  No matter how amazing that kiss is, nothing can compare to the excitement boiling inside you just an instant before it happened.  Wow.

Try to convince me that life isn't about the journey.  The process of achieving is so much more emotive than the aftermath.  So then what is wrong with the 'pursuit of money'?  Well, we've forgotten that the object or achievement we are seeking is not the key to the WOW.  Seek the completion of a coffee pot collection, learning a new piece on the piano, acing any single interview.  Whatever it may be, if it means something to you, there is much to anticipate.  We should seek to maximize our WOWs!  Why set only one lofty life goal when we can set hundreds of diverse plans in place?

If the Ultimate Wow is about maximizing anticipation, perhaps we should plan more?

What do you anticipate?

For one, I anticipate travel. Travelling is a wonderful escape, with beautiful surroundings, cultural experiences, new people and new bonds.  So many people resort to cruises or all-inclusives for vacations, which are great and all have their place, but some trips can hold so much more opportunity for WOWs.

Take a trip to Europe on a tight budget with a couple close friends.  Let's start with planning--many months ahead of time, we can choose countries and cities to visit.  But how do we choose which ones to see?  Ask friends and family for suggestions, scour the internet and message boards, go to the book store and look at travel guides.  Find a good route.  What an adventure.  The locations themselves then each have their own vast possibilities.  Now find cheap airfare and a time of year to go that fits everyone's schedule.  Read reviews on travel gear and buy what suits your needs best.  Find appropriate minimal clothes for the weather and activities you'll be doing.  Test pack everything you need for weeks into one bag.  Grab the best city guides.  Determine how to travel between intermediate destinations.  Create a budget.   Research the best hostels.  Find the best places to eat and visit in each town.  Start a travel blog.  Now GO.

You're on your way to the airport.  The anticipation you've built up consists of hundreds of little WOWs and you're caught with an excitement of butterflies swirling about your viscera that won't leave you throughout the whole trip.

You arrive--the adventure has begun, but the WOWs are NOT over!  Just finding your way to your hotel from the airport is an experience to relish in.  You've just lived through something more culturally eye-opening than many people will ever experience.  Meet your hostel roommates.  Find out where they are from.  Use botched gestures to sign to others what it is you are trying to communicate.  Find a grocery store; notice it's not like a supermarket.  Cook a meal.  Drink cheaper wine than you've ever imagined--in public--without getting arrested.  Learn some new phrases in another language.  Get lost; ask directions.  Try new foods.  Drink soda without ice.  Pay more for water than for wine.  Find the most beautiful view in the city and discover how many others are sitting there and enjoying it too.  Bond with other travelers.  Hike the most scenic trails you've ever seen.  See how others in the world live from day to day.  Eat an expensive lunch and a cheap dinner.  Learn subways, trains, buses, maps, and planes like never before.  Share knowledge with other travellers.  Go somewhere you didn't plan to go.

Expose yourself to a million more experiences than you do in on a normal day at home.  Feel how your heart grows, your mind expands, your body tones, and your language evolves.  And you will never forget these things.  Enjoy an entire two-week Ultimate Wow--built up by six months (maybe more) of Anticipation, and realize there's still so much to anticipate all along the journey. 

When you've had this kind of WOW, you will be changed.  You'll not regret the moment you decided to take on this trip; and the best part is, once you return--after you've sorted through photos and souvenirs--you can begin planning your next trip using all the information you learned from the last! 

Anticipate many things in your life.  Seek out another first kiss, create a piece of art, but most definitely anticipate travel.

It is truly The Ultimate WOW.

I'm only updating because I'm sick of seeing the same words here for so long...

It's February.  My parents are coming to visit this weekend... in fact they are probably less than 30 minutes away from Durham as I type this.  This is the first time they'll have come down since August when I moved in.  Hopefully there will be more fun to be had this time ;). 
Next weekend I get to take a trip to Baltimore for valentine's weekend.  Pat and I have dinner plans at Cafe Normandie in Annapolis, and then to Kim's party afterwards.  We're planning on doing some ice skating too :) woo hoo!  Pat and I have been alternating flying to eachother's homelands once a month each.. so we see eachother almost every other week, depending on holidays etc.  That's not so bad considering with the southwest frequent flier program, the flights only end up costing on average $60 - $70... that is, after selling my free flight for more than I could use it for.  The flight is only an hour, too, so it's no big hassle.  The toughest part is getting rides to and from the airport, I think.
The most exciting thing on the agenda is the trip to europe!  In case you hadn't seen my preview pictures on the front page of this site...I'm planning a trip for the last two weeks in April.  I'll be flying into Paris , spending a weekend there, seeing Versailles, traveling over to Cinque Terres on the Italian riviera for a few days, then out to Padua where Pat's going to run in a marathon, and then over to Venice nearby for a few days, before heading to our last destination--Rome.  We'll fly out after spending a couple nights there.  I'm so excited!  I haven't seen anything except a little France and Spain last summer, and I just couldn't wait to go back.  Unfortunately tickets are a little more expensive than I expected.. I wonder if it has anything to do with the poor financial status of some major airlines.. hm.
I'm hoping some of my friends will join up with us at least for a week.  I know Emma was planning on it, and maybe a few others.  You won't regret it!!

