"We went through a pound of butter a week, and I didn't even use it that much!"

We woke up the teens (Sam / Mike / Joey / Chris / etc.) in the lounge, then I told Steph that Jon thought I was a gossip hound: since when is hearing about the baptism class / date from one of the participants (Mike) GOSSIP?! At breakfast, Steph told us that her old roommate Jessica Marr used a pound of butter a week for eating with rice. When Steph ate plain white rice, Jessica was very surprised. Jeremy noticed some soy sauce in with the food, and said that it was an "Asian touch," which is how we got onto this topic in the first place. We noticed blueberry sauce for our pancakes, and figured the the food people were recycling food, since the blueberries had been part of our snack last night. (Steph poured a bunch of blueberry sauce into a cup, and joked that this was the best part!) Jeremy advised us all NOT to try the apple juice since it tasted really rank.. I decided to take his word for it!

Someone made a comment involving Trinity Western University and Texas: Joe thought that they were making fun of Phil's girlfriend since those two things were all he heard, haha! (of course they weren't!) Jon decided to go to Starbucks for some coffee and brought it to us in the Northwest building with all the pretty colors! Steph asked William, Darren, and Sam's brother Jeremy how it had been sleeping three to a room: it wasn't too bad, particularly since they'd not slept till 5 AM, so William didn't really care about sleeping on the floor! I asked Jon how Dix had been the other night: he and Jeremy hadn't gone there, but to Nathan's instead! Eric asked whether I was afraid of trays, too: of course not, but I don't feel like I can carry them with the proper balance! Christal and Wilson's mom told me that Wilson had seen me eating with my friends in the cafeteria, so got her attention by saying "Mommy! See!" Heh, two-year-olds are cute. Wish I'd talked to him a bit, but didn't really get a chance to... next week it is!

I noticed Megan and Wayland at the first talk session, so talked to them a while: it's really hot in St. Louis, but Wayland can deal now. I said hi to Clarence, Ben, some people from the Richmond church, Rich, Hien, Margaret, and Christon. Steph mentioned that I should get some AfterBite: maybe later! Jason Mak saw me and thanked me again for the flaxseed bread: his parents really like it, which is a good thing! Before lunch, we had a group picture: getting 300 people into a photo is no easy task, but nobody did any "Auntie Brenda" stances this year, haha.

We noticed Jeremy's name tag again, and Steph asked who'd written the Chinese characters after Nathan did a joking translation. (the last one was the word for "rice," since the "me" sound doesn't exist in Chinese!) He said that Mom had written it, telling him that he had to have a Chinese name... this made Steph feel left out. I got Jon and Steph to sign Justin's and Fidela's birthday cards, and then asked Clement (who I saw in the hallway) where his siblings had gone. Soon afterwards, I saw Justin: he seemed really appreciative of the golf Bathroom Reader, which he didn't have. Jon joked that he was really disappointed about Rule #1 in the conference handbook, which involved no alcohol on campus. Then we broke Rule #6 ("you may not enter the room of someone of the opposite gender unless you are designated as sharing that room with your parent / child / spouse") SO many times, it wasn't funny! Luckily, Pastor Joe was there to oversee things! ;)

I talked to Dianne, Connie, Anthony, Eric, Karen Lew, Chrystal, Terry, Christon, Vivian, and others at lunch... we discovered more recycled food (strawberries and blueberries) in the dessert tarts! Steph said that the meal expenses at Trinity were kinda high: $2 for each ice cream bar, $25 for dinner, $15 for lunch, and $10 for breakfast! ("Quick, Joey! You have to eat $10 worth of food!") She had the exact amounts on her computer, but not an itemization by foodstuff! After a while, Rich left to go get something.. this was my opportunity to pass Fidela's card and book to Sheena so she could give it to her at the other table. Fidela really liked it, and joked that she'd flip through the book during chapel sessions at Wheaton, heh. Zoe (one of the kids) passed our table a few times: my sister said hi and tapped her on the head for fun, so the kid just let out an exclamation of fear and clung to her mom. She's about nine years old, but did say hi and wave back when *I* said hi to her! (although she used to just ignore me when I did that) My sister likes it that Zoe's afraid of her (but Zoe doesn't know why she's so afraid of Steph... my sister didn't do anything to the kid, so perhaps that's why!), since you need that balance of fear and respect first with children. (or something) Some people had watched KING KONG at 2 in the morning: even my brother's not that insane, haha.

