Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME, I had to go out to Knightsbridge at 10:45 AM on a 414 to see Rishu at Touchstone at 12 noon, which meant that it took up three hours of my day AGAIN since it was way past Cambie and Jacombs! I had made up my mind to terminate our professional relationship anyway, even before hearing that her practicum session was finishing at the end of February. (which she couldn't even email me about...) During my 20-minute wait for the 405 in the windy weather, I tried helping out an old man by moving my bag on the bus stop bench, but he wasn't having any of it. I also realized that I accidentally wore my red AMOUR shirt from H and M outside in public on Valentine's Day - whoops!

I aired my grievances, including her non-receptiveness to replying to email in a reasonable timeframe. I chose to help Jon out on Wednesdays because there was no way I'd get a response from her in time if she didn't reply on Monday or even Tuesday - Jon's requests were more emergent, and I like spending time with my nephews! I also told her how someone else with REAL anxiety and other issues might feel to be seemingly "ignored," although I know they aren't a crisis line, but she needs to learn as a student. The new location was also a factor; although she SAYS she offered rides and to meet up with me somewhere, I had to say I didn't remember that. I think it ended amicably enough, although of course I cried and then had to fill out the required feedback forms and surveys. She gave me an unexpected gift of a sticky thing to hold a card or two, and I put it on the back of my phone after politely thanking her for that and the good aspects of our sessions and time together.

Once I finally got back into my bubble zone of Richmond, I noticed a bus stop sign saying that the $3 KFC Mega Popcorn box deal was only on until the 16th. Since I wasn't planning on going out before then, I decided to take advantage of it even if more time and energy would be spent. I tried taking a photo of the Shoppers sign saying they were out of hand sanitizer, face masks, and rubbing alcohol... but discovered that my Compass Card in the new sticky thing was blocking the camera! Luckily, I came across some Dairy Queen workers who weren't busy, and the girl unstuck the corner enough for me to figure things out from there. PHEW! I bought the $3 fried chicken and chilled at Richmond Centre for a while. Saw a cute teddy bear offering hugs, so I also took advantage of that. I finally got home at 3:45 on a 407.


Document Destruction Service! Yes, of course I am aware of the need to shred sensitive documents. The name just appealed to my morbid sense of humor.




What do you mean, the fire door is inside the men's restroom?! Weird location for a fire exit... I needed to check this out for sure!




( No fire behind the door! Teddy bear hugs! Fried chicken! Sold out of things! )

After SHOWER TIME and COFFEE TIME, I went out to Kwong Chow at 4:50 because I had to go to a Father's Day dinner. I was in time for the 401, at least. Ended up JUST missing a couple of 25 buses at King Edward, but whatever. I was prepared to walk from 25th to 15th because of Car-Free Day, and there were way too many people walking slowly in front of me. There was even someone at the station who stopped RIGHT IN FRONT of me to check her map! Geez!

When I finally got to the restaurant after weaving my way through the crowd of people, Mom said that she'd called me six times. Come on - what's so important that she had to do that?! We couldn't even get a table because Jon and his crew weren't there yet, which is very unusual for Kwong Chow. Since when did they turn into a white place?! Mom just commandeered an empty table because it looked big enough and clean. Dad told her to quit being so impatient, of course. Talked to Ayler, Hiero, Harmony, Beckett, and Jon about Harmony wanting me to help out with the kids in the summer (it IS true!), school ending soon on the 19th, Hiero's origami book, the Oratorio Society concert last week and seeing Auntie Catherine there, Tsim Chai, Holly and Peter buying a house, Myles and Brittney also buying a house, screen time (I know what to do even if I don't follow it...), Alliance and SERVANTS work, ferries, and the Massey Tunnel.

