Hot pot night!

I'm not really supposed to be on now as per Eric's orders, but I had to update and catch up. After this, I'll be a good girl and turn this thing off. I was going to say that there was no whining, but it's just started after this thing's been on for about an hour... I guess that's pretty "good," relatively speaking!

Went to the mall this afternoon since I had more stuff to mail out and buy. The post office was cash-only since there was trouble with the credit / debit card cables, so I went to the bank first. Good thing I ended up spending way less than last week on postage, bottled water, toothbrushes, raspberry and juniper hand sanitizers (those were ON SALE HALF-PRICE ENDING TODAY!), mushroom noodles, and a screwdriver from the dollar store! (thanks for the tip, Jasmine!) Got to the community centre around 6, and Eric pulled up within a couple of minutes. He wasn't convinced of my sanity, but whatever. He's just weird. :P

Complained about the road / bridge being frickin' busy, got gas even though he had 10 litres left (he wasn't getting it at 103.4 earlier!), and listened to Team 1040 coverage of the Canucks. Willie Mitchell hit someone in the head, so the talk was about the new NHL and how Ron McLean hates it / wishes that obstruction was still allowed... Colin Campbell had words right back at him! Then we have this young backup goalie that Vigneault threw in against Nashville... all sorts of fun there, not. (losing 6-0?)

When we got to church, we found that there were three simultaneous worship practices going on, and certain people had to be in two places at once! (Sunday, Floodlight tomorrow, and tonight's worship) I elected to go downstairs to see what was going on there: I went to the bathroom after Danielle did, figuring that it was a good idea. When I came out, Nathan was looking for me with Teunis in tow. I explained to Nate that I'd been in the bathroom - we're such good friends that we can talk about that stuff, haha. Good thing he was early, although I thought he'd just wander down to the basement, silly person that he is. I can imagine how it would have gone if I weren't there: "Hmm. Her stuff is here, but she's not... hey, Jon! Where'd your sister go? Eric and Jer! Where is Leslie? You don't know?! Uh... Cordia, check the bathroom!" Haha. Daniel says everyone in his family is going to Hong Kong at different times, heh. He was editing an essay before emailing it to a prof: good strategy! Teunis took one look at the laptop and was transported into nostalgia, hehe.

Talked for a while with Teunis after I handed him his Christmas card, which I was going to mail if he didn't come out tonight: seems he's doing stuff with snakes and the eternal programming servers or something. He showed me this cool picture of a Komodo Dragon: I looked them up online once, and those can be dangerous! Wandered off to the kitchen so I could give Danielle her and Citrus' Christmas cards, and got a hug for that - I also wanted to see Steph's reaction to the Komodo Dragon, which was JUST what I was hoping for! She didn't seem to like it much, haha. Heh, I'm a bad hostess since I kept wandering off places... but he got to talk to Billy, Stella, and Connie at first - so that was fine. Babies Benjamin and Megan are so cute! Ben's so curious about stuff, too. Very cute kids. Connie gave her sister Winnie their birthday cards from me: no problem that she forgot temporarily! Winnie knows I always remember!

Gave Vania and Karen Choo their Christmas cards before I sat down. Yes, of course Teunis could sit by me... I wasn't going to sit by Martin when I hardly know the dude! Hot pot was certainly interesting, with all the food and the community aspect of it. Talked to various people about things, and it seemed Teunis was enjoying himself. Saw Fidela, who's home on American Thanksgiving weekend... of course I had to hug her hello! She told me that the Bathroom Reader I gave her is in front of her mirror every day... at first, Jenny thought it was one of those page-a-day calendars. Nope, although I did have one of those a couple years back now...

Sam, Joey, Mike, Lucas, Darren, and their friends looked like they were having fun with their huge pot of food. Alan made various comments about Vivian / permission / the Committee / Eric / the food throughout the dinner, while Vania thought the opera music sounded too depressing. Jon looked at the CD and joked about changing it to the New Pornographers... of course, Jen went right along with THAT suggestion! Someone brought an ice cream cake out and people joined in singing "Happy Birthday" to Jon: sparkler candles looked way cool! I later had to eat Eric's slice since he can't eat that stuff, so wandered over to Randal and told him about the great sacrifice I was making, har har. It was pretty funny when Daniel started interviewing baby Megan on the microphone: "Where's Uncle Yoda? Are you a Bush supporter? Does your father know about your politics?!"

