On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
A little over a month ago, a friend visited us from Colorado😃 It was our friend's first time being in Portland, we explored the city with our friend like we were also visitors 😂 Honestly, in many ways, we were just as new to Portland as he was because the pandemic happened not long after we moved to Oregon. For instance, it was our first time visiting Portland Art Museum. It was our first time spending hours to do more than just "a meal" or "visit 1 place" in the city. We also tried out several vegan restaurants. Also, took a hike to a park where we normally probably wouldn't have gone to because it doesn't allow dogs 😯.
Our friend Dave (D) visited us from Thursday - Monday. D arrived late on Thursday night. We chatted and didn't plan for anything else.
Then, the next morning (Friday), W took the day off and we first went to Portland Art Museum, then we checked out a vegan cheese shop and had a big lunch there. That afternoon, we strolled around the city and chilled at a bar. W and D had a good time tasting their sour beer; I had ginger ale 😃 Then, we visited a board game shop to look for D's favorite game - but it was out of stock (apparently nationwide shortage). For dinner, we went to Blossoming Lotus, a top-rated vegan restaurant, and it did not disappoint.
Saturday was our game day. We started the day by walking Duke around the neighborhood (we honestly believe a tired doggo = a happy doggo 😎). Then we took off to Farmer's Market at PSU and had lunch there. W and I had pan-fried buns (W had pork with onion, I had curry beef). D had a vegan rice ball from a Chinese food stand we haven't tried before. D seemed like he really enjoyed his rice ball so I went to the same stand to get a bbq pork version of the rice ball. But! They were out of all rice balls! So I got a bowl of hot pot instead....I didn't like the hot pot and was honestly disappointed I missed my chance on some yummy rice balls. We spent a good chunk of time at the Farmer's Market and bought some fresh produce and flowers. On the way back home, we made a detour to stop at Blue Star (donut shop) to get a dozen donuts...as our snacks for the night/weekend. We hand-picked 9 vegan donuts and 3 non-vegan donuts. We took the donuts home and had a quick break which involved watching the new League series on Netflix and then headed over to BG Food Cartel for dinner. I had a 1/2 sushi burrito and 1/2 unagi roll and W had fish & chips, while D had what he described "one of the best vegan foods he's had." With our bellies full, we headed home and waited for our other friend to show up for the main activity of the day - play board games! We played Wingspan a few rounds, and one game of Terraforming Mars. Of course, snacks and drinks while playing the games. For drinks, there were virgin sangria, sparkling juice, and J-pop (kinda like hard soda). The virgin sangria was a recipe I got from an old friend from middle school. Basically just ginger ale with slices of fruits. It worked out really well! For snacks, we had chips & hummus, and those donuts. I don't remember the flavors of them but the one donut I had (out of 12 hahaha) was good. I just don't have a sweet tooth so donuts were never up my alley 😅.
Sunday was a chill day. Duke had his follow-up appointment for a checkup on his liver levels so we took him to the hospital first. The drop-off was in the morning and we were expecting calls from the doctor 2-3 hours afterward. So with that in mind, we didn't want to be too far away from the hospital and didn't plan any activity, except for a walk at Tualatin Hills Nature Park. The park was very nice. It was mostly paved but also had non-paved nature trails that allows visitors to be immersed in nature. We took some non-paved trails and almost stepped on two snakes at two separate points of one trail! The snakes were small, and I think they were both more frightened than we were (D was not afraid, W and I were very nervous). There happened to be construction on the day we visited the park, some areas were closed and we had to make detours in order to get back to where we parked. The anticipated 30-minute-walk turned out to be a near-90-minute-walk. We were starving by the time we reached the car. When asked what he'd like to eat, D said he wouldn't mind going back to where he had dinner the night before. So we went back to BG Food Cartel. D had his favorite vegan crispy sandwich. W had a waffle sandwich. I had a green smoothie and my all-time favorite fig crepe. It was during lunch we got a call from the doctor and heard the good news about Duke's follow-up. Everything was back to where it should be. All is well! We happily finished our food and went to pick up Duke. Duke looked so happy when he saw all three of us there when he came out of the door 😎. We got home and I quickly declared needing a nap with Duke. The guys had no objection so off Duke and I went. A few hours later, I woke up to everyone else either still sleeping or playing a video game. For dinner, we went to Veggie Grill per D's suggestion. I had a wrap and found it just ok - probably because I had many yummy foods in a row so the wrap tasted just mediocre. While at Veggie Grill, we played Exploding Kittens and oh my, I sucked so bad! First draw was a blow, so was the second draw! We ended the night with more rounds of Wingspan and Splendor after dinner.
Monday went by pretty fast because W had work meetings in the morning and D's flight was that afternoon. We each just did our own things and then I suggested having lunch together at Thai Bloom. Thai Bloom isn't an all-vegan restaurant, but it has some dishes that are vegan-friendly. I asked D if he'd be ok if we had lunch there, and he said fine so we went. D had pineapple fried rice and he said it was yum. I had green curry with fried tofu - very yum! W had yellow curry and seemed to joyed that as well. We also got spring rolls as appetizers, though I could only stomach one. I think it was around this day or the day before that my appetite started to change (more about it later). We went home straight after lunch and D began packing for his flight back home. Shortly after we got home, W took D to the airport and I stayed home. This marks the end of our special weekend with D.
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