Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME / SHOWER TIME / CLEANING FRIDGE TIME (yucky sticky prune juice!), I went out at 1:30 on a 401 to finally redeem that Pure Nail Bar gift card from Christmas 2019 for a pedicure before going to help with the kids. I thought I'd be on time, but NO... the 3 bus had to be late, a stroller had no idea what to do on the bus, and then there were traffic delays, causing me to be 10 minutes late! At least they didn't have to call me or anything, and it was just after East 13th! It was pretty relaxing, and I got to choose a nail polish color - Shooting Star silver glitter! They had a fancy nail dryer and a fancy pink toe separator!

After I was done at 3:45, I texted Jon and asked whether he was at the park, then went to Save-On to kill time. I should have gone to the park instead since it took him 20 minutes to get back to me saying they were home now. Fine, sure, I'll walk there - not a big deal, of course. Beckett wanted "Didibug!" which Jon asked about - it made sense, but what was it? Hiero drew me a Bat Signal and a lightning bolt, saying I could keep them in my pocket. I pointed out that it would probably fall out of my pocket, so I'll keep them in my wallet's zippered pouch instead! When I got home, I put the Bat Signal / lightning bolt / Cao Starvingbase Noodle HOO! guy in a Ziploc bag for extra protection.

Ayler was blocking Beckett's access to the piano because Beckett would try to play it, and wanted to know if the real Dean could stay later to play "quiet soccer" while Jon taught his sister Lily. I told Dean that he must be special to Beckett - every time someone comes over, Beckett thinks it's Dean! HAHAHA! "Dean! Dean! Dean!" When Harmony got home, she mentioned she was late because the pipeline protesters had been blocking UBC today - UGH! Then she saw silverfish in the bathroom, in her clothes! YUCK! I told her about the time that I had seen one CRAWLING ON MY COMPUTER DESK in summer 2017 - EW! Beckett wanted to say hi to Kayla, and of course was interested in her guitar and the rest of the students.

Jon gave me a tea rag to wipe Beckett's nose with. He's learned "NO!" and uses it frequently! I watched him knock over Jon's violin while he was teaching Willie, and Jon said "NO, BECKETT." A kid named Ethan came for a piano lesson, and his mom stayed in the room. Beckett was very interested in her phone! Ethan asked what I was doing there, so I said that was a good question - what did HE think? Jon answered when he didn't have a response. I read the rest of the DOG MAN book to Hiero, who then wanted to draw Dog Man while Dean and Ayler transitioned to quieter origami.

We had pozole with hominy / chips / Greek yogurt / choy for dinner, plus an almond croissant. Beckett wanted to climb up on the couch and needed my help to sit / stand on the white chair. He picked up the word "funny" and the corresponding grin expression. "FUNNY! OPEN! Block! Magnet! Frog!" Of course he got upset when Ayler stole his stuff... I told Hiero that he had just touched the nose-wiping cloth with Beckett's germs ALL OVER it, so Hiero went by himself to wash his hands quickly! Beckett also showed me where my own eyes / nose / mouth / ears were, with the correct words. He wanted to show me his orange half-shell, so he said "shell" - pretty good!

I left at 7:45, amazingly in enough time to catch the 7:55 3 bus that went to the station. However, I wouldn't get home in time for the second period, because there was an electric scooter that took a minute or so to adjust herself in the bus. She didn't deserve a guilt trip or anything, so I was outwardly patient. Then on the Canada Line at Aberdeen, there was an obstreperous guy who wouldn't get off the train until threatened with the cops by the female attendants! Everyone was craning their necks to look - some old man asked if I was going to save him. Fuck, no! I'll watch from safety! I FINALLY got home at 9:10 during the second intermission. The Canucks played the Coyotes tonight at 7:30, and lost 4-2 thanks to an empty-net goal from behind the Arizona net ALL the way to the other end of the ice.


Fancy nail dryer at Pure Nail Bar.




Fancy pink toe separators at Pure Nail Bar. Nail polish color from their array is Shooting Star Silver.




Pretty Shooting Star Silver toenails!




Better view of the Shooting Star Silver toenails!




I got this weird time glitch on Shiwa's Discord server last night. March 3 is "today" while March 4 is both "tomorrow" and 'today." Okay, Discord...




From Jon and Harmony for Christmas 2019: Pure Nail Bar pink envelope and pink gift card for a pedicure, which I finally used this afternoon!




Biggerstaff tombstone?!




This is from Red's Discord server. Coronavirus as a metal band T-shirt: CORONAVIRUS 2020 World Tour! China and Asia, Europe, Australia, North America, Middle East, South America. SCYTHES! HAHAHAHA!