We also discussed Saltspring Island, going to Seattle soon, Eric Ho and the 12 Kings Pub hangout for the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors, Eric Ho taking sports losses pretty personally, what takeout was, Mom trying to tell us again about Maria Tam the missionary (we ALL heard about that last week...), and Mom attempting to give Jon $50 to pay for the meal. Nope, that definitely was not happening! Then we walked to Jon's place where Mom and Dad had parked, and gave Jon some stuff. Hiero enthusiastically showed me his origami book and his store of old printer paper to make new creations - he showed me a boat and then I had to leave, so I said he could show me more stuff next time. Then Mom and Dad noticed someone they knew, so we had to spend at least ten minutes talking to them. Turned out to be Jon's neighbors from Prince George and their baby - one of them is named Jill. So after that delay, I finally got home at 9:30 on a 407. Apparently, my parents didn't automatically plan on driving me home - okay, then.


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: Lipton chicken noodle soup which expires in 2020, Gentlemen and Players: A Novel (Joanne Harris), a tiny tube of macadamia nut shampoo, a pair of random black socks, and a tiny green shampoo bottle.


From Janina: Ladies, you can tell a lot about a man by how dogs react to him. For example, if the police K9 is biting him, he may not be ideal.

Yesterday, I called Chinese Eric to see if he could give me a ride to Jeremy's or back home. He called me back on his lunch break (at 1:20 BEFORE I left to see Rachel), and he was planning to take transit to work at the Art Gallery and then go straight to Jeremy's. I hoped Kevin could drive me to Broadway Station again since white Eric can't make it because of his hockey commitments! I had to leave really early for Jeremy's place because I had to walk to Brighouse station - thanks, endless sewer upgrades and construction! Luckily, I found an in-service bus stop at Alderbridge, so I killed time at Shoppers, buying Korean BBQ Kettle Chips x3 and some Nair. FUCKING JIMMY! Got to Dude Chilling Park at 6:10, which was slightly early. Kingsgate Mall was closing, too.

I met up with Jeremy (so we could all see his new flooring / baseboards and test some marbles on it), Christon, Kevin, Chinese Eric, and Randal. Christon made some pulled pork, chicken and coleslaw. We had my Indomie Mi Goreng chips / various beers (like the cocoa / vanilla Winter Ale) / salsa / Que Pasa chips, called Eric Ho to see where he was, figured out the long wifi password (which Jeremy didn't think much of at first - but then realized he'd never seen me with a smartphone before), discussed my eye surgeries and Jeremy's nose surgery / Huawei / the Rugby Sevens / Uniqlo / Muji / Daiso / real estate / wedding planning / people with 4400 to 5000 Facebook friends, the Lucky Charms Saturday Morning beer for St. Patrick's Day, and waited for Jon to get there even later. I wanted to go home at 10, but nope - I had to wait for 45 more minutes, despite Chinese Eric wanting to head home right after the game ended at 9:30!

Jeremy loved the blurb for the Lucky Charms beer and laughed at it, at least! Kevin did indeed drive me to Broadway Station, while Jon and Chinese Eric got rides back home from Randal. Yeah, that wasn't too bad. I ended up getting home at around midnight on a 401 (passing up a 407 at Brighouse), and was surprised that I was still somewhat awake, since I'd gone to bed at 9:45 yesterday. I did make myself some hot chocolate to warm up from the cold weather. The Canucks played the Knights at 7 tonight, and lost 6-2. Not good if it was 5-1 at the end of the first... 3-0 after the first twelve minutes!


DUDE CHILLING PARK! No longer Guelph Park!




From CFOX: AC/DC beer! Australian hard rock, brewed in Germany!

I got up at 5:45 AM - UGH! COFFEE TIME BY DEFAULT! Teunis emailed me back to wonder about the nearby mall's hours - maybe he means Richmond Centre, I don't know. He's also one of those weird people who refers to his wife as his partner, but I can deal with that. I found an old spiderweb by the bathroom, so I got two Kleenexes to scoop it up before flushing that down the toilet. Then I put my bath mat through the washing machine, which seemed to be fine afterwards: I didn't even have to dry the thing since it wasn't overly wet later! Then I protected myself with a scarf, rubber gloves, and plastic bag against a mousetrap with.... wood shavings and a very old tiny gingerbread man on it. Okay then. That's enough housecleaning for today!


From Not Always Right: Anisha Cooper?!




From my FAST-ACTING LONG-LASTING Bathroom Reader #18: Treat Williams?!




From Not Always Learning: Brandice Nelson?!




There's a town called Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! in Quebec...