::snickers:: I have the cutest daddy in the universe! For his plane trip to see my sister this weekend, he picked up a copy of "Men at Arms", without a single poke or prod from my direction. He absolutely loved it, so when he finished, he picked up "The Fifth Elephant". I'm so proud of him. ::hugs dad:: My Dad has the most amusing rugby buddies. Not only does he have a friend named Gandalf (his first name -- formerly Jerry), but I also learned that he has a friend named Nick d'Eath.

I suppose it's time to recount the Marvellous Adventures of Priscellie and Renata, plus faithful companions Chungy and Mackenzie. We shall begin at last period class on Thursday: English. We discussed a part of Thoreau's "Walden", when he talked about buying the farm as an extended metaphor to experiencing life. I wanted to suggest that he wanted to buy the farm before he "buys the farm", but I didn't think the class would recognize that "buy the farm" was military slang for "die". Curse my obscurely over-intellectual puns! Anyway, after class, Chungy, Mackenzie, and I headed off to the airport. During our hour-and-a-half wait (as we arrived two hours early), Chungy and Mack went off in search of caffiene and I guarded the luggage, working off sudden inspiration for another "Men at Arms" song. Mrah!

Anyway, lots of random stuff happened. Then we met Katie Smith at the St. Louis airport. Katie was in my carpool for 4 years, and now she's a sophomore at Wash-U. We camped out in her dorm room, stopping only to grab dinner and accidentally encounter a bunch of non-obnoxious frat boys singing a cappella songs of appreciation to the kitchen staff. Cuteness incarnate. Katie found out that her "friend" was in town for the weekend, so she left us to watch Men's Figure Skating. Go USA! Silver boy deserved bronze, bronze boy deserved silver. Muah. Silly Russians. I especially enjoyed seeing the Japanese guy skate to "Duel of the Fates" from Episode One. Go him. At one point, he gave what I interpreted to be Darth Maul horns, which amused me greatly.

The next morning, we did the Wash U info session, tour, and all the other rubbish expected of us. Go Wash U! Hurrah! Then we were off on the next plane to Chicago. I kept squealing "Only 45 minutes until I see Renata!" and such. Unfortunately, our plane was delayed slightly, but it worked out well, because the driving instructions Renata's mom got were wrong. Anyway, we had the coolest cab driver. He was from Jordan, so he had the coolest accent. You could cut steak with this accent. He asked us what we were doing in Chicago, and when Mack and Chungy mentioned a love for Engineering, he started asking us all these nifty logic puzzles. We got most of them right; it was so much fun trying to figure them out. Yayfun!

And then, even more yayfun, we met Renata in the lobby. Mackenzie craved food, so we headed to Panera, a nifty restaurant just down the block. You wouldn't believe how many restaurants there were nearby! Food heaven. There were also two mammoth bookstores -- a Borders and a Barnes and Noble right nearby. ::makes Homer Simpson lust noises:: From what I could see, Chungy and Mackenzie and Renata clicked almost instantly. Afterwards, we went to Barnes and Noble, as I insisted on getting Renata a copy of "Guards! Guards!". Unfortunately, the fiendish bookstore didn't have a copy. ::hisses:: It did, however, have a copy of "Eric", which (to my knowledge) has never been available in the United States. The bookstore redeemed itsself. Partially, at least. After that, Chungy and Mackenzie went off to exercise in the Weight Room of Doom to be in shape for lacrosse and softball tryouts, leaving Renata and me to play Harry Potter UNO in my room. We shared a great deal of nifty music, never actually getting around to playing UNO. Oh well.

We arose the next morning, eager for the Northwestern info session and tour. Even after an intolerably slow breakfast, we were still really early, so Chungy and Mackenzie went off to check out the Engineering facilities and Renata and I went off to inspect the theatres. The buildings were locked, so Renata and I quickly returned to the Admissions Office, where we whiled away our time reading Informative Pamphlets. After the tour and such, we returned to the Hotel to meet up with Mrs. Sancken for lunch. After a great deal of indecision, we finally settled on Clarke's, a restaurant most well known for its breakfasts. While this was mostly a happy dining experience, we all started flailing when "Hernando's Hideaway" came on the Muzak. Scaryness.

Anyway, Chungy and Mack went off to exercise again, so Renata and I returned to my room, where we actually *did* play UNO. This was probably the most entertaining game of UNO I have played in my life. We narrated it with Shakespearean overtones, saying things like "And Priscilla did merrily place a Draw 4 Wild upon the stack, and did declare the color to be Green", followed with "And Renata did frowl angrily at Priscilla, drawing four cards with spite and malice". Then "And Priscilla did play an 8", "And Renata volleyed with a 3", "Then Priscilla did parry heroically with a 7". Good times, good times.

After Chungy and Mack returned and showered, we drove to Chicago to see a fine example of Chicago Improv, "Little House Quite Contrary". Because we didn't have time to eat on the way, Renata gave us a bunch of Swedish fish. Mrs. Sancked suggested that if the show wasn't up to par, we could throw fish at them. "We're within fish-hurling distance!" she proclaimed. This was unnecessary. The actors hilariously improvized an episode of "Little House on the Prarie" based on scenarios we provided. For example, the major event taking place is the Annual Mollusc Festival. The foreign stranger to the town is Harold Chung-Kao-Ping (I provided the last name), who had a dark, shameful secret: he has a unibrow. This inspires Laura to want a mustache. In the end, evil shopkeeper Mrs. Olsen will learn that clams have feelings, too. Hilarity. There were all these comments about univalves and mustaches acting as a filtration device. Pa Ingalls was by far the most amusing character. He would make these random facial expressions. Impossible to describe. Funfun.

After that, we went to Greek town to eat at "The Greek Islands", a fabulous Greek restaurant. It was so entertaining to see neon Greek characters on the signs of shops nearby. Anyway, the food was fantastic. I kept stealing everyone's Saganaki. Good lord, how I love Saganaki. Then I had Avgolemino soup and Greek salad. Yummyness. Chungy fell in love with the olive oil, so she actually bought a jar to take home. Surprisingly, it survived the trip. We drove back from Chicago and alas, parted. We swore that we would get together again soon, next time in Dallas so that I could show Renata around my home turf. Hurrah!

The next morning was relatively uneventful and does not require explanation. Mack and I went to Macdonalds (oy) for breakfast, as Chungy wanted to sleep in 20 extra minutes. Because it was Sunday, I revelled in my hot chocolate. Thank God for Episcopalean Lent loopholes! Chungy remained a stick-in-the-mud and refused to eat any chocolate. Silly girl. Then home we went, and all was good and merry. The End.