Anna: Reminiscing last weekend

A bit late, but hey. Last weekend was.....spectacular. There's a word I haven't used in a while. And although Zach still needs to upload video (ahem!!), I hope the Facebook pictures and this post and the random phone calls also made people happy. I'm not going to rant too much about the state of my mind during finals time, but suffice it to say I was not at any high point. But Heaven's arrival soon reversed all that. I can't stress enough how wonderful it was to just pick up where we left off, and also show her around my stomping grounds a bit. After the crazy year we both had, I think it was beyond necessary. Its nice that the weather decided to cooperate as well, for the most part at least.

That first night (last Thursday) was basically us hanging out and enjoying each other's presence again. We drank, we colored. I had turned in my last final that evening and was finally free from everything known as school. We planned epic plans for the rest of the weekend.

The following morning, we got coffee with my friend Angie (who was the ONLY one of my friends in town/not busy with graduating, and only for that one morning)and soaked up the rare phenomenon called sun, which only really happens once or twice throughout the late autumn/winter/early spring so all of us Portlanders naturally forget about it. Zach drove up and met us shortly after, and we went on a food cart adventure (side note: the food carts here are AMAZING. Like...woah. I wish we'd had time/money to visit more of them because good Lord. There is a reason we have an annual food cart festival under the Morrison Bridge, that's all I'm saying). Immediately after that there was the obligatory Powell's adventure, in all of its four-story bookstore glory. I am so unbelievably proud of myself that I managed to resist buying the five or six books I wanted to. We then wandered around the Pearl District for a bit, and ducked into a curiosity shop full of imported knick knacks from Asia. Then up up up we walked to NW 23rd Avenue, a neat little neighborhood (street, rather) of restaurants and boutiques and shops. We stopped at a tea house and had delicious bubble tea (which is documented on Facebook), and I found an amazing Himalayan arts and wares store that I sort of lost myself in for about 15 or 20 minutes. Back to my apartment we went, then off to Salem for the night.

Fun ensued. Drinks ensued. I embarrassed myself thoroughly and we all watched different lengths of Princess Mononoke. The next morning was us dealing with hangovers and making waffles (well, Zach making waffles and me pointedly not listening to him and washing his dishes). Heaven got a quick tour of the beautiful Willamette Campus, and we frolicked in its rose garden for a minute. Then off to the Columbia River Gorge....until Zach remembered he had forgotten his wallet. So we headed back to Salem and decided, "hell, let's stop at a Jack 'N the Box, because we are all suddenly craving fast food." A heart-attack meal, Heaven-driving-in-place-of-a-sleepy-Zach, and car shenanigans later, we arrived at the Gorge in the late afternoon (again, documented). Zach stalked Koreans, we were all three stalked by three gay men, and we decided to walk a trail to a waterfall then deviate from said trail and climb up a slope to the main highway. Only to have to climb back down to the waterfall a few minutes later. :P Thoroughly exhausted, we went back to my apartment and stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Sunday was the day of the zoo and the humid humid weather (although I hear that its worse in upstate NY. Ick). We spent a good hour and a half (maybe even almost two hours) at the Oregon Zoo, which was both interesting and slightly depressing at points. The treatment of the elephants and the monkeys upset me. But we survived it reasonably well, and went back downtown to grab lunch at Little Big Burger and see the participants of that morning's Pride Parade strut around. Then Quelf games and banana muffin baking at my apartment ensued. Zach departed for Salem, and Heaven and I went for a short walk down to the waterfront (which, honestly, is one of my favorite places in Portland. Its beautiful.) We talked life, then headed back to downtown to talk more life over late night milkshakes (which were delicious). That quickly turned into a good old-fashioned movie night that our group of friends is so good at doing.

Monday was synonymous with awesome. Heaven and I ventured across the river to Hawthorne St, another street/neighborhood in Portland and by far the one that her and I were most impressed with. I showed her Paleo's Dessert house, my favorite coffee-place in the city, and the circular rose gardens in the middle of Ladd's Addition. We walked up Hawthorne more and explored the shops there (there was an AWESOME toy store that is now my go-to place anytime I need to get something for my nieces). We had lunch at the Cup and Saucer cafe, which possibly has the most amazing food ever, then walked through adorable neighborhoods to Belmont St. From Belmont (I kid you not) we walked from SE 39th all the way to the river (almost 40 streets), across the Morrison Bridge (which was terrifying and I'm never fucking doing it again) then up to the MAX stop at Pioneer Courthouse. 50 blocks or so, give or take. We were exhausted and wanted bubble tea. We found a place with super comfortable chairs and camped out there for a while, with our bubble tea, refusing to move. That night was another quiet one, with a quick trip to Powell's again for hot chocolate and another movie (Shakespeare in Love, which was rather ridiculous but also entertaining).

Tuesday we got ready for Heaven to leave in the afternoon. It was a rather calm day in which neither of us really wanted to spend more money, and I eventually saw her off at 2:30 at the train station.

That was almost literally a play by play. Again: Zach = video. Pester him for it if you would like to see it in existence. The weekend was honestly the best thing to happen to me in a while, and it was the PERFECT transition from a trainwreck of a year to a hopefully smoother summer (jury's still out, but my fingers are crossed!) I only wish it could have been a reunion proper, with all of us, but I'm happy for what I got. I love you all, and thank you so much Heaven for coming up. And also for the encouraging messages you left me. They are displayed on my fridge as reminders. :)

Love. <3