Our plan for Saturday was to meet some friends in Lexington, MA (halfway point for all of us), have some lunch, and maybe take a little walk. Our plan hit a snag when one of the friends got sick Saturday morning. Fearful of passing along an illness to two people who really can’t afford to get sick right now, they canceled. (Get well soon kids!) Always up for an adventure, we decided to head down to Lexington by ourselves. I had scoped out an Indian restaurant–Royal India Bistro–that got high marks from all the Boston foodie sites. I really love Indian food, and Derek has luckily come around to my way of thinking.
We found a parking spot right out front and as soon as we opened the door to the car, we were hit with the smell of delicious curry. I took that as a good sign. We were seated in the front window which had lovely light on such a dreary, cloudy day.
We ordered some vegetable pakoras for a starter and they were hands down the most amazing pakoras I’ve ever had. The mint chutney was a little spicy and the perfect complement to the fried vegetable fritters. I had a smile plastered on my face the rest of the meal. I ordered chicken tikka masala, and Derek had the lunch special which was a little divided tray with saag paneer, curry vegetable, and some kind of chick pea dish. It came with basmati rice, a healthy stack of piping hot naan and some raita. I asked for more mint chutney since I could basically drink the stuff and we proceeded to stuff ourselves with the best Indian food we’ve both had the pleasure of eating. I resisted the urge to finish off my dish so I could have some leftovers. I seriously considered ordering a bunch of food to go so I could freeze it and have it later! Lexington is close to Burlington, so perhaps after one of our many trips to the hospital in the coming months, we’ll stop by for take out!
We walked off the meal by taking a stroll through downtown Lexington, which was a cute and totally hopping town. We stopped in a little stationery store and picked out two little notebooks. We’re hoping we can get someone to smuggle them into us while we’re in the PACU so we can write down what we’re thinking about as we wake up from surgery. There’s a mutual feeling that we’re going to have some wacky dreams and it will be interesting to look back on those thoughts later. This whole experience really does feel like prepping for a big vacation, or a wedding, or a baby. I suppose it’s because neither of us has every had to plan for something like this. But I also think it’s because, for me at least, I’m prepping for the future. A future where we’re both healthy, happy, and sporting matching bad ass scars.
The Derek Janiak Hepatobiliary Forum 