Sometimes I think that with the money I have saved up right now, I could fly over to Europe and live off of that just long enough for me to find a job working in a cafe on the French Riviera... sometimes I wonder if I'm in danger of not coming home after one of these trips... hmmm.  at least not for a few months or so. haha.

Christmas was a nice break; I had a good time, got some cool stuff, got to hang out with family, ate a lot of homemade sausage and other delicious foods... haha but I'm ready for another break whenever I can get it!
Still taking my Hip Hop and Street Jazz class... this spring it's level 2.  Yikes apparently my non-dancer history is catching up to me now.. I had to go back and take level 1 last week just to catch up on the steps!  But I love it.  An hr and a half choreographed physical exertion.  Nothing like hip hop dance to make you exercise without having to call it exercise. :) But I'm freaking sore, that's for sure.

Everything's going well down here in RTP. 
We had a girls' night at our house 'complete with hot tubbing' and tons of food (thanks to Jamie) and drinks.  That was a blast.  I've found a place to play the occasional pickup game of volleyball any sunday afternoon, which has been fun, despite me being the only girl there I was at least able to keep up!  Pat and I played broomball with the trisports social club a couple weeks ago.  Imagine free beer and pizza, and 40 20 somethings running around on an ice rink in tennis shoes, some sporting knee pads, others not, wearing helmets and carying broom-shaped hockey stick things, pushing a small rubber ball into opponents' goals.  Awesome.  Awesomely wreckless.

Pictures will go up in due time.  I have many that I've slacked on.  Once I plug my linux comp back in so I can edit them, and install the new Adobe Photoshop, I'll get right on that.  I've been bizzay.

And that's all l I have to say.  I'm out to take this to the streets.
pce out yo.

Hey all, whoever that may be!

Quick update: 

I'm all moved into my place in NC, now.  I live in Durham in a nice house with one roommate, currently.  She's looking for someone to rent the second bedroom so I've had the bathroom to myself for 4 weeks (which I've cleaned at least 3 times already ;)... The house is nice, and the hot tub is cool, and Jamie (my roommate) is really awesome.  Her boyfriend, Joe, is really cool too.  So the living situation is going great!

I started work 4 weeks ago.  Judging from the fact that I've seen IBM IP addresses accessing my website in the past, I think I'll generally avoid the topic of work on this journal, but I'll just say a few words:  It's going well, my group seems good, my manager seems good, the work seems good, and I'm getting paid for the first time in almost a year!  That's gotta be good.  And yes, I started getting my hands dirty in some code this week, so that makes it all the better ;)

Recreation?  I joined a gym.. it's like $40/mo, but it's very clean, the people are friendly but I'm not getting sharked yet, and they have some good classes.  I've taken the yoga class 3 times in the past week and a half, and the bellydance fitness class (yes, they have that!! isn't that awesome??) once.  As long as I'm taking advantage of the classes, then the gym pays for itself.  I'd be paying over $10/week for yoga classes either way...this way it just encourages me to go more often, so I can get my money's worth! :)
I'm currently looking for a volleyball team to join, or pickup games to get involved in.  There appears to be a pretty big volleyball interest in the triangle, so that's awesome!  Jamie's boyfriend plays a lot of outdoor vball, so maybe he can get me into the scene!

Everyone seems really fit down here.. especially at my gym, but just in general, everyone seems to be highly involved in at least one outdoor sport... I must say, a little intimidating!  Hopefully that will push me to be more fit, though :)

As far as meeting people down here to hang out with, I have a few contacts you might say, but I've been so busy between going home for the weekend and having friends visit, I haven't really explored the options yet.  It will take some time to meet a good group of people to chill with, but I'm sure eventually.... and I'm still waiting for IBM to come through with the new hire programs.   Lame.

Setting up medical, dental, 401k, workstations, getting my license, going to the bank.. getting furniture.   That's been fun, but I think I'm mostly set up now :) Finally!

