2006 Church Grad Banquet

Church grad banquet this year was quite fun. Sam and YoYo were waiting for me when I was ten minutes late. We discussed her going to Queens in the fall: in fact, she leaves for school the day after she gets back from Mexico! (so crazy, but she has no choice) Esther called Sam to say that she'd be really late since she thought the banquet started at 7:30 or something, and she went to the Flamingo on Cambie St. instead. I also told him that Jon and Dallas had mentioned seeing both him and Julie M. at Superstore.. very interesting, haha. Once we got there, I was the only one at my table: not for long, as Denise and Jeremy showed up within minutes of each other. Denise then went to talk to others, so Jeremy said "Nobody else from the table's here! But that's okay, since we're awesome!" Haha, that is certainly true! ;)

The table soon filled up, and we were talking about last night's dinner / next week's edition (no durian, natto, stinky tofu, or other smelly foods or garbage as food allowed!) / what we did today / wearing suits in the heat / scripts (Danielle printed a couple of copies, and Eric printed a couple) / whatever else we found interesting. When the roasts started, there were some technical glitches, but those were resolved. Citrus and Danielle's roast for Cordia involved a MARIO-like game (mushrooms, different worlds, and 1-UPS) where she was "Ninja Cordia" and her family and Danielle helped her defeat the final boss. The last shot featured Cordia's grad photo: a head shot of Darren was in the corner thinking "WHO'S THAT?!" HAHAHAHA.

Steph's roast for Erin included a JEOPARDY-like game that touched on a LOT of inside jokes, including the maxipad story. (the parents didn't approve of THAT question being asked! :P) There was also the "Auntie Brenda ate a lot of dark chocolate on her trip to Japan, which is where Erin was conceived... no wonder her skin is so dark!" joke. Plus the "mangoes don't just come from the Philippines" thing, and the time when she burst out laughing in the middle of her solo for Christmas 1994 because her brothers were distracting her from the front row! So much fun and laughter... Steph tells stories better than Jon and I can!

Eric's roast for Jon involved him going through a "typical" day in his life, starting out with my dad knocking on his bedroom door and waking him up loudly. ("stumbling around looking for glasses and having some coffee") Then he had breakfast at a Pho place, lunch at another, and dinner ("super megasize bowl!") at yet another! Interspersed with this were little vignettes: Danielle calling him at 1:30 to tell him that they were supposed to meet at noon ("I don't THINK that I can make it then... I'll be late!"), rocking out to SPACE LORD by Monster Magnet, going to Dragon Ball and ordering a mixed drink, and chest slapping Nathan and Jeremy during worship practice. (this happens a lot!) Cordia and Joyce's roast for Quan focused on how she hates being called short, her dislike for people touching her hair, noticing things in other people's hair ("there's a potato in your hair!"), her dislike of mushrooms, buses, memories ("remember when we got lost on the hike from church when we barely started?"), and more! The last shot for THAT one featured a wild red mushroom growing in a field... "Oh, and one more thing... THIS."

Nathan and Jon's roast for Citrus did indeed involve a video: Dallas hated it since his singing was not the best! (someone suggested that they put it on YouTube later [if they do, I need the link!].. "we'll favorite it just for you!") It involved a weird scene of how Citrus met Danielle (Pantene Pro-V, anyone?), a Sigmund Freud cutscene ("Your name is Citrus? ... Citrus? Like the lemon, lime, and orange?"), KATAMARI in the game and a real-life simulation, a scene of what it might be like seven years after Citrus and Danielle got married ("say hi to your 12 kids [represented by lemons], honeybunch!"), what you could do with a Citrus action figure ("you can even marry it!"), and various other things. It was all designed to be even worse than Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, and Brian thought it was even more awful than his 2004 Homestar Runner roast of Jon! (the third church grad banquet in a row that Jon's been an honoree...)

Chris Lam did a speech for his sister Vivian, Julie and her friend MeiLin did a speech for each other, and Erin did a video for Angus and Karen Grace featuring photos from kiddy life and present life. There was a photo with a bunch of us at very young ages in someone's basement: me, Jon, Steph, Megan, Wayland, Justin, Clement, and some more. (Erin even helpfully flashed names on the screen!) Sam, Chris Tse, Kristen, some girl named Gnomes, and another girl named Mel did a long video for Joey, Mike, Mark, and Darren. It was pretty funny... basketball, shoe collections, venting, skimboarding, rocking music, obsession with orange, jeans, shorts, and technology. Erin's roast of Adela featured a photo shoot, sunsets, and more! Everything was funny, though!

I told Jeremy about the time at another church function where there was one bottle of Coke and one of Pepsi at each table. Of course, the kids finished it quickly, so they decided to take the pop bottles from the old people's tables instead! That reminded him of a similar story he'd heard about Alan, only it involved wine bottles... somehow, I'm not surprised! Steph gave me FIVE boxes of leftover food (OUR table did well in terms of eating!), and said that I had to give a "closing the books" cheque to Katherine for her since it'll probably get lost / be late if Jon has it.. uh, sure. Talked to Quan, Hien, and Cordia for a while... I should send Corey's arguments against mushrooms to Quan, if I can find them and if I can get her email address! (when I was telling them how this friend of mine said mushrooms were fungi and grew in dirt, Quan had this "I told you so!" look on her face) Quan and Hien's brother David was busy constructing a "WHEEL OF FORTUNE board" on one of the back tables, with napkins on a lazy susan. ("I got bankrupt a lot!")

Jon suggested we go to (where else?) Dragon Ball afterwards, so a bunch of us reluctantly tagged along... after an 11-course meal?! Dallas, Christon, Jeremy, Nathan, Chris Tse, Joe, Ivan, Sam, YoYo, Mike, Kristen, Erin, and I showed up. Since there were so many people in the crowded teahouse, Erin convinced her parents to let us go over for a bit. Jon, Jeremy, Nathan, Dallas, and I demurred. There was a sticker picture on the counter, and Jeremy said that it was our destiny to find that girl! He and Erin also talked about photos (her new hobby... she's even started up a site!), and Top Left Pixel. Jon had kumquat-watermelon with black grass jelly and pearls: he said it was kinda bitter, like an IPA. (I tried some, too)

Outside the place, Nathan got a call from someone and made reference to "female Kristen." Hey, we have Chinese Eric and white Eric... so why not male Christon and female Kristen? (haha) Nathan's "weirdness levels" are at zero since they've been depleted by making that video and such over the past three days or so... not even the giddy tiredness could save him, heh. He heard an old lady exclaiming "So many lemons!" at that roast scene, haha. Later, we drove Jeremy home: apparently, some of them are watching REQUIEM FOR A DREAM tomorrow night at Jon's, and I might show up. (the effects of drug addiction on four characters? I'm so there, haha!) Jon, Jeremy, and I also discussed the freaks who didn't lie ANY kind of music: country music's morals are suspect, but then so is everything else! (we listened to Neil Young last night, and Sufjan Stevens tonight!) Steph's apparently having sushi overload tomorrow, but if she can handle it... yummy stuff! Good times. :D

Jeremy also thinks that "WAI?" should be incorporated into English usage... why not? You can confuse people! I also told people about Jon's terrible Chinese... the proper response to your grandma telling you "I'm sleeping in your bed!" should not be "Thank you!" We were also discussing weird names the other day: Rigel (boy), Richter (girl), and Lamond (girl)... oh, Asian parents... o_O (Corey's also emailing me about random stuff... oh, dear!)