Tatiana's Wanderings

9/18/19 is also a palindrome date!


Two years ago, I got 173 thumbs-up on my comment of September 18, 2017! "CRIMINALLY LISTED TIME! This makes a great belated birthday present, now that I am actually in the mood to watch things on Youtube! Now to make dumplings and finish off my Sara Lee strawberry cheesecake! :D"




From Youtube: Sharmon Jay Crawford Intili?! Why not Charmaine or Harmony?!

I discovered redrum late last night - UGH!


When you're on your period and everything makes you angry... "Stupid fruits..."




From Tumblr: "Where can I uninstall my period?" "I think if you download pregnancy, it blocks it for a few months, but then you get a really loud annoying popup that doesn't go away for 18 years." "OMG."




From Gemma Correll in 2016: Visit Menstrual Island! (Once a month!) Bloaty Town, the Mountains of Pain, Snack Bar, Drug Cabin, Mood Swing, Sea of Blood, Hater Lake, Crampy Valley, HMS Sanity (leaves in 3-7 days), Sleepy Cove, The Clot Isles, Misery Atoll, Acne Beach!

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!

Chinese Eric and white Eric had both emailed me this morning. Eric H. is still up for his birthday hangout at Boston Pizza this Saturday the 18th around 1 PM for the BC Lions game, and Eric M. said that Boston Pizza was better than Italian Tomato for hanging around for three hours to watch the game.


A Muppets / Kermit the Frog reference in the FINAL FANTASY V ADVANCE town of Walse. "It's easy being green, dig?" That reminded me of Jimmy when I used to talk to him. He was always saying, "you dig?"

Steph let me know that their Christmas card and stickers arrived in the mail today, so that's great! I left at 3:45 to make it to Jon's by 4:30. Knocking on the door since I heard noise from inside, I heard Hiero wonder if it was me. I said yes, Hiero laughed, and Ayler opened the door to me. Hiero said, "Goo-Mah! I KNOW YOU! HAHAHAHA!" Nice! Jon returned the Bible to me (and gave me a black Rampage wallet and some Doritos jalapeno and cheddar chips in a Safeway bag - which expire TOMORROW?! - from Mom), so I simply dropped it off at the Langara Canada Line station when I left their place after a dinner of leftover Chinese food from yesterday's dinner for baby Naomi (Myles' kid and their new cousin - born in early September), and leftover pie / cornbread from Saturday's dinner. Apparently, it was party central this past weekend! Ayler wanted to show me the proper way to draw a star because his teacher had taught him that one-line star, but I can never do those properly. He also wanted to take my Santa hat and wear it (and was successful), even though I said that baby Henry was the only one allowed to wear it, because I don't trust anyone else to just wear the hat without being impish! Ayler also wondered whether certain dates were valid in his perpetual calendar with a tree on it - some were, and some weren't. He knew his own birthday, too!

Hiero wanted me to stay longer, which involves sleeping in his crib. I don't think so! Ayler was also excited about being the special helper (which goes by alphabetical order) in kindergarten tomorrow, telling me that he has to be at school at 8:45 then, and the bell rings at 8:55 and at 12 and sometimes at 3. He also wondered when he'd graduate from his school - not for a while! He also recited the alphabet and said they were writing K tomorrow; when he said "KKK," I briefly wondered what they were teaching kids these days. Then there was a song called MITTENS AND GLOVES. The kids wanted to be very tall, as tall as the ceiling; of course I had to tell them that Robert Pershing Wadlow (the tallest man ever) was more than eight feet tall! Ayler said that he had a friend named Tess at kindergarten (who had a birthday party on Saturday), and someone named Livia, who was different than the Olivia from preschool. Hiero says he plays with garbage trucks at preschool - super!

When Hiero asked why I was cleaning up the puzzle pieces in the back room, I was honest and said that I wasn't in the mood to pick up 200 puzzle pieces again if they wanted to play with it once more. Apparently, Myles got them that solar system puzzle - good times. Ayler wanted to draw on his brother's crib - no, not a good idea! Then he wanted to draw on the floor, then said that it was Uncle Vincent's floor when I reminded him that he probably shouldn't do that. Ah yes, the landlord! At least I got them to draw on the one sheet of memo pad paper that I took into the room along with the toys. Lots of "barns" (I thought Hiero was saying "bombs") and other things were made with the scientific balls and rods! They kept asking why there were sometimes two to four chocolates in an Advent Calendar square, but received an explanation that sometimes it just slides around inside.

Jon's first student (before Randal) was that guy Jeff, whom I had met at least once. When Jon said that the kids might not remember him, I said that one of them had told me that the student was Jeff. Harmony came home after work and adjusted Hiero's buckles - yes, I know Jon technically can't do it since he's teaching, but I never could figure those things out in the first place. I got home at 7:35 on a 407 after having left the house at maybe 6:45 or so, using the open gate to get out and avoid that treacherous step. Woo! I also muted that Eastern Conference Facebook chat with Helen, Jimmy, Tommy, and a bunch of other people indefinitely yesterday, so that'll be good for my sanity as well.


Doritos jalapeno cheddar chips!




Fraser and his "sleeve tattoo" of the stickers I sent his way for Christmas:




After the FINAL FANTASY V SPOOF party defeats Doctor Hiryuu Plant and its Pansies in a boss battle at the top of Hiryuu Valley, Doctor Plant has joined your party!




The FINAL FANTASY V SPOOF party has to sneak into Bal Castle using the moat since the soldiers won't let them in. "Yoink! There was a sword built into the castle wall! Obtained Epee!"




The FINAL FANTASY V SPOOF party has to sneak into Bal Castle using the moat since the soldiers won't let them in. "The castle could collapse at any moment now, but at least you got a cool sword out of the deal!"