Two weekends ago, pat came to keep me company.  We hung out with Jamie and Joe and went to a wine bar in chapel hill, which was very chill and a good time.  Saturday that weekend we went down to Raleigh and met up with Conrad (oldschool UMBC track) and his gf at the Flying Saucer, where they have like 80 some beers on tap !! mmmm

Jessica's wedding shower was last weekend, so I went home for that.  Friday I got to see Phantom of the Opera! ( :) ) It was so freaking awesome, even from the back of the Hippodrome.  I've had the songs stuck in my head for a week now!  There was also a party with the track kids and co., and that was good times :).  Sat last weekend I went out to Rick's in Canton (bmore) with a bunch of friends, which was so much fun.  I got to see a lot of my good friends from home, and we had a blast and got to dance some!

Jessica's shower went really well, she got a lot of sweaty gifts, which made me happy.  She also got a lot of nice gifts.  I gave her a burlap sack full of cash.  Yeah I'm lying, kinda.  But it was an awesome wedding shower!

Pat, Kim, and Adam are coming to visit this weekend (YAY) for labor day.  The manager let us off work at 2:30 today (Fri) so I got to run to the furniture consignment store and I bought myself a chest of drawers that's really good looking.  Now I can finally put my clothing away!  I went to a happy hour with Jamie and Joe met us there.  Then I cleaned... and I'm doing laundry.  Tomorrow when everyone arrives at 10 the fun times will begin!  I have off Monday, and I'm flexing out at 12:30 for a halfday on Tuesday, so it's going to be a nice long weekend!  We're going to hang out with some other old UMBC peeps who moved down here for grad school--Chris in Raleigh at NC State, and Hassam in Chapel Hill at UNC.  Then there's me in Durham... but not at Duke.  It's good us UMBC alum have the triangle covered.  Represent.

Anyway, that's all for now.  I know I forgot things, but that's fine.  Have a great Labor Day Weekend!!  Party, Bitches!

PS I'm too lazy to link in my entry here to the pics.  Look for them yourselves--they are under jaypegs :)  I have a few new albums recently added!

A few things, here.

First of all, last weekend about 12 people including myself went down to ocean city and stayed at the sun n fun motel for 3 nights for kim's birthday and good times.  It was so much fun.  The weather was kind of crappy, unfortunately, and somehow I broke my foot, but also somehow it was still a ton of fun!  Thursday was a great beach day; Thursday night we went to seacrets and danced.  When I was walking out of seacrets, my heel slipped off my sandal and I twisted my foot funny and was not able to walk afterwards.. A lot of ice and some advil later, it hurt so bad I couldn't even hobble on it.  Thanks to the help of my friends, I was still able to get around to do things with everyone else.    Stupid emergency medical insurance has a 1000 dollar deductible and even though I probably should get an xray, I'd rather self-diagnose than pay that much money right now :(.  Oh well.  And I actually even went back to seacrets!

Kim's birthday was awesome, because we got to play put-put and go out for crabs.  The crabs were amaazingg.  mmm.  Then we went back to seacrets that night and I hobbled around, medicated by the sweet painkilling nature of alcohol.  I'm sure that's not safe.

Back here in Baltimore and Hereford, I've been packing furiously.  Mom's been helping me a lot to get stuff together, throw stuff out, take me to do things like change bank accounts, do change of address slips, get a new SS card, shop for a mattress, etc.  I finally found a mattress yesterday, whew.  Expensive little buggers. 

It was mom's birthday on Tuesday so she came down to UMBC and jessica and her and I went out to lunch and did presents and had strawberry shortcake mmm.

Last night I went out for one of the last nights in baltimore.. except for next friday for my birthday when I'm coming back.

Saturday morning (tomorrow)  I'm doing the big move.  Moving everything from my apartment to a big old van and a normal sized car.. pat adam and weezal are great friends to help me move so far away.   We are all driving down to NC tomorrow and moving that stuff into my new place.  Then we'll probably go out for dinner or drinks and they are splitting Sunday morning.  My parents are coming down Sunday evening with another car load of stuff. 
Monday will probably be spend at the DMV, taking my DRIVERS LICENSE TEST :( and getting my car titled and registered in NC.  Tuesday and wednesday will probably be spent shopping for bedroom furniture and trying to organize my stuff.  Hopefully this all goes as planned...

Wednesday the 4th after the mattress is delivered, I'm coming back up to maryland w/ my parents in a car, leaving my car behind in NC.  I'll have to clean my UMBC apartment really well and then hopefully friday I'll have all day to hang out and go out w/ friends for my bday.  Saturday will be a big family party day with a big crab feast! yay!  Sunday the 8th I fly back to NC and start work monday morning. 

Real sad to be leaving, but I guess it's exciting and all so hopefully it doesn't stay too sad.  But I'm going to miss everyone up here :/

That's my update.  boring sounding, kind of.  Oh well, but I have to go study for my drivers license test now.

pce out