140 miles of driving, two Oreo puddings, and 10 million hippie sitings later I have returned from my journey to Eugene. I suppose this wasn't any extraordinary trip, but it was still Eugene, and thus worthy of a post.

My cousin and I journeyed up to the Northern parts to visit my sister in the mid-morning. Our first (and I suppose only) plan was to go out to lunch. Before the normal eaters could go to eat their normal food I had to blend myself up some lentil soup, unsuccessfully, unfortunately. Some things, no matter how liquidy you get them, just don't seem to want to go up a straw, so I had Oreo pudding number one that I had packed with me, and we left. My sister and one of her roommates gave my cousin the walking tour of campus on our way to the Flying Dog restaurant.

This was probably the most interesting point of our exciting day. The waiter gave us all a menu. Unfortunately I resorted the the beverage menu. I still can't talk extremely clearly, and talking in public just requires too much explanation, so my sister was going to order my rootbeer float for me. When the waiter came to me, she just jumped in instead. This slightly, no REALLY, confused him, and he gave both of us a really weird look. But we continued on ordering, and he did bring me my rootbeer float. Every time he came to our table, though, he looked really freaked out. It was pretty funny.

Once we returned to my sister's tiny, three-bedroom house, we sat around for a while deciding what exciting thing to do next. We chose to go miniature golfing. I'm very proud to say that I am probably the only person to nearly lose their ball in a tree off of the miniature golf course. I hit my ball on one of the holes with all of these fake, concrete "rocks," and it got a little air and carried itself off of the hole...and into a nearby pine tree. I thought it would be easy to rescue, but I discovered I was wrong when I came out with a bright pink ball instead of the neon yellow one I had started with. I reached further in, behind more giant branches, and found my beloved ball. We both emerged together, it shiny and clean, while I was covered in sticks and pine needles. But it was worth it for the extra ball, which came in handy later, I might add. On the last hole (there was water in the line of path, so you were supposed to go around it) my cousin decided to be macho and try to hit his ball through the water. It hit a rock in the water and went plummeting into the nearby creek. But fear not, the course had so conveniently left ball-getter-outers laying around. Sadly, his ball decided to plant itself way under a "boulder" in the creek, and was unreachable. So, the end of this great story is that I saved the day by "losing" my ball and coming out with an extra for him to finish off the last hole with.

We later went to a park to play frisbee, and watched Food Network on tv. That's the only channel my sister watches. Well, I take that back because we also watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy later (yes, fellow Jeopardy fans, David is still on and has now won almost $200,000).

I did forget one exciting moment for a Roseburger. We were leaving the miniature golf place when an old man on a bike rode by. We all decided he was a little too excited for Harry Potter to come out in two days: He was wearing some sort of robe with a rope belt tied around it, and he had various other cool things attached to his bike. Thinking back on it I think he looked more like we do when we have to be in the Christmas pageant every year at church. Too bad he wasn't wearing the angel costume and wings that John wore with us to walk T-Mart. That'd be awesome, but I guess only John would wear that into public. (Two years ago, after the kids and teenagers of the church had just given a stellar performance of a Christmas pageant and we were still donning our beautiful costumes, we decided to go down to T-Mart, which is a block away from our church. Scott (Joseph), me (Mary), John (the angel...don't ask), and I think it was also Justin and Jerad (shepherds) walked down, entered the store, looked interested in something, then walked back.)

The most exciting event of the day is that I found out that Harry Potter is safe! You can all rest assured now! Apparently there was some guy that works at WaldenBooks that was screwing all of the pre-ordering up, but they say I AM on the list now. Good to hear. My sister and two of her friends were also preparing themselves for the big night. They had pre-ordered their books at the U of O bookstore (I questioned how many people will go there at midnight instead of Borders or Barnes and Noble, but you never know), and they were in the process of making shirts. They all say "Gryffindor Quidditch" on the front, with various backs. My sister's says "K. Beater" (get it, Bitter, Beater...) and her volleyball number, her soccer goalie friend's says "Keeper" along with her number, and her other friend's says "Oliver Wood is my lover!"

I'm now regretting never following through with my original plan of wearing my graduation gown and pulling my hair into a really tight bun, being Professor McGonnagal (I didn't think I could pull of Hermione, and I didn't fancy being a boy). Notice I'm getting into the British spirit by using "fancy". I actually just finished another British book, "Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging," so I'm really in the mood. That book used so many cool British words/sayings! The main character would always say, "Brilliant night!!" to describe a really fun night, and she'd say "Double cool with knobs" instead of saying "really really really really cool". I think that's a phrase worth repeating.

Well, I best be going. I'm off to find some sort of summary/recap of what happened in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". It's been a good two years since I read it since I never got to reading it again this summer like I had planned. I have a giant reading list I want to read this summer (not all of them are "fluff" as many of you would probably consider the two books I've already mentioned here), but so far I think I've finished one book. Better get reading.