Erin McElvaney

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.