Early birthday gifts and hangouts

This morning's car ride to church was a more-or-less pleasant one, as my mom was working full-time today. We saw all these cars parked on an empty field at #4 / Alderbridge, plus radar people and cameras around Knight / 43rd. (Knight / 57th is the WORST TRAFFIC BOTTLENECK EVER on the way home from church!) When we got to church, we saw my second cousin Wilson's mom... we told her that Wilson had met Jon at the airport last week, and that he had a good heart. Of course my sister and I gave Auntie Kwai (Yee-Ma) a hug! (Wilson's not really our second cousin, but it's a Chinese cultural thing :P)

I got into the sanctuary, and Auntie Grace (Dave's mom) gave me some stuff Dave was returning to Nate (it was a DVD of Dawn's, so we said that Dave was getting rid of her things), plus an early birthday gift from him. That was so nice of Dave.. I'll definitely buy him a thank-you card later and send it off, as soon as I make sure that the address I have for him is still current. Michael gave me his copy of the Da Vinci Code to borrow, as well. That reminds me: I should really finish Nathan's Chinese Classical Literature book and give that back to him as well, and buy the last Diana Gabaldon Outlander series book A Breath of Snow and Ashes when it comes out on the 27th (plus Matthew Good's newest album In A Coma)... I have more time to read and such now that I've left RQ, and am not frantically refreshing my friends pages every half hour that I'm at the computer... although it does tend to affect my friendsfriends pages. ;) Then I talked to Jeff and Anita about late-night work and cruises.

Afterwards, Vivian gave me a birthday present from her and her sister Karen: that's very nice of them! We'll certainly miss Vivian when she goes to France for seven months! Eric said that I should keep the communication lines open: he tried calling me yesterday at 6:30 about the worship thing last night... I wouldn't have been home anyhow because of Awana! But it's nice that he thought of me, heh. (I heard they left at 10:45 or 11 because people took forever to pack up, and then they went to Richmond Sushi!) I talked to Jeremy for a bit and got his email address so I could email him the details of the birthday party, although if his email practices are "read quickly and store somewhere so I forget about it till way later," I don't think I'll have any luck. (haha) I invited Sheena, Jen, Andrea, Chalaine, Sam, and Silvester to the party: I really should get everyone's email addresses, hahaha. Eunice thought the party was tonight and told me she couldn't make it: good thing for her that it's on Saturday! (actually, I have Sam's email address... it's just not in my address book or written down somewhere) Erin complained that everyone bailed on her Grouse Grind thing, but I think she got Jeremy to go with her. Steph's kinda co-teaching / helping out with Daniel's Gr. 11 / 12 Sunday School class... that should be interesting with everyone texting each other about stuff, haha.

Later, Eric almost forgot that Steph and I needed a ride home from church otherwise we'd be stranded. Good thing Nathan flagged him down at the 7-11! Steph's hanging out with Vanessa later while Vanessa studies / does her homework (Steph's ditching Eunice's rollerblading plans), then going to dinner at White Spot with her and Patrick. We should really hang out and do the siu long bao thing again sometime, since it's been so long! It'll be all the Richmond people plus Nathan and whoever rides in his car... oh, and we mustn't forget Citrus, haha. Eric said they had 12 steamers last time, so maybe they'd go for more... that depends on the number of people we have, of course.

I spent the ride home being kinda incoherent / deranged / crazy (but Eric and Steph are used to it, hehehe)... my own sister isn't going to my birthday thing since she has other committments: some Timothy floodlight worship service thing. (she refuses to feel guilty about it... cheh! :P I guess that means that I don't have to feel guilty about anything either, then!) Her Saturday nights are booked now, and she won't have a committee meeting on the hockey season opener night: Canucks training camp starts tomorrow! I'll get back to my mom about a possible family lunch on Saturday after I figure out Saturday rides with Sam... I *knew* I forgot to ask him something today! Ah well, plenty of time for it later. ;)