Seeing things through a newcomer's eyes...

This late update courtesy of multiple random computer restarts... grr!

The Good Friday service was pretty good, and solemn. I said hi to a bunch of people (Kevin, Daniel, Anita, Vanessa C., Danielle, Maxine, and Megan), and talked to a bunch more about updates / life / finishing school / food / bathroom trips. Sophia asked me whether I could make it to our pal Winnie's baby shower. I can't go because of Awana. But when Maxine and Sophia have theirs in the summer, I'm sure I can if I am invited! The teens are doing a 30-Hour Famine; the ones I talked to (Quan, Margaret K., Hien, Tina) were hungry, as I expected. Silvester asked me about the sunrise / regular / baptism services on Sunday, and I got reacquainted with a newcomer. Jason Kay forgot my name, but that's all right... there are plenty of people around to introduce him to, even if not all of them come every week! As I was telling Nathan later, seeing things like our in-jokes / established quirks / Fellowship doings from the perspective of a newcomer is certainly interesting! It's not BAD in any way, of course! One example: Nathan brought up his unrelated twin sister Vanessa L., and Jason thought he actually HAD a sister! (no, they're just really close and have the same birthday!)

I talked to Jen, Dawn, Vivian, Karen, Cindy, Dianne, Andrea, and Randal about my siblings and Dave's getting back soon / Jon's scholarship and blog / my new University of Toronto hoodie... Steph got that for me, NOT Jon! Nathan's pants ripped before service started, so he spent all night covering that up. Christon (who got a short haircut) was originally sitting on one side of the aisle, but decided to switch seats to the other side since he was singing and running a slide show. Andrea's boyfriend Chuck goes back to Toronto early tomorrow morning, incidentally. It's a good thing that his home is here... I think their relationship would be harder if he actually lived over there! Some of the guys were later looking at stuff on the church pastoral office laptop... I'm not sure if they were fixing it, or just surfing the Web.

I told Phil, Jackie, Nathan, Andy (whom I haven't seen in a long time... I still have his birthday card around here somewhere), Melia, and others about my new books... I should really bring them sometime for my pals to look over! Phil's grandma (who's been in a wheelchair for the past few years) still remembers me, which is a good thing. I have concern and care for / about her, like I would be about almost anyone else. While he was trying to get a hold of Eddie by cell phone, Phil told me about this really honest interesting book which covered our faith from a bunch of non-Christian perspectives. Wish I could remember the title, but I'm sure I can borrow it from him sometime... unless it's a university book, that is! We also talked about movies, but neither of us has really seen any in some time. Tracy and I rediscovered that the pews in the back row of the sanctuary are very unstable, as they move every time someone leans on them! Citrus later complained when Nathan slapped him in the chest, and noted that my brother's chest chops weren't as bad. Then Nathan said that we should fear his wrath... somehow, we were not convinced! (despite his demonic voice)

Nathan, Eric, Jason, and I went to Red Robin's at Metrotown to eat. We decided to carpool since it was easier; we spent the ride there talking about buying guitars, and explaining things about the Fellowship and church to Jason. He wants to get to know more people his age, so the guys explained how much their Fellowship camp was. I had to tell Jason that I was not a leader of their group at all, but was in the older group. At Red Robin's, Nathan amused us with his random thoughts... yup, we definitely remember the old times eating out with 20 people past 11 PM! Eric and I also refused to sing for Nathan's entertainment (although Eric did put on a French accent and said that he was mixed Irish / German / French / English), Nathan said that the salty optional seasoning (which Eric jokingly tried spraying on my head.. I told Jason that it was okay since we'd known each other for YEARS!) gave him heart palpitations, and I mentioned my ginger ice cream. We talked about TV shows, and made Eric blush by mentioning that our waitress had given him a look. (according to Nathan, she looked like the actress who plays the weird daughter of the devil and a devout Christian woman off some TV show he tried to like recently) We also tried figuring out (with Eric's math major help) whether Nathan had hung out more or less with us last summer, so he could attempt to plan more hanging out this summer when my brother gets back. (we remember that he was really busy last August because of his internship, counselling, and stuff!)

Jason asked if Nathan had a girlfriend, and figured that she would be eating with us if he did! Nathan said she probably would be, unless he wanted to balance spending time with her / time with the guys. (to which Jason protested that I was a girl, hahaha) Then he asked the three of us if having a relationship was high-maintenance: none of us had any real experience ourselves! But we did manage to tell him that it kinda depended on the person you were going out with. Eric, Nathan, and I discussed Sean as a kid teasing parents... he was a handful, all right. Then again, my brother always burns people in fun (like Margaret L. and Becky) when they don't know him well... not sure who's better! Nathan then asked us if Turkish Delight could cause food poisoning if it was a couple years old, since he'd been having stomach problems over the last couple of days or so. Eric and I figured that food poisoning wouldn't be SLOW since it would hit you all at once, so that might not be the cause. We also had to calculate exactly how much to tip the waitress, especially since we decreased it for the slow service... good thing she didn't forget about my four $10 bills since I need to pay four kids their pledge money for the famine! Nathan drove Eric and me back to the church, and dropped Jason off at Safeway since he had to buy some stuff... Eric and I did note the rainy weather, and thought of Jason's late-night trip home by bus.


On the way back home, Eric was concerned and thought I was insane because of my random laughter, and noted that he'd forgotten his water bottle when he saw mine. He also vehemently denied the existence of the Parisienne's fart lever (which is otherwise known as the automatic lock), noted the higher gas prices, commented on my MSN name this week and gave me a great suggestion for a new one (which I instantly took as soon as I got home), and thought that I'd actually talked to "Mystery Memphis." Nope, I've not talked to him for more than a week! (that does not mean I haven't forgiven him or anything, though!) We discussed old Richmond Crew in-jokes ("Soren," "Sarne," "booty," "Wong Kee," "A-1," etc.), noted the early spring carnival at Lansdowne Mall, and got gas at 92.9¢ a litre instead of the 99.3¢ it was selling at everywhere else. I'll give him a call tomorrow (technically later today) to see if he is really going to Sunrise Service... neither of us are sure that we can get quite enough sleep / wake up in time for it! (since it starts at 6:30 AM and all)