Tatiana's Wanderings

Ayler and Hiero surprisingly called me at 10:20 AM, which is how I discovered that my phone was still on from last night, but that was a good thing in this case! This time, I was prepared with the light on AND my reading glasses very nearby! They wanted to call since we only talked for a very short time yesterday - I said that was nice and thanked them! We discussed a 300-piece Thomas Ravensburger puzzle, Hiero building something, Ayler playing a long piano piece for me, Ayler thinking that Beckett misses me (he probably doesn't understand why I can't come and play), Beckett saying "Goo Mah / Auntie / Yeah" into the phone, and Ayler wanting to play piano a lot. He doesn't want to disturb the downstairs neighbors, so I reminded him about the soft pedal. When they asked me what I ate for breakfast, I lied and said "oatmeal and a granola bar" as I hadn't eaten yet. Turns out they "also" had oatmeal, haha! Good choice!

I reminded Ayler to protect Beckett when he goes on the couch by either blocking him or holding his hands. He said that they play with the red and yellow stuffed dragon, asked me if I knew what "Didibug" and "Didibop" were (interesting - LADYBUG!), and said that they go outside instead of going to church. Hiero wanted Beckett to repeat "John Horgan / Kennedy Stewart / Justin Trudeau" for me, but no dice! Beckett just said my name into the phone, which is good. Harmony asked how I was doing, so I told her about Pathways closing because of the coronavirus pandemic. I also asked about her parents, who are both being cautious. Told her that Dad had texted me asking about my food situation - I was like "NO, DON'T COME HERE!" Harmony said that Mom was more upset about missing the sales than the special senior hour for grocery shopping, of course! That was interesting and good to talk to them.


Mathias Jakshitz and Theressa Jakshitz have a tombstone?!

Jimbo / Nate LEFT the SuperFriends Discord server - WHAT THE FUCK?! I went shopping at 2:05 on a 407 for on-sale NEW limited-edition pink packaging SpongeTowels paper towels, NEW London Naturals plant-based citrus detergent, Colgate MaxFresh toothpaste x2 (Clean Mint green / Cool Mint blue), Scrub Daddy, and on-sale Walkers Shortbread Highland Oat Crackers / Three-Seed Oat Crackers before getting home at 2:55 on another 407 prior to COFFEE TIME! May Chan unfriended me on Facebook, but whatever - she was just Gabriel's friend. The Canucks played Columbus today at 4, and lost 5-3 thanks to an empty-net goal AND four unanswered goals in the last eight minutes of the third period... thanks, new goalie Louie Domingue...


My NEWEST top-voted Reddit comment as of February 20, 2020: A used condom display on a public bulletin board IS disgusting and dehumanizing! 5313 points! :D Every time someone uses "body count" to describe their number of sex partners, I think: "HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU KILL?!?" because THAT is what "body count" really means! Millennials and zoomers, I swear...




NEW limited-edition pink packaging SpongeTowels paper towels!




NEW London Naturals plant-based citrus dish detergent or dish soap!




NEW London Naturals plant-based unscented FREE AND CLEAN dish detergent or dish soap!




Walkers Shortbread Highland Oat Crackers!




Walkers Shortbread Three-Seed Oat Crackers!




Colgate MaxFresh Clean Mint toothpaste!

I showered and did laundry today. Thought I'd lost a dry sock, but found it in the hallway outside my apartment... phew!


From John's True Crime group: This Avon and Somerset police constable is named Rob Banks?!




From Reddit and r/UnresolvedMysteries: Tarasha Benjamin?! Didn't her mother say it out loud before the birth and realize that it sounds like TRASH-A?!




Blue Ball, Pennsylvania?!

From Julie: A woman named Dean?! I've heard of Billie Dean or something, but not Dean by itself...




( More black people and BORED PANDA! )

After COFFEE TIME, Eric M. picked me up at 5 so we could go to Golden Spring Restaurant (near the old VCEFC church site) for Beckett's baby banquet. Unfortunately, I forgot his birthday Lindt Excellence dark chocolate bars (Madagascar / Pink Peppercorn) and birthday card on the way out the door, despite leaving a note for myself. I guess I'll have to give it to him at the Felico's dinner like he wanted. UGH! At least he can give me a ride to that one! We talked about his first hockey practice today, his first game on Wednesday, there being a good reason why Steph / Lisa / Fraser / Henry weren't here this weekend, Highway 99, Steveston, and more.

We had seafood soup, sweet and sour pork, chicken, fish, yee mein, red bean soup, jellyfish, Chinese cold cuts, seafood soup, tea, and more for dinner - I got to take leftovers home, too! Dad thought he had to remind me to say hi to Mom, Uncle Richard, Auntie Gloria, Pastor Fulton, Auntie Teresa, Auntie May, Uncle Anthony, Uncle Andre and his wife Anna, Uncle Joe, Auntie Wing Yee, Auntie Vivian (who said that she missed me and wondered where I'd been "hiding"), Uncle Eric, Auntie Brenda, and their other friends. No, I just wanted to get settled first! I did say hi to Holly, Peter, Evander, and Everett when they got there, of course.

