August 18, 2005 :: Driving Under a Blood Moon...

...is not a good idea!  My trip back to Atlanta from Albany was proof of that!

I started out early, thinking that leaving around 14:45 EDT would put me into Atlanta early enough to get some sleep and still have a productive day of unpacking and getting groceries (which I still haven't done as of now...a week later!).  I got underway and put in the QAF Season 4 DVD (I know what you're thinking...isn't it distracting to drive with a DVD playing...it honestly helps me lose track of time and not realize when the 16th hour is approaching on the journey!).  I wasn't too far down the New York State Thruway (I-87 South...the first Interstate on the journey) before I realized that the fuse that controls the circuit running the power outlets in my car had blown and my laptop was steadily running out of battery power!  Soon I wouldn't be able to keep it on and I was starting to freak out about my chances of staying awake for the long trip down to the Land of the Rising Sun. 

Wal*Mart to the rescue...
A trip to the brand spanking new Wal*Mart in Newburgh, NY, a couple packs of 15A fuses, and a new power inverter later, I was back on the road watching my DVD happy as a claim...or so I thought!  Not long after I passed into Pennsylvania, I heard a small *POP* and saw that the charger light on the power inverter had gone out.  There went yet another fuse (good thing I bought two packs of five while I was at Wal*Mart!).  The second power inverter (which was, come to find out later, too small to charge the battery let alone run my laptop for an extended period of time, had blown and taken the fuse with it.  Now I was stuck with no inverter, no Wal*Marts, and at least 13 more hours of driving with no entertainment except for some CDs and the good will of whichever of my friends would talk to me on the phone for that long.

Blood Moon rising...!
Shortly after the second inverter went to the electronics store in the sky leaving me with only my phone (which luckily could charge since I had an extra fuse left to repair the outlets) and the open road, the sun started to go down and the moon rose out of the south.  I glanced over at the moon out of my window and saw her: a deep red, huge, round, full circle hovering close to the PA horizon!  The first thing that shot through my mind was "BLOOD MOON!", sort of the way a sailor's first instinct when seeing a monster storm out at see is to think of a White Squall.  Needless to say, I started to fear what else was going to go wrong on the trip which would take me deep into the Pocino mountains, through the mountains and woods of Virginia and North Carolina, and then finally out again (almost 1000 miles later) into South Carolina and eventually, Georgia.

Late Night Drives and NC State Troopers...
Most of the rest of the journey was uneventful barring a massive traffic delay in Virginia because the Virginia Department of Transportation feels that it's OK to close both lanes of a two-lane highway to do roadwork making the drivers smash onto the shoulder of the road for blocks of 10 miles at a time!  I even stopped in North Carolina after crossing the border in order to take a small nap.  Forty-five minutes later I was back on the road with a reasonable ability to keep my eyes open and definitely hoping nothing else was up ahead to stop me from getting some gas and getting through Charlotte, NC before people started to wake up and get on the road again.  I wasn't too far from my rest stop before I started to see the old familiar white and blue flashing glow from a set of strobe lights behind me.  Only difference, these strobe lights weren't in a dance club urging me to come out and shake it up some on the floor...these belonged to one of NC's finest: a state trooper! 

"Can you come sit in my car sir?" What else was there to do at 04:30 EDT...
The state trooper was a young, good looking man who pulled me over to inform me that my tail lights were out.  After thinking to myself, "Oh grand...", I gave him my license and registration and he went off to do whatever it is the police do when they take your credentials to their car.  He came back about five minutes later (keeping in mind that even one minute at that wee hour of the morning is like an eternity when you're desperately trying to get home and finish getting some good shut eye).  When he came back he asked if I would come back and sit with him in his car for a bit.  I said, "No problem!" thinking to myself, "Am I being arrested?!?".  He asked me first, after I got out of the car, if I had anything on me that would hurt him.  I'm probably one of the most non-violent people in the world let alone carry any concealed weapons.  He patted me down and told me to go ahead and sit in the front seat.  At least I wasn't being arrested...

"Where do you live sir?"...
In NYS, you don't have to have your license reprinted when your address changes.  Since I was temporarily located in Atlanta, though, I had them change my file but used a change of address sticker on the back of my actual license (which has since rubbed off).  The trooper was thoroughly confused when he saw that my license read one way but my registration read with my GA address.  We straightened that out and he proceeded with the paperwork telling me that I needed to be extra careful since the lights were out in back and he didn't want someone bumping into me.  After what again seemed to be forever later (especially since his car was cold and I was shivering all over from being chilly not to mention petrified!), I was able to get back on the road headed due south towards Charlotte.

Georgia on my mind...
I stopped one more time after crossing the border into South Carolina.  I didn't want to repeat that incident with one of SC's good old boys, so I caught some zzz's at a rest stop and waited for the sun to start coming up before moving on.  At around 05:15 EDT the lights were starting to come on over SC and I headed out.  The only thing standing between me and the end of my journey was a quick visit to the Clemson Cracker Barrel for some much needed food and coffee.  Other than some standard Atlanta perimeter (I-285) traffic, I made it back to home-sweet-home by 10:30 EDT, about 20 hours after I had left...a full 4 hours longer than it usually takes to make that drive!  None the worse for wear, I passed out happily in my own bed.  Vacation was almost over and after my 3 week stay up north, I was back in the south for a while, ready for the next adventure :-)

Cheers!