On the way to the session after lunch, Rich was discussing Dylan's friend Carol with someone else, so I told him that she was Zoe's cousin. He thought that I knew a lot of gossip: not true, since we talked to them after lunch! (I also said hi to Sheena and Chalaine's mom... I know who she is!) Then Anthony randomly tapped me on the shoulder and acted like it wasn't him: yes, it was... I'd seen him doing that to Karen right before he did it to me! I asked Benny when his birthday was: it's the day after Rich's, and he's 21 now. He wondered why I was asking and when my birthday was (I said that I was just wondering, haha) and then remembered that I was older than Danielle. Then he asked what year I was in the Chinese zodiac: he's a Rat, and I'm a Dragon! After the session, we had a bunch of ice cream bars to start our four hours of free time: Eric said that I was thinking of taking another one because he couldn't eat any... yeah right! I talked to Teresa, who said that Gwyneth had ADD and was moody when she was off her meds. (as she was now for a week... her birthday had been last week) Her sister Evelyn's birthday is the day after mine, but she wouldn't talk to me either. Steph and I discussed things with a guy named Henry while discovering that the megaphone was broken: we saw Isabel, Emily, Jeremy, Darren, and some others climbing out a first-floor window to get outside. (why can't they just use the DOOR?!) We saw little Clara's mom pass by: we can see she's pregnant! That reminded Steph of Stella's suddenly getting a LOT of belly fat all at once: we were all relieved when Stella announced her pregnancy with Benjamin! ("is she just really fat now, or... ???")

Auntie Sarah went to the Army & Navy surplus store to buy stuff, Ben said that Joe was going to Starbucks with six other people, people played badminton / soccer / other stuff in the gym, and Ben himself worked on his testimony. The teens played volleyball, and asked Ivan what he was teaching his brother since little Nathan had apparently developed a crush on the Chinese speaker's six-year-old twin daughters! (there are two of them, which might be part of his fascination) I talked about that with Emily and Isabel outside while the kids were playing about. The twins, Rosanna, and maybe one other girl were watching Nathan... four girls, dude! Ryan and Ethan came by, and so did Steph: she wondered to me whether Ryan and Ethan were twins. (they're not, but they're not even two years apart in age: they look like their dead father, though!) William sat down with us and we talked for a bit about summer and such... Summer Conference seems really short because we just got there last night, and leave tomorrow afternoon! (maybe it should be extended one more day or something) Then I let the kids use my bubble solution: between gentle blowing and some spillage, we all managed to use up more than half of it! (but that's okay, heh) Rosanna and her sister Samantha somersaulted a lot, then picked up "chipmunk food" (grass and odd stalks) and looked at the white clouds' shape in the sky.

Sheena, Cindy, Chrystal, Connie, Lesley, and others invited me to go walking around the lake / running with them... however, I declined. (I'd slow them down, man!) After that, I went inside to read / nap a little. In the dinner lineup, Joey / Steph / Chris / Sam discussed Chung's younger brother Ming: he's a soccer hottie! At dinner, Jeremy opined that the butter was made of petroleum products: yummy! We discussed Richmond being overpopulated by rabbits: Steph thinks we should just shoot them, and never mind what the animal rights people say! She thanked William for letting them use his playing cards since nobody had packed any! Then the discussion somehow turned to cigars and nicotine highs: one of the Richmond girls had tried it, and said that it was pretty potent, but wore off after a while! Then we talked about the brown water just below us, and the lone Canada goose: jokes were made about having it for dinner instead of the turkey we had.