When Auntie Catherine got there, we caught up a little later - she remembered my birthday in September as "a special time," and wanted us to get together. She said that Frances is getting baptized next week - ha ha ha, good luck with that! (from what Ellen tells me...) I'm probably not going to go for THAT service, but did personally tell Jon that I would be willing to go to Beckett's baby baptism service if VCEFC ever got around to organizing one. Auntie Catherine also would be willing to meet me in RICHMOND (!) on Saturday the 15th, and maybe invite a friend my age. Okay, then! As long as it's not about religion AGAIN...

I taught Ayler about Talk Like A Pirate Day since he was wearing a pirate T-shirt. He asked what people did for that, and how he could celebrate; he eventually figured that he could wear his shirt and say "Arr, matey!" like I suggested. Good ideas! He did ask about my skin scars, but I told him that it was my choice to make boundaries about my body, just like him. Later, he refused to ask my reasonable question about how Grade 1 was so far; then he didn't want me to see the time on Eric's watch, so he covered it up. Okay, then. I did say hi to Hiero, but Harmony was wearing Beckett all evening, probably to prevent people from taking photos.

Nathan, Jeremy, Randal, Caleb, Rebecca, Jon, Harmony, Eric, and I talked about Batman / Quentin Tarantino / Twitch streams / my new glasses and upcoming eye surgery / my Felico's celebration (Jeremy and Nathan say they'll confirm later) / Danielle travelling these days / FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL / learning to ride bikes from Ron and Veronica / CRAZY RICH ASIANS / JOY LUCK CLUB / Kendrick Lamar / some guy named Danny Miller / addiction issues / rappers / the weird Asian shows on the TV, which Harmony did NOT feel the need to ask the staff to turn off / counting the courses. We saw Alan and Tracy with their kid Noah, so waved at them on their way out of the restaurant. I wished Myles a happy early birthday while saying hi to him, Brittney, and Naomi. Then Eric had to wait a few more minutes while I said bye to everyone that I knew... oh well.

Eric dropped me off at 8:40, which is still pretty good. Time to relax now! Oh wait, Mom wants Jon to choose the location of my birthday dinner AGAIN - yeah, I'm not putting up with that this year. Let ME pick the damn restaurant, although at least the Oakridge area on a Monday afternoon is better than Commercial Drive with Sunday bus schedules! Not saying I'll never go to Commercial Drive, but NOT at the behest of another person ON MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY! No, I'm not feeling guilty about that. She tried calling me twice, but I was NOT in the mood for yet more social interaction. That's the true introvert nature!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: $20 cash (making up for yesterday's pizza plus a little more), an old one-litre Proctor-Silex water boiler (half the size of my current one), a pair of white socks, a pair of pink-and-white candy toe socks, and 200 sheets of Hilroy lined paper.


Chinese jellyfish with chili!

After Barry dropped me off at Oakridge at 10:35 AM, I bought NEW Taki's Fuego Mexican snacks / NEW Taki's Xplosion Mexican snacks / NEW Taki's Angry Burger Mexican snacks / NEW Taki's Crunchy Fajitas Mexican snacks / NEW Peace Tea Peach Party iced tea / NEW Mini Rolos as a treat after my eye exam / NEW Take Home Size Maltesers at the Oakridge Safeway. I also had a NEW Korean Pulled Pork six-inch sandwich at the Subway in the food court since I was right there anyway and needed to eat. Then I returned the chocolate - TOO HOT AND IT WOULD MELT IN FIVE MINUTES!

Later at Oakridge Station, some guy practically threatened to sue me over incidental contact with my bulky reusable bag. This city, I swear. Just because you wanted to get by after maneuvering your bike into the elevator does NOT mean you get ALL THE SPACE EVER! I wasn't even in his way! That wasn't even the first person who had a problem with my reusable bag, as there was some lady on a crowded Canada Line train who said "You're excused" after I entered the train at 49th and got a seat.

When I got to Jon and Harmony's at 2:10, the door was open since it was still pretty hot, so I just got to invade the living space. The kids greeted me with "YOU BREAK IT - YOU FIX IT!" but calmed down and told me that they'd gone to Granville Island today. We heard about a Canada Line emergency - thank goodness that it didn't affect me, only Olympic Village to King Edward! (it did affect Jon coming home from teaching) The skating lesson went fine - I told Harmony that no, I didn't have to pay anything for the eye ultrasound or cataract surgery!

Hiero told me that he didn't like it when I farted - he just likes his own farts. Okay, then! We had pizza, more laksa, blueberries, and corn on the cob for dinner after I read some more Robert Munsch stories. I got to hold a content baby Beckett for a while (and show him a few books) when Jon was finishing up with his piano student Curtis, but the baby started crying almost as soon as Curtis left! (before, I told Curtis to "quick - play some music!" when Beckett started fussing at the start of the lesson) I went through the Translink route map with the kids when Harmony grew tired of it, and left at 7:30, just managing to get a 49 before getting home at 8:10 on a 401. I was NOT waiting 20 minutes in the muggy heat!


( SPICY SNACKS AND SUBS! )