Quiet day

Today we got up and had the continental breakfast at the hotel. Then we walked down to the U of O campus and got coffee in the Erb Memorial Union (everyone calls it the EE EM YU, not Emu, as I would). We walked around the gorgeous campus for a while. It's fun to people watch there. One guy had a megaphone and was holding a demonstration of some sort. He was about the least inspirational speaker I've ever heard, though. It was like "I think it's wrong. But that's just my opinion. You can come up here and use the mic if you disagree, you know. Oh sure -- everybody just ignore me. Pretend I'm not here." We went to the U of O bookstore and sweetie got a new Oregon sweatshirt. Then we went to the Smith Family Bookstore and browsed for a long time. (I'm trying not to buy any books until we get to Powell's.) Then back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get some internet time. At 11:45, we met the teenagers for lunch at Toshi's Ramen. It was nice to get some time just with them, as they don't have to work so hard at being punks to their parents and annoyed by their sister and grandma. They're quite nice people, actually.

Then we did a little shopping -- well, more sprinting in and out of shopping areas*, since Sweetie's not a big shopper -- and finally back to the house, where Maryam was making dinner. I helped Maddy a bit with homework (it makes me feel very successful that I know the times tables), and we just hung out until dinner, when Michelle came with a vegetarian dish and Jan came with salad and dessert!

Since we got here, there's been some vague talk of me playing volleyball with my sisters-in-law's team, and I sort of thought they were joking, but tonight sweatpants were provided and I was put into the car. I haven't played volleyball since approximately 1985, so I really didn't remember when to rotate, how and where to serve, what the rules are, how you scored points, or who got the ball when and why. So, basically I finagled myself into the least helpful positions and looked around to see if anyone ELSE was going to come hit the ball. It was effective, for the most part. My serve was really, really lame. But that's two new sports in two days! Next up... jai alai. (Dude, just kidding.)

*I did get to browse for quite a while at Black Sun books, where I got a lot of cool postcards. I cannot pass by a big mixed-up bin of marked-down postcards.