Phone musings, little Sean being autistic, Pho, email, handwriting, and change

I really should leave my phone on at least during Sunday mornings, since apparently my brother / sister called me three times to see if I was ready yet... oops. =/ On a semi-related note, I hate these unknown callers who show up on my Caller ID with no number! Wish I could drag my phone over to see the caller first, but I can't due to wire placement. Oh well, maybe I'll get used to getting up from the chair (or leaning over) if / when the phone rings twice to see who it is first, heh. I spend far too much time in front of the computer, and I think I'm going blind prematurely, heh. (I couldn't really see the Powerpoint or certain people on the other side of the sanctuary this morning since they looked blurred... aiyoh!)

Once I finally got into the car, my brother described me to my sister over the phone as "surfacing" in the car. Sure, that could work if I somehow materialized out of the underground and then kinda slimed my way into the car from the floor up... o_O My grandma didn't really appear to care much about the music Jon had in the car, but asked if he danced around to it. So of course, he pretended to do so in order to get a reaction out of her. He asked me for translation help, too: our Chinese is bad, but I can muddle along!

When we got to church, Jon helped Margaret with her bass guitar amp settings while I sat in a pew with Phil. Chrystal, Emily, Mike, and assorted people showed up soon afterward so we all crowded in together with Jon and Jeremy. Quite cozy, but it was all good. I waved hi to Randal, and high-fived a few of the kids: they're so cute! Jon, Jeremy, and I noticed Christon's orange-and-green notebook that he used for sermon notes: very eye-catching! Phil asked if I'd seen BORAT with the rest of them last night, so I said that he should see it if he's not easily offended, even if it IS satire! (I can easily see some people in this world - not Phil - as being easily offended even by satirical things!)

After service, I made Steph sign Jeff's birthday card, then gave it to him. Yeah, we (read: I) remember even if the card's late! Steph also talked about the hockey pool with the guys, and I told Chrystal about BORAT and my mom's weird grasp of certain English terms... she says those stories are cute! I talked to baby Joshua for a while: all he wanted to do was play in the wet pile of leaves by the dumpster! "Uncle" Lee, his mom Maxine, and I wouldn't let him do so, of course! Speaking of Maxine, she's pregnant again and is due on New Year's Day. (my dad says that a New Year's Eve baby is better since the kid counts as a tax deduction for the year) Said hi to John, Sharon, and a few others before seeing what Jon and his group were talking about: mainly the whereabouts of white Eric since Nathan wasn't there, Phil had started teaching already, and Jon's car was being blocked. No, of course he couldn't take the ten of them in his car to Sunday School! Speaking of which, I decided that I had to leave, so told people I'd meet up with them afterwards for dim sum with Grandma.

At Sunday School, there were only three kids. Auntie Fonda told me that little Sean is autistic: his parents had taken him for testing, and this was the result. He has a social worker to teach him about social behavior... no wonder he likes playing by himself and behaves in certain ways! I know I don't understand a lot about it (and even made mistakes based on that in the past), but somehow I want to learn more. Dunno why, as the kid will only be in the toddler class for another year tops, but who knows. He does seem calmer when I'm around, so I'm guessing he can recognize me and is okay with my company. (wonder what his reaction might be if I ever beat him to the toddler room, heh... maybe next week?)

After Sunday School, I went upstairs to look for my grandma: dim sum had been cancelled, and she wondered where my siblings were. Steph had Tim Horton's plans with Vivian since she couldn't make it to the Greek dinner last week, and Jon eventually showed up with talk of the brewery. I went back inside because I thought I saw Andrew: I wanted his email address so I could send him a story that we were talking about last week during Awana. (I don't remember how the discussion came up of reverse life spans!) At least I gave Jason his birthday card yesterday (being early for once) because I didn't see him today! Talked to Andrew for a bit about the resumption of the Hallelujah Chorus, as well: these teens are cool, dude!

I went outside to see what people were talking about, and got there just in time to see Eric giving out red licorice Nibs / Twizzlers to everyone since he can't have them. Someone mentioned liking the REAL stuff (black licorice), and Sam said that could be an interesting Dragon Ball combo: black licorice, mocha bubble tea, and coconut jelly doesn't sound good to me! We had to tell Jeremy about it when he came back out of the church, and he thought that could have potential... what has my brother been teaching Sam?! After a while, our family and Jeremy went to Pho, where Jeremy was the one to ask for translation help when Grandma said stuff to us in Chinese! We talked about Jeremy needing to change his email filters / check his email in general, spam that seemed to come from novels (Googling the stuff bore that out), whether Jon should see BORAT (maybe video would be good since you don't want to see certain scenes like male nudity on the big screen!), Cindy's reaction to LIFE OF BRIAN, the Amnesty International documentaries, upcoming Fellowship programs (AGM / hot pot / ping-pong), the improved Pho quality (like Pho Thai Son: succulent broth and firm noodles!) and more. When Grandma paid for the bill, we had a discussion about what form of "thank you" to use since she paid for Jeremy's Pho too.

We went back to church to wait for Steph and Jen, where we saw Dave's mom and talked to her for a bit about Dave - he saw Erin for some reason recently! Jeremy looked up stuff about Passover and bread in his Bible, and kinda-sorta greeted the people coming in for the Mandarin service's new start time of 2. When we told Jeremy what the Mandarin and Cantonese versions of "are you well?" were, we could see my dad cringing at our bad pronunciation! The guys figured that Jen wasn't really committed either way to the documentaries / brewery since she hadn't given them a definite answer ("SEE YOU LATER could mean anything!"), so they left after 15 minutes or so. I decided to stay with Grandma because I'd heard it was going to rain heavily, and I need to save money in general. (yeah, the brownie points help too!)

Steph, Jen, Vivian, Karen, and Dawn arrived ten minutes after the guys left: when I told Jen and Dawn that the guys weren't sure if they were coming along or not, she wasn't impressed. The rain started when we got into Richmond, and this "pineapple express" won't let up anytime soon! (it's supposed to be worse than yesterday, ack!) I got home and had a bit of a nap, so that was good for me too! Now Corey's trying to tell me that being evil and mailing poison / letter bombs to him this winter is a good thing: I DON'T THINK SO! I AM NOT THE UNABOMBER!

Oh yeah, I will probably change my email address really soon. (like today) I thought I could live with Yahoo Email's relatively new habit of breaking up links near the end, but have figured out that it's not good... especially if I forget about it and send links off to people / paste them in from my email! (Sarah's survey was the example that broke me!) Also, I have this random idea: I want samples of my friends' handwriting. I don't know how I'm going to make it work, but maybe I'll do something with the idea in the future. (I know... I have cards and such from some of them, but I want them collected in one big thing like a book!) Is that so weird? Eh, maybe... :P