Tatiana's Wanderings

I discovered that Andre had unfriended / blocked me on Facebook - WHAT THE HECK?! Eric picked me up at 8:50 AM so I could use church as a vehicle to get to the Osborne Gym at UBC for Hiero's 6th birthday party. It helps that his hockey is all the way out at UBC, too... and it turned out that his hockey building is practically right next to the Robert Osborne building! He said that the LUFIA music sounded like something crazy was going on at my place - HAHAHA! I packed the Creature Chumpers toy (but forgot the birthday card), a bottled water, my Doge bag, and the other Starbucks Cold Brew before putting my boots on just in case of slush. Made my bag heavier, but it was okay. Eric and I listened to the radio for a bit until some guy came on who just monologues at you all the time - not his thing, and not mine either!

When we got to church, there was still plenty of parking across the street. As I thought, the car door went CLONK into a slush accumulation. Luckily, Eric could pull forward a bit so I could go into the nearby parking lot and then cross the street after getting on the clear sidewalk. I waited around outside the sanctuary, saying hey to Joe. When we were allowed to go inside, I said hi to Geoffrey and Sheena, and was respectful of the service. Hiero was there with Jon (who was preaching today), so I asked him if he wanted his birthday gift now or later... of course he chose now, before the Children's Sunday School.

I realized I'd forgotten the birthday card, but I can always give it to him later. He seemed out of it for some reason, but I wouldn't find out why till much later. Then he was trying to get Jon's attention, but he was busy talking to Pastor Dan. When I got back from the handicapped restroom (seeing empty water jugs inside and hoping a grandma didn't have to use it), Hiero had gotten Jon's attention, who told him to say thank you. I said that he already had (when I prompted him), so of course he didn't have to say it again! I did see Uncle Eric and Auntie Brenda at different times, and an uncle said hi to me as well.

Jon had an engaging sermon on Mark and seeds, at least. Even Julie S. agreed with me later on! I said hi to Sam, Auntie Cathy, Auntie Catherine (hug), Auntie Esther (hug), Cordia's mom, Helen C., Joe T., Ivan, Lesley, Dylan / Deb / Declan / Elysse (who thinks it's crazy that Hiero will be her age by next week AND who was eating sugar cubes), Cordia / Amasiah / Julie S. / Denise (who sent a photo of me to Steph) / Julie M., Auntie Susan x2 (Karen Grace's mom and Vivian's mom), Darren L., Martin T., Acer, and others. I could hear Acer swearing in the fellowship hall while talking about DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, but whatever.

Soon enough, it was just a little group of me, Eric, Cordia, Amasiah, their friend Jeremy, and Acer since everyone else was staying for the Larry and Bella Mori missionary lunch before Missions Fest later in the month. Once we were shushed by Auntie Ada (Benedict's mom) since the Cantonese service was going on, we moved to the stairs, where I noticed a few minutes later that we were blocking the way, so we stood around a little outside the sanctuary in the "hall" until the bench cleared up. We still had to watch our volume, though!

Jeremy insisted he wasn't a weeb just because he went to Japan with some guys - including Acer's cousin - and had to translate for the group, Cordia said she's accepted who she is, and said that Amasiah was morbid like me - SWEET! We talked about the Japan trip, Japanese people KNOWING when you're "foreign" to them even if you're Asian and fluent in the language, Sharon's health woes in the Osoyoos (being literally stuck at home), 80 cents for a medium bottle of milk tea in Japan, the Mori kids Timothy and Tiffany, Molly, people following others on Instagram, pressuring Amasiah to buy some Pokemon figurine on Amazon since she didn't in Hong Kong, my trip, the snow and slush, anime / manga, otaku people, Discord, and lunch plans. Eric and I went upstairs to see if we could get some extra $2 sandwiches (Benedict had five pink tickets from his mom!), but he decided not to bother or distract anyone in the rooms, which I noticed are now labelled. They even upgraded the water cooler from a huge jug to a black self-cleaning one!

A few minutes later at 1:25, Eric asked if I was cool with going to Broadway / Cambie instead. Sure, why not? We could get fast food burgers, so we went to A and W where he kindly paid for my Mama Burger and we shared his fries before going to Pacific Spirit Park and a parking garage on UBC campus. He pressed the crosswalk button for me in the rainy weather, and showed me which building to go into. I went into the Robert Osborne building, connected to the Wi-Fi, and looked for a specific gym on the Evite to no avail, so I had to text Harmony about it. "No, gym" is not really a great answer to "should I meet you on the second floor?" when there are at least three gyms and lots of lockers in the entire place... as I told Steph, I wonder how many "where is this place specifically?" calls and texts they got before the birthday party.

