Tatiana's Wanderings

Paulo and I were trying to figure out where everyone else wanted to meet, so eventually I said "fuck it - let's meet somewhere nearby." The hospital Starbucks it was! We just managed to get the 407 at Alderbridge after ascertaining that everyone now wanted to meet at House of Dosas on Kingsway; like we were saying, we don't care if people want to do something later, JUST PICK A LOCATION TO MEET! After Paulo went on ahead at Brighouse (the elevator took a while), I got on the next train and checked my text messages. We figured out what had happened and set up King Edward as a meeting place. He did apologize ("my bad") and explained, so of course I accepted that.

We finally made it to the House of Dosas at about 6:20 and met Holly, Brian, and Darryl. I had a lamb vindaloo dosa while Paulo added a buttermilk lassi to his dinner; when we heard that he hadn't eaten all day, I said that he should have walked over to my place for some instant noodles! No, that wasn't a joke! I did PM him my address when I got home just in case. We talked about cricket, virginity, porn stars, Halloween, Good Friday / Easter, Direct Tap, a new job, a casual stress-free work culture, and maybe doing something later. It was a good time, and I did like my spicy lamb vindaloo dosa!

Later, Brian drove us to the Dark Manor on Fraser Street. It was so fucking dark in there that I couldn't see a damn thing. Luckily, I waited near the washrooms and Holly actually came out. Brian tapped a bar stool, so at least I knew where that was. There was a Zombie drink where you could only order two of them (Brian thought that was a gimmick), there was a communal huge bowl of alcohol with LONG drinking straws (SHARE OUR BACKWASH!), we needed candlelight to read the menu, and we watched Paulo and Darryl get progressively more wasted on the one Zombie drink. I did have some of Brian's beer when he offered. After that, I wasn't in the mood to drink more, so when Brian asked if I wanted to, I said no. He ended us dropping us all off at home, by the car, or near Marine Drive Station. Talked about zero-waste, weekend plans, seeing family, Jeremy being so wasted that he couldn't get home himself (and then having to pay a fine and get his car back from a towing place the next day), Garden and Nanaimo (near the old VCEFC!), and hanging out again tomorrow at the music bingo. (I declined) I got in at 8:40.


Spicy lamb vindaloo dosa from House of Dosas on Kingsway!




Beneath The Floorboards: For four brave souls. Bourbon and malt whiskies, sherry, lemon, orange, maple, and a blend of exotic spices.




Zombie: A potent mix of rums with falernum, lime, bitters, grapefruit, and secret spices. Two per guest.




Charleszetta Waddles?!

Sunflowers by Hinawa's grave: Chapter 1 yellow flowers with Flint and Alec! Abbot and Abbey are by the grave after Hinawa's funeral - I did not know this! "A bouquet of flowers, offered to everyone's beloved Hinawa." Abbot, Abbey, Flint, Alec, Isaac, Nichol, Richie, Thomas, Lisa, and Bateau are around the MILF gravestone.




Sunflowers by Hinawa's grave: Chapter 2 pink flowers with Duster! "Flint is always offering flowers.."




( More sunflowers! )

After COFFEE TIME, I discovered a TOILET TANK EMERGENCY! It wouldn't flush, which was NOT ideal because Chinese Eric is coming over tomorrow! Besides, I really didn't want to go across the street every time I needed to pee! So I bit the bullet and called Hester a few minutes later since I needed to leave at 2, who scolded me for not being perfectly polite and composed on the phone AND for not writing a note. Fuck off - I have to deal with YOUR limited English, and I don't have TIME to write a note to have you deal with the problem after the weekend! Eventually, I managed to communicate that the toilet flush wasn't working, and Ni came by within ten minutes and actually fixed the issues. In that time, Brian had already offered to come over - THIS is what my new friends do for me?! WOW! :D

I left at 2 on a 414 to see Rachel at the Caring Place. Then I went to Shoppers to buy a Stouffer's Saute Sensations Country Beef Pot Roast microwaveable meal, a President's Choice meat lasagna for a future hangout which is not tomorrow afternoon (expires on December 12), Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough / Chocolate Milk and Cookies ice cream, Breyers Delights ice cream in Vanilla Cupcake plus Creamy Chocolate, and President's Choice mango ice cream! Should be yummy!

After I FINALLY got a 401 after FOUR 408 Ironwood buses in a row and a 407 at Brighouse after waiting since 4:10, I went to the pharmacy next door to see if I could get my eyedrops prescription filled before they closed. Adam could do it right then, but I didn't have time to chat or to wait for the previous chatty customer to finish because I had frozen things in my bag, so I was in a rush by default! The instructions are the same, anyway. I got home at 4:45 and FINALLY shoved everything into the freezer, almost before the items started really melting! Good thing I can probably get Chinese Eric to help with opening the eyedrops tomorrow if I remember... so I put them on the table with the low-tech blue guestbook and everything else!


President's Choice meat lasagna!




