Seeing Nina, Steph, and Vivian: ice cream and relationship / family discussions galore!

Today, I finally saw Nina after a few years.. it was good! We talked a bit about her failed arranged marriage in India to a guy who got progressively more demanding / aggressive with her when she and her parents initially wouldn't help him sponsor his parents to come to Canada from India. Once they agreed to do that, things got worse as he demanded more and more. Nina's parents (especially her dad) thought that he was a nice guy, and Nina thought he seemed like a nice enough person on the internet. The marriage seemed fine enough in the first couple of weeks or so, but then her ex started demanding certain things of her. She also got pregnant early on in the marriage, and says her son Dylan was the only good thing to come out of the relationship.

Her ex would say that he'd go to the gym with her when they got married, but he just ended up sitting around all the time. Now, I'm no health nut myself, but I think you should at least make an effort to do something if you promise your future wife you will... ugh! He ended up walking out on her after a really bad argument, and she hasn't seen him again. I was about to say "good riddance" when she told me that he came back to Canada from India with his parents (whom Nina's dad DID sponsor to come over here)! Now he wants access rights to his son: that sounds okay except when you consider that he never really asked her how Dylan was doing in the year and a half since he walked out on her!

So there are a lot of affidavits and court dates in front of a judge before this divorce is going to finally be over. Nina just wants it to be over, but it seems like her ex is dragging things out and accusing her of all sorts of untrue things (in front of a judge and lawyers, even!), which didn't work when they tried to settle things by themselves with legal representation. The judge said, "This couple absolutely cannot be together in the same room!" and Nina agreed... she never wants to see him again!

She showed me an old picture of Dylan, who for some reason looks like his father's brother. (now that I think about it, he kinda looks like a guy named Navin Bahadoorsingh that I used to know in elementary school!) He looks cute enough, and genes CAN do funny things... Nina has a cousin whose son looks like his (the cousin's) brother! Later, she invited me to her place in Surrey one day: maybe, since she did come to Richmond a couple of times for me! (she remembers my place as cozy, heh)

I vented about Stephen and told her about LJ (which I might link her to later on YM since she's never really been on the "chat lines," as she calls it) and the circumstances of our relationship. Guys' excuses are just BAD, especially if they involve satellites and such being all weird when they "try" to call you! Nina thinks the single life is better sometimes, as you don't have to answer to anyone, and get to do your own thing... she's just taking it slowly. If she finds someone, great... if not, she's doing stuff for her and her child! She was pretty depressed and isolated herself from her friends after all that happened, but got help and now feels so much better and positive about things! :)

Her brother Rick warned her about this guy, oddly enough. He's married now to his wife Sharon, and they dated for a bit before marriage. Yes, he remembers me and Yazmine... when Nina called Yazmine in an attempt to reconnect, Yazmine told her that she didn't talk to me anymore. That's right... over FIFTY CENTS! I told her that story as well... eh, it wasn't good. At least Nina has support from her family: in her culture, the family all lives together in a relatively large home, so it's nice that way.

We had a nice time chatting and catching up about family life: Jon and Steph graduating / working, Alaskan / Caribbean cruises, family weddings / reunions, etc. It was cool to see her again: maybe I'll see her again soon! On the way out of Metrotown, I got some black plum bubble tea at Little Tea House. I also saw little Rachel from the toddler Sunday School: that was a surprise! You see, I noticed a kid who looked very familiar with her mom: she wanted to go on the horse merry-go-round, so eventually her mom let her. I talked to her mom for a bit, telling her who I was: apparently, Rachel didn't really want to go to ballet or stick it out today. According to her mom, Rachel likes playing and eating: I think a three-year-old is a little young for an eating competition or riding real horses, but maybe she can get into sports when she's older!

Once I got off the bus in Richmond (reading more about the Green River Killer on the way :P), I went to the 7-11 near the townhouse and went overboard in buying Ben and Jerry's ice cream: New York Super Fudge Chunk, Tortoise Soup (which my sister really liked because of the unexpected saltiness), Half-Baked, and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. When I got to the townhouse, there was nobody home: my sister said she'd gone grocery shopping and then went to pick Vivian up. We had a nice dinner of beef tongue with pasta, jalapeno bread from Cobs Bakery, and broccoli. Dessert was a taste test of the four ice creams that I bought, plus the Smarties ice cream from Safeway. Since Vivian thinks she may be sensitive to dairy, she had some popsicles and Quality Street caramels instead. (those were my mom's favorites growing up)

