Tatiana's Wanderings

The computer screwed up TWICE this morning when the keyboard AND mouse froze, and my phone and lotion crashed to the floor since everything was all mixed up in the wiring! Texted Eric M. and messaged Andrew M. about it - Andrew said he could come over later today if I liked, so I took that opportunity after checking my existing cash reserves and getting the parking pass ready. Then I showered just in case. He says it might be something called "thermal throttling," and Eric got me to download HWMonitor to check temperatures. Then I showered just in case.

Later on, I got de-modded from Shiwa's server because of Vicky and Fairy. Jan thinks I have issues, but they're not really prominent. I'm not the one picking fights with people! FINE THEN, I WILL JUST NOT CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING THEN! I SHOULD BE PARAMOUNT!

Turns out Andrew M. had a family emergency and was up north in Merritt as of 8:45 PM when I wondered what time he'd come by. I don't mind if he comes by tomorrow in the late morning, of course. MUCH BETTER THAN JIMMY FAKING AN EMERGENCY WITH HIS GRANDMA AND BLOCKING ME FOR TWO WEEKS!


Tangled phone cord!




Pedicure, a month later! Still awesome!




From Julie M. and her local news: Zadok Scott?! Is your kid a fantasy character?!




( Bad names! )

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! )

I thought my BENQ computer monitor had blinked out this morning, but it just gave me a NO SIGNAL DETECTED error message, which of course I couldn't look up, so I called Eric! I tried stuff with the cables, read a lot about true crime (Max Haines!) and urban legends (Thomas Craughwell), got rid of the Hans Holzer book about ghosts since I wasn't interested in it anymore (and the print there is starting to be really small), and did some more stuff. At 4:50, I decided to try pressing the Power button AGAIN, and somehow the monitor roared back to working mode! PHEW! Of course I called white Eric to let him know about this, then called Chinese Eric to remind him about Felico's.


From Julie M. and Wish: Party Till You're Pooped poop emoji party toys!




From Julie M. and Wish: Man Poop Emoji IT IS MY BIRTHDAY T-shirt... at $114 original price?! WHAT. It would be great for my upcoming birthday on the 17th, though!




From Julie M. and Wish: Proud Dad of 2 Poop Emoji T-shirt... at $179 original price?! WHAT.

When I got up today at 7:15 AM, I found that my computer wouldn't go off Hibernate Mode for some reason - I even did a hard reboot of the thing! Then I thought it was possibly the monitor going screwy AGAIN like it did in late April. I went back to bed to rest some more while thinking of the worst-case possibilities in my head (NEW MONITOR EXPENSE?!) and waiting for a decent time to leave a voicemail with White Eric. I did that at 8:30 AM (saying that I needed him to work his magic with my computer monitor again) after I noticed that the light on the monitor was still blue and blinking. He called me back at 9:05 and said that he could come over tonight after work, but I knew he wouldn't be able to make it before 6:45 (which is when I'd have had to leave to meet Chrystal), so tomorrow night is THE TIME OF HOPE! I also found my red chili pants from Sears!

I drafted my August fact statuses on index cards, had COFFEE TIME, and called FYI Doctors to get a final price on the new glasses, even if they had to call the Ministry to find out if I was covered or not. THE PRICE IS $150! Less than the $175 I thought, but still... I left in the hot weather at 2:30 for Richmond Centre, just barely managing to get the 401, and going to KFC in the food court since it's National Fried Chicken Day today. I let the cashier upsell me to two pieces of fried chicken (a thigh and drumstick) instead of one: $2.95 vs. $5.64? Then I went to the library on a crowded 410; I updated CANUCK NATION, Steph, Julie M., Jimmy, Andrew M., and HS's Discord / wondered why Debbie S. would add me on another Facebook account / tagged some statuses that needed it. I swear the Facebook status jail thing is based on IP address! Now I'm leaving to pee and then meet Chrystal for dinner. I hope I don't miss the C94! I also did NOT delete Mom and Dad's old library card number and PIN from my Important Stuff Entry, which is good - I wrote it down in my notebook, and will duplicate it later at home! Good thing they didn't change the PIN! I should have remembered it earlier!