( Ice cream and bad names! )

SHOPPING RUNDOWN!

H and M: DRAGON HOODIE on clearance ($15 off) from $39.99 to $24.99! :D

London Drugs near my house: Red MARTEX bath towel, medium blue MARTEX bath towel, NEW on-sale Strawberries and Cream Lindt chocolate truffles, NEW limited-edition on-sale Blueberries and Cream Lindt truffles, NEW on-sale Milk and White Spring Edition Lindt truffles, on-sale Colgate Optic White toothpaste, and Colgate KnockOut MaxFresh toothpaste in Mint Fusion.

Broadway London Drugs: Fart-O-Matic birthday card for Jon for 2020, brown MARTEX bath towel, on-sale Godiva dark chocolate Easter bunny, and an on-sale Kit Kats Senses Easter bunny.

Shoppers Drug Mart: On-sale Philadelphia chip dip (dill pickle!), and on-sale President's Choice bite-size round tortilla chips! Gotta have it for Chips and Dip Day today and tomorrow!


Before COFFEE TIME, I called Chrystal to see what time we should meet tonight; 7:30 sounds good to me! I went out early at 5:30 to see if I could get that dragon hoodie at H and M after figuring out all the sidewalk and bus stop closures. They were all in a Medium size, but I figured that I'd make it work somehow. I didn't even care that I couldn't exchange it or get a refund since it was on clearance! $15 off - from $39.99 to $24.99! Then I went to the nearby London Drugs, then to the Broadway / Cambie London Drugs. Figured I'd spend my $75 tax refund while I was out and could do stuff, and I did! Now I have to wait for the April credit to go through, ha ha ha...

As I was reading an ARCHIE book, Chrystal came up to me - she was on time today! I told her that I had a birthday card for her, and not to worry about the rest of the stuff in my bulky reusable bag - that was all for me! We went to Pho Extreme Xe Lua to catch up: her parents going to Dubai pretty soon, Ethan and Mike being sick with the flu, my new Reddit friends, the whole Woob and Twitter screenshots saga, Benjamin being about the same age as Beckett, Beckett screaming as loud as the 80s music inside Como Taperia, and her knowing that I liked spicy stuff. After dinner, I went home instead of joining Brian, Paulo, and others at the American. I did stop by Shoppers Drug Mart when I got to Brighouse so I could get the aforementioned chips and dip. Got home at 9:10 on a 401, no thanks to MORE complicated sidewalk closures! They did make a temporary crosswalk near the intersection at my place, though.


From Sara and BrazilFlair on Tumblr: Here’s my first attempt at synonym rolls. Just like Grammar used to make!




( Lots of dips! Lots of chocolates! FOOD TIME! )

Brian picked me up at about 9 last night from the hospital's main entrance, but I had to take a gigantic huge detour because the construction had blocked off the sidewalks right by my place AGAIN! (going through the parking lot and then find the sidewalk by the pharmacy and then cross THREE crosswalks to get to the hospital) He had joked that it would be like Little Iraq trying to get to my place, and this was about right. The chill get-together was for Paulo's 27th birthday, so of course I was going to come out and meet him. Things were fine until we tried finding Fremlin, but I eventually called Holly (who doesn't have a buzzer system or an elevator in her apartment building?!) when Brian eventually found it. She said that she was going to throw her keys down to us, probably because she was tired of going up and down the stairs for everyone else!

When Brian finally figured out the front door lock (the one in my building is recalcitrant as well), we went upstairs to Holly's suite. We met Paulo, and said hi to Holly and Darryl. Talked about bartending, gin and tonic, red wine, beers, smoking (always someone's choice), travel (Jordan and Egypt and Australia), the leftover pizza with pepperoni and sausage, online people in the other Discord server, Gastown, awful dates, hyphenated names, feminism, the 407, friends being in abusive relationships, weird names like Jesus Condom, the closed sidewalks around my place, (looking for) work, Long Island Iced Teas, (video) interviews, San Francisco, Montreal, fudge Oreos, and my Korean BBQ Kettle chips. Of course I let Holly keep them! Turns out that Paulo lives two minutes from me, which is always good just in case. I let Brian drop me off at Birchwood instead of Dogwood, but I was still with it enough to figure out where I was since things looked different. Got in at midnight, which is fine. Good times with FREEDOM!


From Dragons: Luck of the Irish dragon!




From Brad Jansen: A flying red dragon!




From Julie M. and Realm of the Witch: If you're going to make me out to be something I'm not, it'd be cool if you'd make me a dragon. Thanks.




From Instagram and Kramer's Discord server: Smartmouth Beer released a Lucky Charms-flavored beer on March 2 for St. Patrick's Day 2019?!

From Julie: Poop emoji salt and pepper shakers! Do we really need to dumb down the word "emoji" to "emo-gee," though?!




From Melissa and Buzzfeed Canada: An ACCIO POOP coffee mug!




From Julie M. and Wish: Fake human poop?!