Marathon Weekend

What a weekend I had! As you know, if you're a loyal and obedient reader, my cousin Stacey was in town last weekend and that woman ran me ragged. We tromped. We ate. We shopped. We saw. It was fun and exhausting. I hope she's as exhausted as I am. If not, I'm finally admitting that she's a robot with endless energy.

isn't she purty?

She got in Friday evening and it was off to Hungry Tiger for dinner and drinks (incidentally, Hungry Tiger is one of my fave restaurants here in Portland and I'll be writing about it soon.) and to consume entirely too much food. Then karaoke (of course) where she saw how kooky and crazy the places I love to frequent (and the kooky people who go there too).

Oh, and I should also mention that we had technical difficulties. First, Stacey's portable phone charger depleted her phone battery overnight and then when we tried to charge it on her computer, it wouldn't turn on for the longest time. We thought we'd have to go get her a new phone! But it was okay, it finally charged up; it was just that depleted.

On top of that, Stace has a HMO (dundunDUUUN) and said monstrous HMO which rules the entire world does not have an office near where her boyfriend lives in Northern California and where she's spent the last few weeks. So she needed to refill her very simple and not in any way contraband prescription here in Portland.

Well, they gave her the ever-lovin' runaround. They had to transfer it. They had to call her old pharm in Los Angeles. They said they'd call her when it was ready. No wait, they think the LA office is closed on the weekend (it wasn't. we called ourselves.). Then finding a location with a pharmacy open on the weekend here was an ordeal. Yikes. It was a mess.

And, look, I am the daughter of a genuine, bona fide prescription drug addict. I am all for drug control. But her prescription? Was harmless. You can't OD on it (and you wouldn't want to). You can't sell it on the street. Something like this you should be able to get more than one month's supply at a time, especially if you're traveling. Good freaking grief.

So Saturday was a DAY. She needed to go to Ikea to get stuffs to decorate the house so we call in said prescription to a location near NE Portland (I live in SE). So after a yummy breakfast, we head north and tromp around the ever-crowded town of Ikea. By the time we were done at about 3:30 or so, they still hadn't called about her script.

And we still had to make it to the one destination we'd really wanted to see: Chocolate Fest! (which ended at 5). So we said screw it to the prescription (we'd deal with it on Sunday) and booked it to the Convention Center. I won't even begin to tell you all about Chocolate Fest because I'm writing a Portland Foodie post about it (in an attempt to apparently convince you all I only write about chocolate), but suffice to say, we arrived having not eaten any lunch and proceeded to sample all the amazing chocolate and wine we could procure in one hour.

miles of fudge

 It was delicious. It was decadent. It was devilishly gluttonous. I was a little trashed and bloated by the time we were done.

So then it was off to Thai food at my fave local Thai place in SE Portlandia where we finally got real food and I ate my body's weight in noodles. Needless to say, because of the horror I subjected my stomach to, I didn't sleep much Saturday night. Where's a stomach pump when you need one?

Sunday morning we couldn't get hold of the original pharmacy we called her script into on Saturday so we found one slightly closer and called them. The gal there seemed on top of it and said she'd get it read and call us soon.

So after bagels and coffee, we headed downtown where we tromped around and I made Stacey experience all the joy that is Powell's Books. Then we settled in at a sport's bar to eat hot wings and drink beer (which was surely a mistake considering it digestive acrobatics on Saturday) and watch the Packers slaughter the Bears (and let's be frank, I don't really care about either team, but I love a fun game).

But we still hadn't heard from the pharmacy by the game's end, so we called and lo and behold! It was ready. Though I still can't believe they didn't call. At this point, it's about 3ish (a technical term) and the pharmacy closed at 8. We had plenty of time.

Anyway, we could've headed over to the pharmacy right then, but Stace also wanted to watch the Steelers Jets game. So we hopped on the MAX and found another bar to watch the game closer to home (which was the most boring football game of my life even thought the Jets perked up in the second half. and I HATE a boring game. dude, why watch then?). The game didn't end until almost 7 (and of course we were there to the bitter end) and we immediately hopped in the car to hustle over to the pharmacy.

We got there about 7:30 and took a million and three years to find an open door and the pharmacy. I finally just parked it and Stace got out and found it just in time. AND (hallefuckinglujah!) the pharmy took pity and gave her a 3 month supply. Thank the lard for nice people.

By the time we got home, I was so utterly beat from the past two days. I couldn't even eat dinner. We watched a movie and snacked on crackers and cookies until we both passed out.

Sunday morning we awoke early and got our no longer skinny asses to Voodoo, because you absolutely cannot visit Portland for the first time and not go to Voodoo. I'm pretty sure it's a law. They check your breath and BMI at the Oregon-California border to make sure. Stace had the Maple Bacon Bar (a personal fave) which rocked her world.

Then I hugged my older cuz, helped her load her car, and sent her on her way. I assume drove safely because she texted me on Tuesday.

I'm sure, like me, she won't be eating any more chocolate for a week (though she DID buy more than me at Chocolate Fest). And it's a good thing I had leftovers from our dinners because I spent my whole week's food budget in three days.

And I don't have any photos of me or the two of use because those are all on Stacey's point and shoot and, knowing my cousin as I do, I'll probably never see them. 

What a weekend. I should get a medal like they give marathoners. A prize just for finishing.