M@

June 14 - June 23, 2005 :: Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy...arguably one of the most beautiful cities in Europe (and the world in my humble opinion)was where the traveling E2k Team (a team I was part of at work that was responsible for implementing the new email system across 70,000 users worldwide) called home for two-ish weeks. The picture in the upper left corner is of me standing on top of the Campanile which is a huge tower attached to the Duomo (a famous church in Florence). In back of me you can see a good chunk of the city including their city hall (you can make out its tower) where the Statue of David lives. As promised, here's a more in depth look at this trip and the adventures it contained. (PS: click on any of the pictures to make them much larger! Use the "Back" button to come back to the story.)

6/14 - 6/15 :: The arrival
I got to Florence on 6/15 in the morning after a fabulous 10 hour plane ride, changing over in Milan. Andrew was my last-minute life saver dropping everything to bring me to the airport on the 14th as my original ride wasn't able to make it after all. We got there, though, with plenty of time to spare (even after the 15 mile trek through the airport to get to the international gates!).

The trip itself wasn't so bad and I didn't really suffer from jet lag since I was able to time my sleeping on the plane to get a good 6 hours and then wake up as if I was back home around 8a local time. As many know I am definitely not challenged in being able to sleep just about anywhere so I used this to my advantage ;-) We met up with Megan (see picture on right) after work and walked around Florence to a restaurant inside the old city walls. First taste of real Italian food...YUMMY!

6/16 :: A night to remember in Pisa
The next day after work Megan arranged a small band of us to go out to Pisa where it was their Lumminare festival (the festival recognizing the patron saint of the city...the festival of lights). Boy what a blast! Part of our small "band" was my former roommate from when I lived in Connecticut; a happy reunion for both of us to meet up in Italy of all places! That's him on the left...Tim. The festival in Pisa was like a huge block party that took over the entire city. We were outside eating and drinking Italian wine (which is much better than any I've had in the States), there was music playing from all over, and they had fireworks over the river at night. At about midnight when we were finally walking back to our cars (which were parked right by the leaning tower), we all stopped to get gellato (ice cream...there are more ice cream places in Italy than gas stations, grocery stores, and ATMs combined I think... :) Someone in the group ordered champagne, also, so we were drinking that outside the Leaning Tower of Pisa, at midnight...INCREDIBLE!

6/17 - 6/18 :: Karma
So, nothing in life comes without paying for it. For example, we had a great time in Pisa the night of the 16th. However, we didn't get home till 2:30a, had to be up at 6:30a to get into the office for work, and since that was the big migration weekend for our team, we didn't end up leaving the office until 12:30p...THE NEXT DAY! It was a long 31 hours of work after 4 hours of sleep...but we all agreed on one thing: it was worth it! Megan met us for brunch on the 18th. She told me on the phone that she wasn't ready to go out and had just woke up. I reminded her that we hadn't even gone home to sleep let alone woke up...somehow that made it OK for her ;-) We took a cab to some well-to-do brunch spot where most of the team (including myself of course) fell asleep sitting up eating. It was quite the site! Prior to actually getting back to the hotel and sleeping a few hours, I had only slept when I literally passed out at the keyboard somewhere around 5a while in mid sentence talking to Casey (the program manager for the migration). I guess after a half hour or so I got right back up and started working where I left off. Hehe :-)

6/18 :: Chianti in Chianti!
Like I said, we only had a couple hours of sleep on Saturday as well. Before I knew it my cell was ringing and Antonio, one of our partners based in Florence, was asking me if I was ready to go to the small town of Chianti where we were going for dinner and wine tasting. After a quick spring to action and a crazy car ride around some windy streets on the side of a veritable mountain with no guard rails in case you were to get close to the edge of the road (heh...), we were at this randomly placed small cottage-like restaurant in the countryside. It was breathtaking! The food and wine was amazing also! What a great reward for a really hard worked weekend!

6/19 :: Site seeing, Florence Style
Megan, our ambassador of Florence tour guiding, met up with Casey and I on Sun for a bit of a walk around the city to see the sites. We walked all around, guide book in hand :), and really just relaxed and took in the day. It was beautiful and there was some random celebration going on which included a marching band of sorts and some dancers. Haha it was fun to watch! We found the world's best gellato that day (which Casey loved especially because they don't use milk to make their berry flavors so she could enjoy some as well since she was on a non-lactose diet). We also found our way to il porcini (in the picture on the right). Legend has it that if you put a coin in the porcini's mouth and rub its nose, you'll be sure to come back to Florence...needless to say I donated to the cause :-)

6/20 & 6/22 :: Work work work
These two days were pretty much just work days. I was able to get some time with Megan, Tim, and some of the interns that were over there, which was great! Other than that we just lived the Florence life. I wanted to move there :)

6/21 :: When in Rome...
On Tues the 21st, Gina and I took a train down to Rome to see what all the hubbub was about down there :) We got on the first train in the morning and took the last one back at night. We had no idea, really, what we were going to do there, but when we got off the train we got a guide book to the city and started the adventure. We made our way to a couple awesome basilicas, got a tour of the Colosseum, saw the Circus Maximus, went to Vatican City, got a bus tour of everything else, and had an awesome, and PACKED, day! I even got pick pocketed on the subway by a little girl whom I caught and retrieved my wallet from before a nice Italian gentleman kicked the girl off the train. :) Man! Like I said, when in Rome...!