While Randal and Teunis were talking about the history of the Mongolians or something, I wandered over to the corner where Citrus / Mike / Darren / Ryan / Sam were flicking playing cards at each other. Mike accidentally hit me with one as I was walking over, and apologized. Not a problem! Eventually, Eric started collecting the cards that were flicked our way so they'd eventually run out of them. Jeremy was telling us about a Tetris documentary that he'd seen recently: Russian government, scientists, and even a ringtone on his phone! Eric was convinced that Jer played video games in secret, hahaha. Jon was chest-slapping the guys who gave it right back, and Angus almost wrestled him to the ground. Mike thought that my friend looked like Penn of Penn and Teller ("those two guys that do magic?! huh?!")... little guy (Randal) talking to a big guy, haha.

It got cold suddenly, but Jon says that the church is even colder at 9 AM on Saturdays during prayer meeting! Yikes, and I think it's cold when I go in for Awana in the afternoon! Stanley, his parents, and Hien's mom came to clean the church: they got our attention by turning the lights off and on, and told us to talk upstairs / outside. Seems Teunis thinks our group is pretty lively: he should meet Jackie and see how hyper she is, haha. Apparently, Karen told him to keep in touch with me because of the Fellowship Christmas meal on the 10th. (which Eric can't go to because his company party is on that SUNDAY! ... one of Steph's parties is on the 8th, so she won't be at Fellowship that day) Hmm... I guess I'll see on that one. If she invited him, then I'm sure it's fine if he goes! He left soon afterwards, so I went back inside. Jon was talking to someone on the church phone for some time, but we got him out eventually. One of the reasons why he didn't want to tell me about Harmony is because he thinks I'm "nosy." Not so much, no. :P

Some office Christmas parties are early, even before American Thanksgiving! (Dianne and her parents are in New York right now visiting their aunt, so Cindy's essentially by herself!) We also spent some time discussing arrangements for tomorrow night. The parents have Zion, so who knows if they'll drive Steph to the Whip. Since I am challenged when it comes to bus route knowledge in this town, I didn't really want to go too far out of my way. Steph suggested I call Jer up and ask to go with him from his place: that carried the danger of his thinking I'm utterly stupid. (or maybe that's my bad thinking again...) I didn't want to get to the restaurant REALLY EARLY, since the host is notorious for being LATE! (and he has a brunch tomorrow at some café near Jeremy's... he seemed to like the "beer at various ages" card, though)

So I got home, thought about it for a bit, and called Steph back to say that I'd take her suggestion. Then I called Jeremy to ask what he was doing tomorrow at 6:30-ish, and got the expected answer. He tried telling me which bus to take, but since I might get lost (or I'm just paranoid), he agreed to meet me near his place... I'm impressed! That works for me since I like having people around whom I can talk to, AND who actually know where they're going... nice comfort, that. :P (I wouldn't know, even though Main is a major street!) NOW it occurs to me that the mall is closed at that time, so we can't really meet inside near the Buy-Low / Shoppers. UGH. At least it gives me some safety and security to have him with me, as lame as that may sound. :P (I'M SPEAKING ON A PURELY FRIENDSHIP BASIS HERE, FOLKS!) Oh well... now all that remains is to somehow convince Henry to make a quick Renfrew / 22nd detour tomorrow afternoon! It shouldn't take TOO long to pick up the thing, although I hope it's not heavy coz I'll be carting it around all night!

My siblings think Teunis is cool since he's easy to talk to. Good thing there were people he knew at the dinner! Too bad I didn't really talk to him as much as I might have, but he wasn't standing around looking lonely, to everyone's credit. We also spent time talking about Joshua from South Calgary EFC... as long as he's not a Flames fan, it'll be FINE! Now I hear there will be snow on the weekend... EEP! I do not do well in snow, but I'll manage somehow. (I hope) Also, Steph thinks that Martin kinda looks like Cindy and Dianne's brother Tony... maybe a little bit, but not much.