Tatiana's Wanderings

Auntie Catherine finally got back to me via email, wished me a happy belated birthday, and said we could get together on the 24th. Ha, that's not going to work because of my doctor's appointment! I'm not going to go to Vancouver, back to Richmond, and then back to Vancouver within four and a half hours! She wants to go to the Gloucester Café, but at least I can probably take the 15 Olympic Village instead of walking down seven blocks from King Edward station unless I think I need the exercise before or afterwards.

Nick flaked out on me at 5:15 because he didn't want to go to Richmond since he's hungover and depressed and can't deal with small talk. REALLY? Flaps had a good reason: wisdom tooth removal today, which I was understanding about when he let me know yesterday. Darryl would just be all drained, which I totally understand, especially after Christon's wedding!

Then Dylan and Deb called me at 6:15 to say they were stuck in Coquitlam with the kids because traffic was blocked off everywhere, so they can't make it either. At least THEY offered to make it up to me with a meal at their place or elsewhere, so we can start the planning for that soon - not a big deal! They told Declan to wish me a happy birthday, which he did. Then Billie flaked out when she was supposed to be there, achieving Maximum Flake Level - DO YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT AT THE LAST MINUTE?! The Canucks played Los Angeles tonight at 6 in Salt Lake City in Preseason Game #5, and lost 7-5.


From Vanessa and I'm Not Right in the Head.com: Me to myself: "Don't be a weirdo at this social event." Also me to myself: Give unnecessary information to strangers about Jeffrey Dahmer.




Dermot Smurfit?!




Apparently, another stupid idiot on Reddit thinks that "the female version of flipping people off" needs to become a thing. No... no, it does not. It's way too confusing, and everyone else prefers the NORMAL version of flipping someone off...

Discovered that the front door lock is stuck and recalcitrant again before Eric M. gave me a ride at 6:50 to Los Cuervos Taqueria around Kingsway and Fraser, so I wondered how long it would take me to get in later on. I had Jeremy's 101 THINGS TO DO WITH BEER cookbook and birthday card, one bag of Indomie Goreng Chitato chips for Nathan's dad since Chi-Tat To is very similar, Chinese Eric's birthday card / Indomie Goreng Chitato chips x4 / iChoc Almond Orange, Classic, Super Nut, and White Chocolate Vanilla bars, and white Eric's Western Family Swiss 72% dark chocolate bar / NEW Heidi Chocolate Intense / Ginger / Himalayan Salt chocolate bars and birthday card. Nathan did not show up, but I offloaded everything to everyone else.

Saw Acer and said hi to Quan and Gino, of course. Then I spontaneously invited Randal to my own birthday dinner. Chinese Eric was confusing as usual and said he just got my "birthday message" - uh, which one? Facebook birthday wish, a text message about a birthday, or something else? I think it's best that we were just friends! He didn't really explain it well at all. I got a bison skirt steak taco after seeing multiple people mention steak before I left, and then a ceviche tostada when that wasn't quite enough food. First time trying ceviche, so that was quirky for sure! Jon asked if I could switch days this week - I told him that he should ask Harmony first before making executive decisions like that, and he said that it did come from her. Okay then, I can switch from Tuesday to Monday this week. I made sure my blog drafts were tagged correctly and everything as soon as I got home so I didn't forget.

Jeremy and I talked about dragons and interesting topics like Greyhound not being there anymore for his Kelowna trips, and he said he could use that beer cookbook. After paying for the food, we all left at about the same time. I stopped at the door because I knew there was a step going down, and Chinese Eric wondered about that. Well, you don't want me to find out where the step is by faceplanting... he agreed, but thought I'd had eye surgery for a reason. Yes, but that doesn't mean my declining night vision has improved!

While Jon and Randal were trying to figure out whether they should go to 12 Kings, it started raining. I told them to arrive at a decision even if I'd be going home with white Eric either way since he has to get up at 7 AM tomorrow. (for some reason, Eric found it necessary to hang around while they made said decision...) We walked to Eric's car and said the necessary farewells. Once I got home at 10, I was actually able to get in fairly quickly... phew! Then I discovered that Mom apparently thinks I still know Spanish because she wanted me to translate a long document for her. Nope, I've forgotten virtually all my Spanish 9! I just told her "nope, don't know Spanish." I just wanted to relax when I got home! Jon suggested Google Translate instead.


Sweatshirt or hoodie: Sorry I'm late. I didn't want to come.




Ceviche tostada!




Bison skirt steak taco!

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!

This morning, it was time to put my shorts away and put another blanket on the bed. Then Jon decided to act like an entitled person, thinking that I could just bus to Commercial Drive from Richmond on my birthday, and threatening me that the kids wouldn't be there if I insisted that the dinner be at 6. Like, do they bug and bully and manipulate Harmony's side of the family into starting dinners at that early hour?! I'm about to cancel this whole idea of a "family" birthday dinner!


Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, and Faris finally make it to Jachol in FINAL FANTASY V SPOOF. They meet this old man: "Welcome to Jachol, the town with the name that sounds too much like JACK HOLE to be a coincidence."




Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, and Faris finally make it to the Jachol Cave in FINAL FANTASY V SPOOF. They open this chest to get the Thunder Whip, then decide to check it again. "There's a note inside... The great thief, Lonely Wolf, was here!" This is what happens if you let Lonely Wolf out of the jail in Walse Castle!




SEATH Jackson?! If it's pronounced as SETH anyway, why have the extra letter?!