From Julie: I'm giving up these little glasses of alcohol for Lent. I will be drinking big glasses of alcohol instead.

I had to spend MORE time out and MORE MONEY today at Richmond Centre because of ANOTHER temporary water shutoff. *rolleyes* Good thing I had plenty of cash! I bought a White Spot breakfast quesadilla with chorizo sausage, a White Spot blueberry milkshake that slightly tasted like cough syrup (what are they doing with those machines overnight?!), NEW on-sale OGX Beauty tea tree / mint shampoo and conditioner, on-sale Dove pomegranate shampoo and conditioner from $8.99 to $2.99, NEW Life iron pill supplements, NEW Jamieson Vitamins garlic softgels, and NEW Irish Spring charcoal body wash. Shoppers and London Drugs both worked! Got home at 5:40 on a 407 (was NOT going to call Hester because of the one-word and hangup I received LAST YEAR), and the water was back on, so I could take a shower for tomorrow!


Speeda E. Bump tombstone?!




( Alcohol and milkshakes at 9 AM, Christmas at Shiny Tea, quirkiness )

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! )

Dad picked me up at about 2:15, having dropped Ayler off at Brooke's already. I opted just to carry the bag of stuff Mom wanted him to give to me, listening to him say that Mom wanted to make sure I was okay. Yeah, that would be fine most of the time for sure. The centre / hub for autism was all the way near the airport in a huge building with long hallways. I didn't mind going in because it was so hot outside! Watched Ayler do a puzzle for the last bit of his session, and he apparently liked his obstacle course times. He's all about the times! I texted Jon once we got into Vancouver (the bridge traffic was misleading), and we got there in reasonable time. When I reminded Ayler to be quiet, he basically said that I had to do that too - I know, but you need the reminder more than I do. Then again, it turned out that Beckett hadn't slept at ALL!

Beckett climbed on me - which I guess is his way of saying hi - and laughed at the popping toy and my putting the soccer ball on top of my head, which guaranteed him more climbing time because he wanted to get it to toss around. Hiero said that if we wore our Canucks hockey stick shirts at the same time, we could be twins - he is right. Ayler wanted to refer to himself in the third person a lot, wanted to know what "calling someone out" was when it referred to these teens at the kiddy playground on their equipment, and said that he had big plans for Grade 2: biting his food in half so that nobody would steal it, hahaha! I said that nobody would really want his germs, anyway. When we went to the park, Beckett finally fell asleep, so Harmony told me about their Parksville trip: missed ferry connections, the beach not being suitable for Beckett because of broken glass and stuff, and the goats on the roof.

We got home in time for more playing and dinner - yum, noodles and rice with ground beef and tomato topping! I held Beckett when he wanted to bang away on the piano, made sure he was safe when he was playing with the soccer ball on the couch, and generally had fun with him. Ayler said that he could eat seven bowls of congee at Congee Noodle House - I don't think so! Next week will be crazy for sure, but Tuesdays should work for me from now on if swimming lessons are Mondays.

Ayler was able to transpose songs into a minor key, which is good! Managed to text White Eric about this weekend - he says the wedding starts at 12:30 or 12:45, but he'll have to pick me up an hour early at 11:30. Still earlier than I thought, I guess. I would have been home a LOT sooner had the 3 Main NOT decided to stop at 41st for six minutes or more! Passengers have connections to make and places to go! (I even left the house at 7:45 or so after listening to Ayler read a book) I FINALLY got home at 9:20 on a 407... I swear I'm taking the 3 Downtown, 9, and then the train / bus from Broadway!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: Three random pairs of green and white ankle socks, 11 Princess Cruises ballpoint pens that largely DON'T WORK (what's the point in saving me money, exactly?), Aloe Vera combination hair and body wash, 21 Bye Polar candies, two Princess Cruises chocolate squares, two old red chocolate hearts from Valentine's Day, Twinings Tea UK (Jasmine) Green Tea x13, Bigelow Tea Cozy Chamomile x5, Bigelow Tea Darjeeling x1, Bigelow Tea Orange and Spice x1, Bigelow Tea Earl Grey x3, Bigelow Tea Lemon Lift x2, Bigelow Tea Plantation Mint x2, Princess Cruises Lotus Spa conditioner, 200 ruled sheets of Hilroy writing paper, a pair of +3 red reading glasses from Japan, SportKwik fingertip moistener (???), Princess Cruises Lotus Spa Linen Mist, Princess Cruises Lotus Spa Sisal Mitt, Japan Airlines red headphones, a maroon COLOR WALLET, Tim Hortons green tea x1, Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus tea x4, a random teabag of random tea leaves, and a Tazo Tea Earl Grey x1.


Kitty Sanchez to Michael Bluth in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: "Eyes up here, Michael..."