Halfway through dinner, we noticed some of the little kids (Rosanna / Samantha / Ryan / Ethan) beating Mike up: he couldn't take them inside since they'd disrupt too many people! So instead Mike dangled Ryan off the railing that overlooked the "sewer water": Citrus warned him not to turn into Michael Jackson, and Steph added that his new name could be Michael Jackson Kwan! Jeremy came back out while we were all laughing at this.. he wondered to me whether he'd missed something, so I filled him in. He found it amusing! Eric went to help with the kids, and Julie wandered by during a discussion that Sam / Chris / Jeremy were having about drumming speed and bongos! (slow down, speed up, etc.) I got Ryan, Evelyn, and Gwyneth to stop pinching Mike's nose... meanwhile, Ethan had bumped Eric's chin once, so Steph told him to be careful. As Mike said, this is why little kids shouldn't take naps!

At the third session, I noticed Dorothy, who used to be at my church when she was a baby! (I remember her from then!) She updated me on her sisters Lavone (pregnant and moving into the family basement with her husband... it's being painted and such!), Josanna (getting married in September), and Bonnae. Maybe I'll email Lavone sometime if I still have her email address somewhere... I have a suspicion it's in my old rat-stained notebook, which of course I threw away in a church garbage can. At snacktime, Fidela was discussing the Darfur "three times in one day" Grouse Grind with Jon and Jeremy: they plan to start at 8 AM, heh. Steph told me that Jessica Lam's birthday was Thursday (I was prepared with a birthday card!), and that Terrence's was today (a year younger than she is)... he's in Singapore, but she sent him an email. Yes, I noticed that she has two good friends named Vivian... very nice coincidence! Chris wanted to jam, but nobody really felt like it. Someone joked to Cindy about dehydrated / evaporated water, and she fell for it.. oh no! Terry, Dianne, and others were counting up the David / Daniel Fellowship attendees at this year's Summer Conference: we didn't do too badly! (we said hi to Karen So when she passed by with Chung)

Right after Jeremy said that the honeydew wasn't ripe, Joey ate some... I guess teens will eat anything! Vivian was amused at Steph's retelling of the "Dylan and Jon's guitar story," Steph joked to Vivian that we'd give her big tins of Jelly Bellies and Blue Diamond almonds for a wedding present (memories!), and Eric joked about my Corona hat: he KNOWS where I got it (of course I told Jeremy when HE asked about it!), and it wasn't at a kegger! A bunch of people went to the lounge later to watch movies and such, and I joined them after I read some more true crime. People were playing Spoons (with plastic knives) and Steph had made it into a bladder endurance contest by declaring that they had to drink some exact measurement of water if they went up a level, and were out for good if they had to pee. Fidela led a card game of Mafia: we were all amused at someone's description of Olivia as "quiet and evil," haha. The Spoons group got into a debate whether sound effects (Vania throwing a spoon at Steph's chest and the subsequent deflating noise) constituted "talking." Steph apologized to Eric for the TMI factor of her "boob and bra" explanation, and then asked Ben whether Vania was right or not. (Vania said that the "sss" sound effect WAS talking, and Steph obviously didn't agree with her!) He didn't get it, so I had to explain it further to him: after that, he had no opinion either way. Then Vania led Steph into "general conversation," and made her go up a level, so Steph threw knives at everyone playing Spoons.

Sam said that the Kirkland Jelly Bellies were amazing, so I had to try some: he was right! Later, Steph decided to microwave some of the popcorn: Ben asked me what it was. He'd never heard of Orville Redenbacher, and had never heard the kiddy camp song "I love fried rice / You can't get to heaven on roller skates" that Mike started a round of slightly later on. (he asked me what song it was, heh... but I didn't mind telling him stuff!) Anthony was playing KH2 in his room on Benny's laptop, so a bunch of the guys and I watched for a while. One Richmond girl noticed what was going on, but stopped just short of the door to watch. Me, I just kept on breaking Rule #6! (hahaha, good times!) Sheena, Connie, and Lesley arrived in the lounge for a while and watched Fidela / Sam / Julie / Mike / Ivan / Hien / William / Olivia / Stanley / others play Mafia. (and Spoons) After about 40 minutes, I left to read and then sleep.