We talked about maternal mushiness and hilarity (sparked by my sister seeing only "The Lover's Kit" on the "Book Lover's Kit" that my mom had left for me)... it's not good to ask your daughter if she'll be your lover! o_O Then we relived the "let's hug and make out!" moment... Vivian was horrified and amused, but not as horrified as she was when I brought up underwear parties! ("our preferred mode of dress is just underwear!" as per my sister :P) We also discussed how Mom thinks I'm out to kill the family just because I read true-crime (murder, mostly) books: I think I got it from her since she reads those too, although Mr. Spearman loaning me his copy of IN COLD BLOOD when I was taking Law 12 *did* help, hehehe. :D

Erin's aunt Eva called to check up on my sister, and Vivian's mom called to check up on her... they speak Spanish at home, which is understandable. Then Jessica called to see about the Grouse Grind tomorrow: the weather looks rainy! I told the girls more about what had happened during lunch on Sunday, and then Steph said that Nathan had made a perverted remark when they were at the Grey Cup game with Eric H. and Eric M. while she was complaining about Alex Auld's five-hole, hahaha. The more repressed you are, the more dirty you become when you let it all out! Steph also made various Tina Turner references during dinner, heh... those can be sexy enough in themselves! ;)

Vivian tried a bit of beef tongue, too. Steph decided to throw away some of the old ice cream that had refrozen after the freezer stopped working for a brief time... this is the only chance she'll get while the parents are away! She'll just tell Mom that the three of us devoured it, haha... Mom won't really look into it, as she's not a control freak who knows exactly how much ice cream is left in those tubs! Besides, it IS the truth: we DID devour ice cream... just not Breyer's mint chocolate chip and Breyer's light vanilla! :P (Vivian had a little bit of ice cream, but not too much)

Steph mentioned that she'd called Rich and told him that she would be doing the "Wheelchair in Motion" event. Rich misheard that as "I'm having a real emotional moment," and offered to buy her flowers or something, haha! Probably he was surprised that she was opening up to him that much! We discussed past church grad banquet roasts: Erin's Tina Turner roast of Steph was NOT well-understood by 95% of the people in attendance last year! Then again, neither was Nathan's "Homestar Runner: Strong Bad checks his emails" roast of Eric in 2004! (maybe three other people understood THAT one... Mom turned to my sister and asked what was going on and whether Nathan was crazy, haha!)

We discussed allergy shots and the time Jon had a big reaction right in the office after one of those times. Apparently, Vivian's brother Nathan (who's a year older than Steph) is a big WORLD OF WARCRAFT fan: Vivian and Jessica (the other sibling, in Gr. 11) tease him about his screen name and those of his friends on there! Vivian says that she had to discontinue taking Reactine for a while as per doctor's orders: she really looked like she was suffering! She fell asleep on the couch later because she took two Benadryl and four cortisone for said allegies this afternoon at 5:20-ish. Later, she said that she hadn't felt so sleepy at that time (9:30) since FOREVER ago... she likes staying up later!

Mom also left me some seaweed and "Delecta Bowls" (amusing pun!) of macaroni and such, plus the aforementioned "Book Lover's Kit" (haven't opened it yet). I took all that home, plus three of the Ben and Jerry's flavors (NOT Half-Baked) / Tropicana orange juice / the leftover jalapeno bread. I told Vivian about the time that I'd freaked out my cousins at the Congee Noodle House by eating an entire bowlful of spicy Chinese mini-peppers, haha. Good times! The three of us may have gone for one-litre bubble tea since Steph wanted to see me hyper on the yin-yang (I told them about how Eric could tell that I'd had some coffee on Sunday morning because of my crazy randomness), but we didn't: maybe some other time!

She's been spending a LOT of time with Steph when my parents are away: pretty much whenever she's not at work. We took Vivian home first since she was incredibly sleepy... I decided not to stay the night at the townhouse even though my parents weren't there. Maybe on Thursday to make things easier for Eric driving me on Friday night? (Steph has a Committee meeting at 6, which I heard about from Christon at Sunday lunch... so unless Eric has to lead worship at the Spiritual Formation program and thus goes straight to church from work, it should be fine!)

I also discovered that Jared had commented on one of my journals... Googling yourself DOES produce weird results, hehe. My sister and I agreed that balance between being out and staying home was important, too!