Tatiana's Wanderings

Today is Hot and Spicy Food Day! After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:30 on a 401 to help with the kids. Just before I was going to leave, the handyman came by and agreed with my assessment that the toilet float needed to be replaced, thank goodness! That left me with little time to catch the bus, but I JUST managed to. Then I was STILL left with time to kill at Marine Drive, so I went to T and T to buy NEW Sautao hot and sour soup vermicelli noodles and what turned out to be Choco-Caramel Mentos. I also texted Term (as is now the tradition) to say, "Hey, guess where I am right now!" Then I saw an Engrish sign: LAYS POTATO SHIPS IN KIMCHI FLAVOR?!

Jon texted me when I got to his building at 4:45; no wonder they weren't answering the buzzer because they were at the park across the street! I found them in due time; he decided to see if Beckett liked the baby swings. He was still expressionless after a few minutes of swinging, not sure what to make of it even if he'd had that experience once before a while ago. Later, Jon tickled him and took video of him laughing for Harma. Ayler and Hiero threw sand on the slide and over the railing for the kiddy structure. I swung the baby gently as Jon went over to discipline. Hiero called me by my first name, which Jon scolded him for. Later, Harma met us at the park with a new puzzle from work! Jon told me that they'd had a playdate with Deb, Dylan, Declan, and Elysse recently, and that LA Chicken was good with kimchi. Fried chicken with kimchi - WEIRD FOOD COMBINATION!

At home, Beckett wanted to play "catch" with those hard plastic stacking blocks... ouch! The soft toys they borrowed or bought are much better for that purpose! Ayler showed me his "creative part" for "THE PLANETS" (not Gustav Holst, but his own creation) and some variations he'd made up for a piano piece. Awesome! Hiero just hid Koosh balls in the "Duplo" blocks and made me guess where he'd put them. That kind of went okay, but I still had to watch Beckett, who was doing a lot less throwing than last week! I had lots of kimchi and some ratatouille for dinner, plus another slice of nectarine thanks to Ayler's aversion to mushy things. He didn't care if I ate it! (I asked him first just to be sure)

We discussed Caleb's greenhouse, Parksville, Hi-Chews candy, Uncle Percy's death (why else would Mom be inviting me to his celebration of life this weekend?), what "avid' meant in the context of being an avid reader, what Beckett liked to eat, summer reading (Ayler read a book all by himself with no alternating pages!), origami with the Summer Reading Log, practicing reading and writing, whether they needed me once school starts up again (could be chaotic), and colorful train tracks which apparently aren't appropriate for Beckett yet. He still seemed to like them, though I know that's not really the point. I left before 8 and got home at 9 on a 407, which isn't bad at all. I thought I was going to miss the 8:56 407 like I did last week, but thankfully did not run into any delays, although other people on the elevator could have counted as one. Luckily, they seemed to be efficient, which I value.


From Julie M. and Introvert Spring: I may be quiet, but I have so much on my mind.




Lays potato SHIPS in kimchi flavor! Nice Engrish!




NEW Sautao hot and sour soup vermicelli noodles!




NEW Choco-Caramel Mentos!

Menu for tonight:

Tortilla chips with salsa verde and salsa rojo
Chicken Tortilla soup
Jicama Salad (vegetarian)
Mole Colaradito Enchiladas (vegetarian)
Agua de Jamaica (zero proof)


After DOUBLE COFFEE TIME, I left at 2:45 on a 401 for Jeremy's. I had the on-sale Brookside Chocolate bars x2 (Roasted Almond and Sea Salt / Cranberry Almond with Blood Orange Flavor) and the four NHL 100 Advent calendars / Waterbridge Belgian chocolate seashells for Jon, plus the Terry's Chocolate Orange / NHL 100 Advent calendar / Waterbridge Belgian chocolate seashells for Eric Ho. Maybe HE could drive me home, haha! It turned out he couldn't since he'd driven downtown because he wouldn't be able to get much parking! I killed 45 minutes at Kingsgate Mall, but got to Jeremy's at 4. Ayler picked up, but wouldn't buzz me into the building for some reason. I tried four times after that, and LUCKILY, Jeremy's neighbors were exiting the building and let me in! (possibly because they saw I was actively trying to be buzzed in) Later, we found out that the kids had left the phone off the hook for half an hour! UGH!

