it's the first thing you see as you open your eyes/the last thing you say as you're saying goodbye

I am just here to post in between various trips.

and I warn you all that school starts again tomorrow.

however, I am now riding to school with my friend Becca, who is taking French with me. I leave hecka early but am home by 10:00. it's gonna be sweet. she is giving me rides in return for me teaching her piano.

I'm so incredibly happy about only taking two classes. I hope and pray I have half the discipline required to stick to the nice schedule I made myself, which (if I can stick to it) will make me a healthier, happier, better person all-around.

yeah. sure.

my mom and I just got back from Portland yesterday, and my cousins and aunt and uncle came back up with us. okay, they're second cousins - my great aunt and great uncle's son and his wife to be Hobbitishly specific.

on the subject of Hobbits, yesterday was J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday. I sincerely wish I could've been home, because I would've had an LotR movie marathon all day long. hmm....maybe it's better I wasn't home.....

where was I? ah yes. In Portland. my mom and I drove down Wednesday morning, stopping at the most incredible donut shop in the whole world. extremely dangerous that we just found this out, as it is about ten minutes from our house. oh dear....

anyway, we also stopped at Nordstrom, where, as my mom informs me, the employee/customer ratio is 1:1. scary. we only went to return this scarf I'd gotten through this roundabout Christmas thing at my grandpa's work party (confusing? I know) and didn't really want, considering it had skulls and other weird things on it that were definitely not me. so, we returned that to Nordstrom and I got money for Powell's. fair trade, I think.

we made it down just fine, with me doing all of the driving. Wednesday night my second cousin Leslie came over with her two sons (3 and 6 years old) and we went out for pizza, but she didn't stay too long because she had to get home. I think we watched Deja Vu that night with popcorn, and rallied our efforts tolerably well in order to make it to midnight, which surprisingly even my great uncle (who's rather prone to sleeping) managed to do. we watched the replay of Times Square for a little bit, until the Pussy Cat Dolls came on and I warned my oblivious relatives that the show wouldn't exactly be their idea of entertaining. we all turned in pretty soon after midnight.

Thursday we all slept in, and then after getting some breakfast and playing piano for awhile, mom and I left to visit our friends Tom and Bonnie, who were both on our India team. Tom was the videographer, and through some rather interesting circumstances slightly involving a monkey he ended up in the hospital for a couple of days during the trip. Tom basically talks really fast and will keep going if uninterrupted. Bonnie is quieter, and very sweet. they're perfect together.

we walked in their front door and saw dozens of pictures from different trips they'd taken around the world. Tom good-humoredly informed us that he's been sick in 42 countries. He's a rather endearing character, and Mom and I affectionately call him monkey-man. The little woodcarving of monkeys that we bought him while he was in the hospital sit on top of their TV.

we had a really good visit with them, reminiscing, and looking at pics/video from their latest trip - a month long cruise up the Amazon. after awhile we had to leave, to head to my second-cousins' house for some visiting.

the best news I've heard so far this year came with a picture my cousins showed us at their house - a picture of a tiny little baby profile on the black-and-white ultrasound background. my cousins married a little later than most people....they are late 30's/early 40's, and have been trying with much difficulty for some time to have a baby. with a 0.2% chance of conceiving naturally, our incredible and amazing God has answered all our prayers. I am SO happy!!!!!! She's about four months along....please pray for her that the rest goes smoothly. with all the difficulties they've had, bad things could still happen. they need a lot of prayer.

but still......we're all so excited! I can't wait to see my cousin as a daddy. he will be amazing, and fun to tease.

we visited with them for a couple of hours, eating truffles and other wicked things (they make chocolate in all it's treacherous forms). Visiting and eating chocolate turned into dinner, and we left in the evening. I think on Thursday night we played cards pretty late with my aunt and uncle. Our favorite game is called Nertz; basically it's group solitaire, where you are playing solitaire with four piles of cards (everyone has their own deck), and you put all the aces out in the middle, and everyone plays off everyone else's cards. it's a race to get to the bottom of your pile first. basically, it's pandemonium and lots of shouting and great fun, especially the more people you add. I think we played some cribbage after that, and then went to bed.

Friday we had already planned to meet Mythraie, our India team leader, for lunch, so I actually got up at a decent time and we kind of bummed around until it was time to leave for that. oh yes, and the extremely hard downpour from the night before had apparently turned to snow and frosted everything over, and was busy flooding the rivers and closing bridges. Hello, Portland.

We had a fantastic time with Mythraie, who is one of my favorite people - one of those people who is just a natural leader, never says anything negative, loves God, and wants to nurture other people. lunch was good and we spent the whole time talking about....just things - some memories from the trip, and a lot about what the future holds. she has always been really helpful and nurturing with my own plans for India, so we talked about stuff like that. It's weird when you talk to Mythraie, because it seems like you do most of the talking without realizing it, and she's such an amazing listener, but she gives good advice and guidance too. I don't know. she's cool.

After we said our goodbyes there we went to Powell's!!!!!!!!!!!! it is an amazing feeling going to a bookstore when you actually have some money to buy books. and I've decided if I were a store, I would be Powell's, for sure. did you know they have over a million books, new and used? a used paperback is generally about the best thing ever.

long story short, I ended up buying my own copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia (yes, REALLY), and The Once and Future King. altogether, $25.00, and no sales tax. don't you love Oregon? they pump your gas for you and don't charge you sales tax. amazing.

Friday evening we watched Hidalgo and I played some more piano, and mom and I got our stuff together before bed because we were leaving in the morning to get to the family Chistmas party up here by noon. Mom drove us back up, followed by my aunt and uncle, and then my cousins, all of whom were staying at our house. the party went fine....no special comments required I guess, except that my crazy aunts are all still crazy, and we played Nertz with about ten people, which is fantastically crazy. one of my second cousins had never played before, and as she sat there helplessly lost, she asked nobody in particular, "Don't we have Monopoly?"

after the party broke up we all came back to my place, and after some general visiting and looking through the India scrapbook my mom made, we agreed to watch a movie, and started Hitch which I made popcorn. by the time the movie was over we were all pretty tired, so we made up beds and get some sleep.

well, after reading The Queen of Attolia for awhile, of course. and I really thought I wasn't going to reread it right away. dang it.....

this morning I got up early (as in 7:30 early) so we could all visit before leaving for church, as the extended family was driving back down to Portland when we left for church. Dad made breakfast....not much interesting happened, we just talked and stuff. It was kinda sad to say goodbye. I'm wondering if we'll see my cousins again before they are parents.....(thank goodness they finished remodeling their house before all the baby stuff became a factor; they would never have time now!)

yes, that has been my week. tomorrow morning school starts again, and so does this missions class thing that I'm taking. and piano lessons resume. and who knows what else will happen to come my way.....

for now, I'm hungry. I think it's dinner-time.