Jon and Harmony were actually early with the kids, probably because they had to sign a waiver and were nominally hosting 15 kids and their parents. I showed Beckett the balls that he had dropped in my bag, but he seemed too out of it even for just waking up. He did look at them with widened eyes, but said nothing. After I met Hiero's friends Emmett and Huxley (what a name!), I heard that Hiero had puked on the gymnastics equipment when Harmony was explaining what had happened in Chinese to her parents! IRRESPONSIBLE AND GROSS! WHY WOULD YOU SUBJECT KIDS TO THAT?! Even Ayler was complaining of feeling sick at the end of everything later! While I was there, Chinese Eric replied to my text about the All-Star Game, saying he'd get back to me later. Why don't you figure it out first, man? I'm not like my ex Mike who wants an almost-instant response! Uncle Joe and Auntie Wing ended up driving me home after the refreshments since Costco closes early on Sundays, so I got home at 6:25. AWESOME!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad, who definitely wanted the tiny tote bag back if Mom dug through my bag for it: Cao Is Starvingbase Chongqing instant noodles, Paldo Jjajangmen Chajang instant noodles, Country Life pure soap, a random floral soap circle, Princess Cruises Lotus Spa shower gel x2, a shoe brush, a Bath Aquatics h2O+ bath bar, and Ontrue roasted seaweed x2 in green tea flavor! It's MINE after I put it in my bag - come on now, WAIT FOR ME TO GET BACK FROM THE WASHROOM AND THEN ASK PERMISSION! Even Beckett has more respect than that! When he dropped his balls in my bag, he just stood by the bag and didn't go through it... I'm sure he doesn't have the words to ask about the balls, but that doesn't matter!


The Tiger Tiger Sukiyaki noodles did come with a lot of packets in the bowl with the handy lid, all crammed inside!




( Gummies, water jugs, hot water advisories, and party food! )

GIF Resizer


9/17/19 is also a palindrome date AND MY BIRTHDAY! After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:30 on a 401 to help with the kids. I JUST missed the Brighouse train because of someone shoving their way onto the elevator when the door was closing, and ALMOST missed the 3 bus at Marine Drive because someone wanted to let others on the already full elevator! JESUS CHRIST! People already on the elevator have connections to make and places to go - they can wait for the next one! And no, I did not leave really late!

When I finally got to the house at about the usual time, Beckett was fussing and trying to sleep. Ayler and Hiero were doing some origami; no, they couldn't test me on my birthday since that isn't very nice! I got to see Ayler construct a tiny gift box, while Hiero put very small things in his. Ayler wanted me to look at the origami book, so I did - lots of stuff in there for sure! Later, he wanted to see if he was taller than me yet - nope, but he was also cheating (which I told him) because he was standing on the mat and I was standing on the floor. I did tell him - as usual - the demarcation between my neck and my chin. Wow, he's 4 foot 6 already?!

We had dinner earlier than Beckett, and Hiero told me something interesting about making friends in kindergarten. It's good to know the proper names of your body parts, I told him. Harmony asked what I did for my actual birthday: Uh, you're currently looking at it! Turns out Jon believed Mom when she said it was the 16th, so I told her that maybe she shouldn't automatically believe Mom, and take what SHE says with a very liberal grain of salt. Homemade tomato soup, artisan bread, sticky rice (JONG), chicken feet, spicy sausage, soft carrots, and shortbread camel cookies - I declined the relaxing tea, though!

Beckett finally got a little bit of sleep - which I agree that he needed - and then crawled to my chair and pulled himself up to say hi and eat my dragon hoodie strings. CUTE! He wanted me to play with him, so I did - without washing my hands, which I'm sure Harmony wasn't impressed with. Oh well. Sometimes you gotta let the kid lead! He laughed at the baby pop-up toy, clapped and laughed, climbed on my back to try pulling my hair (Ayler says he claws people and pulls their hair now), and seemed way more energetic than Harmony thought he should be. Maybe he just wanted to play with me since he recognizes and likes me now!

Later, he crawled into the bathroom while Ayler was in there, but I was interested to see what he gets up to inside. Turns out that he's smart and knows that his blue basin is inside the shower stall, so wants to put it on his head. I took him out of there to play with better toys on the mat, and he climbed on me when I put the soccer ball on my head. Harmony let me go early at 7:10, which was a change. There was a transit officer on the 3 Marine Drive bus already, which again did not stop anywhere randomly for a few minutes. I still was a couple minutes late for a Brighouse train, but eventually got home at 8:45. Not a bad end to my birthday at all, involving no rushing like LAST YEAR!


From Nita: A pencil is on the phone. "I'll call you back later, okay? I'm having dinner with my editor." The RUBBER ERASER is the editor, hahaha!

2017


JANUARY

* Finally got a CHIMO / Family Services phone intake done with Jocelyn, then finally finished JONBOUND. [Jan. 6]

* I created a Discord account for whatever reason, probably to talk to Lucas and his weird friends, plus Kramer and his Twitch stream friends. [Jan. 7]

* Finished replaying HALLOW'S END on Turbo Mode. [Jan. 11]

* Unfortunately, I had to get the passport stuff done with my parents. [Jan. 12]

* Visited Vanessa in the hospital after her surgery. [Jan. 13]

* Hiero's third birthday party! Ayler told me that he needed to take more nachos. Sure, why not? [Jan. 22]

* I got my ten-year passport through registered mail! [Jan. 25]

* Finally finished the very difficult MOTHER 2 DELUXE, and started FINAL FANTASY VI: ETERNAL CRYSTALS. [Jan. 28]


( Highlights and lowlights! )