I settled in by Harmony, saying hi to her and baby Beckett, who held my finger and burbled at me. Ayler and Hiero wanted to do THUMB WAR and STELLA STELLA OLA, but I was fine with watching them (and the Rubik's Cube) instead. I read a MR. MEN book to them, plus a book on frogs and one on animal tracks and Curious George. When everyone got there, I managed to get a ride to Broadway Station from Kevin later on. Talked to Randal, SERVANTS friends (Rudy?), Christon, Dilys, Alice, Jesse, Trish, Caleb, Becky, and others about Crown Royal Black whiskey, condos, townhouses, toilets, sanitation, history, vacation, the Christmas holidays, beer, the food, white Eric, Chinese Eric, Condoleeza Rice and the Cleveland Browns, women and guns, chimeras / DNA / transgender people, Uncle Stanley's colon cancer (but he is positive about it), and more. Kevin drove me near Broadway Station at 8:50 in the freezing weather, and I got home at 9:50 on a 407. Phew!

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!

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Tonight's menu:

Heirloom Bean Chili with Garnishes (cheese, rice, avocado, and onions)
Cornbread
Winter Green Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette
Quince and Apple Crisp
Agua de Jamaica
Dark Chocolate Cookie Cheesecake
Beer / Coffee Porter / Pot Filler / Gluten-Free Cider


After COFFEE TIME, Eric picked me up at 6:25 (he had to work from home today) so we could go to Jeremy's. I had his Ganong Delecto dark peppermint creams and Christmas card, plus Jeremy's FROSTY THE SNOWMAN Advent calendar and Christmas card. I'd also decided to give Ayler my old NIV Reference Bible (from 2010) for later in life. HA! Eric and I talked about life on the way there ("Christmas spirit?" "Well, I can't bitch about it being too early to mention Christmas..."), Wo's Restaurant, his not seeing Jon's new place apart from moving help, that Kwong Chow dinner, and his asking if I liked hot or cold yoga. Hahaha, no! I do know there are places near Jeremy's that offer it, though. We passed by the Boiling Point Hot Soup Restaurant which I'd seen on Yelp a couple years ago, too. The Canucks played Toronto at 4 today, and won 2-1, which I heard about later. When we got to Jeremy's apartment, I could hear what seemed like Randal pontificating on something, so I commented on this to Eric in a low voice. After hearing a little more of this "pontificating," I understood that it was the pre-dinner prayer. Oh well!

I saw Ayler and Hiero for two minutes as they were getting ready to leave with Harmony, and Ayler greeted me with "You should be here earlier!" Hahaha! I told him that Eric had had to work from home today, so that hadn't been possible. Then Jon said that I could have been there earlier had I not been too lazy to take the bus. Whatever - Eric had enabled it by being home when I called his cell at 2:30 to see what was going on after he hadn't answered my email reply last night! I asked Ayler if that meant he wanted to see me more, and he said yes. I think that's a good sign, so I said I'd see him on Monday. "And then Wednesday!" he said. No, that isn't going to happen! I managed to offload the Bible to Harmony since she had the cleanest hands out of her and the kids before they left. Later, Jon said that if I didn't hear from him, I should come on Monday - his student had been sick last week, so he'll call to see if the lesson is still going on. I also said that I'd sent Steph his address, so she'll send him that baby card with Henry (but I said "some mail") when she gets around to it. I gave Jeremy his FROSTY THE SNOWMAN Advent calendar, which he apparently really loved because he used to watch that exact FROSTY THE SNOWMAN cartoon religiously as a child! Hahaha, I'm glad that he really loved it! Of course he thanked me! He was also surprised at the pile of mostly change that I dumped on the donations table, deciding to raise my payment by two loonies and a toonie. (Jon's smoker friend Edwin left at this point, too)

I talked to Dilys and Trish about using Ayler and Hiero's leftover mugs (kid cooties can't get us!), wedding card / wedding thanks etiquette, early Christmas decorating / Christmas songs, Jesse's brother Hubert holding hands with a girl named Amanda at their first group meetup at a movie (that worked for them), Steph / Lisa / Fraser / Henry (Dilys had seen Steph and Lisa with my parents at a White Spot on Kingsway [?] while she was pregnant with Fraser), cookbooks, reading books, non-fiction, swearing around kids, hillbilly society, and documentaries after saying hi to a guy named Jonathan / Caleb / Jesse / Christon / Gino / Quan / Rebecca. Then I finally got a chance to ask Kevin whether he'd received the MEGA SUSHI email two months ago (couldn't do it at the Wo's Restaurant dinner), but he said that it must not have come through his inbox, then apologized. Nothing to be done about that!

