Babies, sickness, baptism, and all sorts of sundry stuff

When Eric picked me up tonight, I could really tell that he was still somewhat sick, as he advertised me yesterday on MSN. We mainly talked about his sore throat and fever on the way over to church, as well as the Parisienne's fart lever (he keeps denying that there is such a thing) and my belated thanks for his Christmas card. Yes, it's been a while since he gave it to my brother to give to me... as I told Sheena later on, I'd been meaning to thank him for a few weeks now! At least it's off my conscience, as she put it. :D

At church, Helen K. told us that Lauren had had her baby (Matthew Sean) on 16 February at 11 AM. My first thought was, "Cool! The kid shares my sister's birthday!" Speaking of babies, Helen C. is due to deliver a boy (it better be one) in about five weeks.. I spent some time talking to her husband Joe about that. As if that wasn't enough baby-related news, my friends Tim and Maxine (she was awfully sick with a cough) are also having a baby sometime in August... they found out on Boxing Day, and everyone congratulated them tonight. Billy said later that it was the next stage of life: first, everyone gets married; then, they all start having babies! Man, we're all getting old!

Randal said that he was reading my Vancouver book on and off.. it doesn't matter to me when he finishes it! Helen K. saw baby Matthew on the day he was born, and asked what I'd done this week. When I told her that I'd bought another Bathroom Reader for Chrystal, she asked what that was... I showed her, and then thought that I'd buy one for her. I have to buy more stuff this week, anyhow: mini-packs of Kleenex, hand sanitizer, and six Easter baptism cards for Vania / Joey / Samuel / Darren / Christon / Chalaine. (those baptism classes are hilarious, according to Christon!) We also discussed the meanings of names, looking things up on the Net, and the advantages of having books.

Stella asked if I'd had a haircut (no), Randal mentioned that he notices when I'm not around, John said he was tired and his stomach wasn't well, people asked about my siblings, and Lesley said I was really thoughtful for giving her a birthday card. It's what I do, and it's nice to have appreciation! Eddie thanked me for his birthday card, and I wished Janette a belated happy birthday. (even if it was a couple weeks late.. thanks to her MSN name, I knew!) Tim brought up Skype, a free Internet voice chat telephony system: his dad wants to use it to talk with friends in South Africa. I've now heard about it from him, Corey, and Spoz... sounds very interesting! Too bad a certain someone won't have any time for it, or me by implication! I'm all cynical and faithless, so there. :P

Said "hi and bye" to Jessica, Adela, and Michelle later on.. I also heard that Phil, Alan, and Eric (among others?) might move up to my group later this year. Erin said she'd visited Megan in Terrace, and had tried to phone my sister on her birthday. Since she, my brother, and our mom were in Niagara Falls for a couple of days (according to my brother's blog), it's no wonder Erin couldn't reach Steph! Everyone discussed the cold weather here.. it's okay for me, but then I'm home almost all the time anyhow!

Christon's leaving us in May to do an eight-month co-op term in Edmonton, and thinks everything will be different when he gets back. Maybe, there's no saying for certain. He also needs to study for midterms, but it's hard when Reading Break is upon students! Nathan, Dawn (who had no choice since Nathan was her ride home), Danielle, and Citrus were going to eat food at McDonald's. They invited us to come, but we all declined. Christon already had a Fillet o'Fish today, and Jason declared that to be the smallest burger on the menu.. even WITH all the "fish vitamins" Sheena said were in one! We also discussed the deals and toys McDonald's promotes, even if we hadn't eaten there in years!

I told Danielle about the excellent Milestones butterscotch dessert.. she loves Skor toffee bars! Eric jokingly thinks there shouldn't be any laughter during Bible Study, since it's supposed to be serious. Christon heard a lot of it from other groups, particularly when Sheena overheard his group's answers from another room to a question her group was about to cover! Discussed MSN and birthdays with Jason, as well.

Eunice said she thought their Fellowship committee was joking when they suggested chartering a plane to get them all to Thetis Island for Fellowship camp the last weekend of April. Supposedly, that would be a better use of time. (who knows) Janette had an informational interview with one of Danielle's cousins, who's a director of marketing.. it went all right. Cindy asked about my siblings, then said she had to go to the bathroom. A bunch of us were also discussing awkward silences, since at least two of them descended upon our conversation.. not from anything we were saying, though. (Eric almost forgot his guitar and water bottle at the church as Nathan was locking up, too!)

On the way home, Eric lucked out while getting gas. During the course of the evening, gas at most stations had gone from 85.9¢ a litre to 93.9¢ a litre. He managed to find a station that was still selling at the old price... yay! We discussed Sunday arrangements, jokingly for the right price: I don't want to stick around my dad while he picks up my mom at the airport, then goes back to church for some meeting! So I asked Eric to pick me up as well as drive me home.. he'd originally been planning to see a movie after church with Nathan and whoever else was up for it, but might cancel since he's still sick. So it's 9:15 on Sunday morning... I'll definitely call him tomorrow night (at 10?) to confirm in case he forgets like he did a few weeks ago! That would NOT be a good thing, at all.

I asked him what had happened when he got sick: he'd had a fever and a sore throat on Monday, but the fever pretty much went away soon afterwards. He thinks that he'll be better since he can sleep in tomorrow, and I certainly hope so too! Once, he accidentally coughed on me as he was shoulder-checking.. no spray, just germs! When I told him that Maxine had been coughing all night too, he predicted that I'd be doomed to get sick... I hope not! I offered to bring him some cough drops, but he said that they had sucrose and such in them... that's right, he can't have any of that. Good thing they now have Fisherman's Friends and non-sucrose cough drops! (echinacea might help too, but he says it's better as a preventative aid) We also discussed involuntary consumption of post-nasal drip and such.. yummy stuff, not.

This isn't the nastiest bout with sickness he's had, though. He was telling me about this time a couple of years ago where he couldn't even get up out of bed for two days. You know it's bad when you seriously contemplate how dizzy you'll get just going to the washroom! He wanted to make a scheduled exam he had, otherwise it would be too much work to defer it to the next term... the only problem with that was his throwing up during said exam. Good thing they let him rewrite it!

As I exited the car, I told him to get some rest... in turn, he told me to pray for him that he didn't fall asleep on the way home. Of course I did that.. he wasn't looking well at all, poor sweetheart. I was also thinking some highly inappropriate thoughts all night long, thanks to certain people who put them there in the first place. Oh well, what to do? It was a nice time out... even if I'll have to stay home next week since Eric's group is doing stuff downtown, and he's going there straight from work! (I also have free Fridays on the weeks of Apr. 29 and the May long weekend.. their Fellowship camp and my Fellowship retreat, respectively... yay for free time!)