Erin McElvaney

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!