Later, the phone was off the hook, so some people showed up randomly. I told Dilys that at the last dinner, I had accidentally locked Jon out of the apartment when he came back from taking the kids home with Harmony; I'd locked Jeremy's apartment door out of habit! I shouted over the music to ask Randal about NaNoWriMo, but he hadn't done it. He did say that there was a local challenge to write a novel in three days - yeah, I could never do that! Also, he mentioned that it was too loud with the music and other conversations. Not as bad as the Shark Club, man! I said hi to Ivan, who said I looked the same with my festive "jeweled" shirt and Santa hat - OF COURSE! Dilys asked if the clock chimed - yes, it did! Someone asked whether Jeremy had a VHS collection, but nope! He did have vinyl records, for sure! Christon told us about the Willingdon café $5 meal ministry before he left early.

Later, Jeremy was showing Trish some Christmas ornaments and decorations (including candy canes, which my nephews had recognized) on the Christmas tree. Lots of yearly ornaments and inheritances from his grandma! There was a bird feeder decoration from his grandma, and Eric wanted to ask Jeremy whether there was a leftover Communion glass there. Nobody heard him, so I used my existing NG lungpower to relay the question. Jeremy gave us a look, looked at the decoration again, and laughed - there was indeed a Communion cup! I had to laugh and said that Eric had NAILED IT! Ivan, Randal, Eric, and I talked about "accident" kids like Hiero and Ivan's brother Nathan, kids ten months apart, Richmond life, renting, his paying cheap rent to his parents, night shifts / managerial positions not being worth it for sleep / money considerations, the high gasoline prices (147.9?), Ivan's having to make FOUR trips to and from Richmond / Steveston to the Italian Cultural Centre because Stanley's wedding cake fell through (but they then got 500 different doughnuts from Steveston - PLAN BETTER FOR LESS DRIVING!), a pharmacist job, the new Shoppers Drug Mart near my place, the Richmond Centre Shoppers Drug Mart, patients wanting to set him up with their kids, my mom wanting to set me up with John Law once, how Mom acts when she's drunk (like the mooncake at Thanksgiving lunch 2007 at the townhouse - Kevin said that I had a good memory if Randal couldn't remember what happened WHEN HE HAD BEEN THERE!), Dad and others getting old, and the declining attendance at VCEFC.

I remembered to ask about the small group situation (Crossroads), but everyone in existing positions is overstressed and overstretched because there are fewer people around since they've left for various reasons. Awana is still a thing, but the leader-to-kid ratio is something like one leader to eight kids, as opposed to one leader for three or four kids like when I was doing it with Anita and Melia. The Fellowship situation may be starting up again with another version of David Fellowship, but lots of people have pre-existing small group commitments once or twice a month already, so the connection aspect may not be there if people only go to the big group once a month or so. Eric and I left at around 10:10, after I'd asked Ivan whether the church website had a livestreaming service, but he and Eric just chuckled - nope, probably not, although I do remember that they record the services and put them up at some point during the week.

When we left after I had drunken trouble with my winter jacket (Jeremy laughed - but I did thank him for hosting and all of that), Eric wondered if I'd had an enjoyable evening - I had, and so had he. He reminded himself not to go into robot mode, and I reminded him again when we got near that important turn-off. In the parking lot at 10:30, I asked what it meant if the computer restarted randomly or Windows didn't start up properly some of the time. I'm sure it could be a number of things, but I didn't want to set up something right then. He isn't even going to church tomorrow because he has a lot of work to do! I'll just email him later sometime, but it is time for bed now! Yep, Jimmy seems odd in the "wait a minute - why are you not saying anything?" way, but it's best to leave that alone.