6/23 :: Home again home again jiggity jig jig
I spent most of Thurs the 23rd traveling back to Atlanta, GA. AJ was kind enough to pick me up from the airport (thank God) and bring me back home when I arrived. The seat on the trip back home wasn't nearly as comfortable as the one on the way over, but luckily I didn't have to sleep on this plane ride in order to avoid jet lag. I just stayed up into the late hours of the night by going to the Atlanta Idol finals with Gabe to see Jeanine sing and give her the snow globe I promised I'd pick up :) I'm such a sweet heart!

So that's it...the details on Italy. It was a trip to remember, and I'm pretty sure I will for the rest of my life. Hope you enjoyed reading about it!

Ciao ;-)

M@

A recap of 2005...

So...as alluded to before, I've been all over the place this year (which is not the norm for M@ here...).  Here's a brief recap of where I've been so far:

• March:
  • 3/23-3/29: Albany, NY :: Easter!...the whole family migrated home for Easter this year...it was kind of nice considering only some of us were in Atlanta last year to see me and celebrate together.  Always good to see the family!  Remember that world!  And also, there's never anyplace like home for the holidays (no matter which ones they are)...as I step down from my wee soap box O:-)



• April:
  • 4/4 - 4/11: Schenectady, NY :: Global Server Operations Team Meeting
  
  
  
  • 4/11 - 4/15: Cincinnati, OH :: E2k Team W/O!
  
  
  
  • 4/15 - 4/25: Ft. Johnson, NY :: Babysit my dad's puppies while they go on a cruise...did I get the short end of that deal? :)



• May:
  • 5/6 - 5/8: New York, NY :: 3rd Annual Tarot Readers' Studio...where I became a Certified Tarot Master (level 5 of 6!)
  
  
  
  • 5/13 - 5/17: Schenectady, NY :: E2k Pilot Weekend / Wave 0 Roll Out
  
  
  
  • 5/27 - 5/31: Supposed to be back in Schenectady but got it deferred so I could have some time at home



• June:
  • 6/4 - 6/7: Atlanta, GA :: Had guests over that weekend...just about the same as traveling :-P
  
  
  
  • 6/14 - 6/23: Florence, Italy :: E2k Europe Roll Out...where the highlights were going to Pisa on 6/15, Rome on 6/21, and working 31 hours straight over the weekend 6/17-18 and passing out at my keyboard :)  Oh, we went to Chianti on 6/18 too...I'll have to write more in depth about those separately
  
  
  
  • 6/24 - 6/26: Atlanta, GA :: Had more guests over for Pride weekend...what a blast!  Brian and Matty-O from college (Go Spades!) came for the weekend.  Boy was I glad to see them



• July:
  • 7/1 - 7/3: Atlanta, GA :: More guests...at this point I put M@'s Boarding House - Vacancy up over my front door :-P The best part, though, was I got to meet a co-worker from Cincinnati, Clifton, who I'm proud to call my friend now
  
  
  
  • 7/19 - 7/21: Cincinnati, OH :: Global Server Operations - Americas Team Meeting...I got to visit with Clifton while there, too.  Yay for work trips where I get to see my friends!
  
  
  
  • 7/29...



• August:
  • ... 8/18: Albany/Broadalbin/Ft. Johnson/Fultonville/Schenectady/Troy, NY :: Energy Server Ops Trip and VACATION!...yeah well, while back up in my home area I have been all over the board visiting friends, family, the Lake House, trying out my dad's new boat (FUN!), going back to The WaterWorks, reminiscing at UAlbany, and working at the good ole Schenectady Plant.  No time to lose!
  
  
  
  • 8/5 & 8/12: Danbury, CT :: Went down to Danbury on two of the three Fridays that I was home in order to review IMLP Boot Camp and Senior Boot Camp presentations.  It was fun being on that side of the table (as opposed to the presenter side where I was not too long ago when I was an IMLP student :)

Well that brings us till now!  My next big adventure won't be until October when I'm going to Las Vegas for the first time (woohoo!).  Of course that's subject to change at any minute...I could be going God knows where at the drop of a hat!  Haha until that happens, though, so long for now...or until I get it together and write some more about Florence :)

Cheers!

M@

Should'a Done This Sooner

Well here I am...finally got a blog running.  I figured with all the traveling I've been doing lately I might as well start putting some of it down on "paper".  Hopefully people who actually read this (including me I guess :) will appreciate keeping up on some of the wild and crazy adventures of "M@".  Here's to it boys and girls!

M@