Finally... Oregon. After well over 40 hours of travel, it felt soooo good to collapse into a bed around 7 this morning. I finally arrived in Portland a little after 4am, and after grabbing my bags, meeting Jesse, driving to Salem, and having the best tasting bowl of cereal ever for breakfast, I snagged a solid 5 hours of blissful sleep before waking up feeling refreshed. It felt good to shower, too... although removing the dressing on my hip turned out to be a uniquely painful experience, as a scab had formed and bonded to the bandage. Good heavens that hurt! It was so worth it to finally feel clean, though. I was reminded of the section in Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace is turned from a dragon back into a boy, and has his old nasty dragon skin peeled off by Aslan before he gets to bathe in the well... I may have not been peeling off an entire layer of skin, but it sure felt like it.

Today has been a blessedly lazy and relaxing day; we've been hanging out at Jesse's future-in-laws house, doing some wedding preparation tasks and errands. That being said, the day is drawing to a close and I'm about ready to hit the hay. I'm staying at a hotel with Jesse and some of his family. Looking forward to getting back into the Word tonight (even though it'll be brief) for the first time since I left Norway, and then catching up on some much-needed beauty sleep.