Do I want to know how you burn BROCCOLI?!

Jon and I bused to church at 4:35 using the 491 and 9, and I threatened him with death a few times. He said that the ride over involved a lot of escalators and ice, sometimes together. I said that I was holding our food, so I'd do something to it if he left me alone on the ice rink that was the sidewalk... he claimed not to care. Eric called him when we were at Kingsgate Mall, and apparently asked where I was: right beside him, heh. Good thing they got their plans worked out in the early afternoon otherwise I'd have been stranded again! When we got to the church, we said hi to Jeremy (who's feeling a little better) and heard Steph call out "Yaz is ug, yaz lards!" to us on her way into the Pho restaurant. Said hi to Stanley and Jason L. when I went into the sanctuary, then I made Jon put our dinner in the fridge. The guys determined that they had to move drums, amps, music stands, and more equipment downstairs for Resonate. I went with them to talk to a bunch of people, and read a bit of Jon's book on global warming while talking to the guys about well-endowed women and plastic surgery. Angus and Melia came downstairs and thought that the Committee would be joining everyone. Later, Angus went out and came back to tell Christon that everyone was waiting for him at the Pho place... Christon's reaction while leaving: "What?! Why didn't anyone CALL me?! Ack!" Emily Lam and Isabel got there a little later, and I teased Isabel about the fun worship practice they'd had yesterday... good times! Also talked to Dylan in the kitchen when I decided to go microwave my food: he was busy cutting up the Chinese buns and pastries for our refreshments. Later, he brought Cindy's dinner out for her since it smelled too good in there: he hadn't eaten, poor guy! Dianne thought that wasn't good, but nothing you can do! Ate dinner and talked to Cindy about her practicum, elementary school, her reservations on yoga, and the COLD weather which she isn't tolerating very well. =/

Went upstairs a few minutes before Resonate started, and said hi to Frances / Dylan / Eric / Ivan. At one point, Eric was asking me what craziness I'd been up to this week: none really, but I had seen the new Bond movie! A newcomer jumped in and asked whether I'd liked it: it was cool, and he said he saw it a month ago... good to know. I should be more friendly to newcomers and the like, but it takes time for me to warm up to them; maybe I'm afraid they'll leave after only a brief time at our church, haha. Vivian, Jen, and I discussed Jen's new job offer near Shell Rd. at a pharmaceutical company (she just got it today!) - later, Jeremy decided that there wasn't any such thing as a good pharmaceutical company because that would require working with ethics, haha. We also talked about my blue / color-streaked toque: my mom knitted it for me, which is cool. I think Grandma also made one for me, which is probably somewhere in my room. (but I can't find it... eep!)

The talk was pretty good: to ensure I stayed awake, I took notes in triplicate. Ah, that brings back memories of Sunday School in 2001 when various members of the Richmond Crew had to do that for each other in Uncle Richard's class because we were away! Jen asked me where Jer was: he and Jon were downstairs helping with the Resonate music, and Vivian wondered why I needed three copies of the notes when I could just photocopy mine later. ("Why does she need THREE? ... oh yeah, Jon and Jeremy!") That could be done, but I didn't mind the busywork so much... plus, my handwriting can be hard to read sometimes. :P

It was funny when Dylan thought up a modern-day example of an administrator (God's called us to be different things to the church since we can't all be the same): "Scary church administrators like your dad!" Hahaha... and here I thought he was only scared of Mom because of that incident with Jon's guitar a while back! Maybe he knows something I don't! Later, he told me that I inspired him to write out Christmas cards this year (which I already knew): his friends were certainly surprised! Hey, it's all about the Loving Through Caring theme this year, I guess... which my sibs and Eric are having weird fun with. :P (if I can set a cool example like that without doing much really - although I seem to write more than he does since my sibs sign the cards too, making both the inner cardboard sides written on - then it's truly special and awesome!)

The "different woman" Teresa sat by me and asked whether Karen's spiced apple cider had any caffeine in it: I didn't know, but Dylan said it did not. After reminders about the ping-pong program next week, Teresa talked to Frances about her husband Mel - yes, he IS Filipino! I asked Frances about her sister-in-law Rosenda's due date: March or April?! Man, she's huge for that! I gave the guys their notes when they came upstairs in search of better refreshments than downstairs: Chinese buns and apple cider wins over Cheetos, Oreos, chips, and other stuff! They did thank me, so that was cool. :D Teresa asked whether Jon and Jeremy were my brothers; since I didn't want to confuse her by saying that Jeremy was only my brother in spirit, I merely told Jon that she was looking for him. She told him that her brother had the same first name and last name as he did: something we have DEFINITELY heard before!

Jon then tried enticing Henry to eat Chinese buns - Emily Lam had only met him during Winter Conference this past December! It's bad if the new people you end up meeting at such events are from your own church, never mind your own congregation! (they're not in the same one, but we were going with an extreme example! :P) Henry demurred, saying that he was going out to eat McDonald's. Jon made a disapproving noise, to which Henry then said: "What? You don't LIKE it?!" I recognized his voice coming from the stairwell and told him not to get my brother started on McDonald's (SUPER SIZE ME, anyone?), but he said he'd argue anyway. Fair enough... I went downstairs a couple of minutes later and saw him standing around on the stairs. I yelled his name twice since he didn't hear me the first time, and told him to call me when he reaches my place tomorrow. Note to self: Get him to drop me off at the front of the church since I don't feel like braving the sidewalk. :P

When I went downstairs, I asked Citrus what he was doing tomorrow: working, same as certain days this week! Then I got to hear from Cordia and Quan how Joyce had somehow burned broccoli... oh dear. Rich was not impressed, haha. After that, I talked to Danielle about Billie's party (can't go because of the weather and icy conditions) / Harmony / that crazy long email originally about Jon and Dallas skating where Eric thought we spammed everyone else's inboxes too much: too late if you want us to stop it because we just sent another mass email before we saw your reply! I'd sent a private email to Randal somewhere in there, and Gmail lumped it in with all the other stuff as is its wont... oh well, at least I didn't write anything TOO private, haha. (as if I would EVER do that! :P)

I overheard a discussion about how some of the guys had girly handwriting, so I went over to where Darren / Mike K. / Emily Lam / Isabel were clustered around a birthday card for Rich. Putting my hands on Mike's shoulders, I asked just which of the guys had girly writing. Mike pointed out two specimens of writing on the card, and asked if his looked similar to Isabel's... I could see some similarities, but wasn't sure Mike's was THAT girly! Then I went over to Mike T. and Emily C. to say hi and snack on a few Cheetos. When someone flicked the lights off and on again, Eric joked that it was his signal to blow his nose. Really, we all had to leave soon since the cleaning crew wanted to do their job!

Jeremy went upstairs to talk to some people, so I followed to see what was up: discussions about Dine Out Vancouver and the snow, mostly. We managed to say hi / bye to Chung, Karen S., Karen Choo, Sheena, Jason, Christon (who left his knapsack downstairs... no, it wasn't Merle's [Angus' sister] - he'll pick it up at prayer meeting tomorrow), Chalaine, Jen, Citrus, Danielle, Joyce, Cordia (who seemed very excited about going home since she was jumping up and down going "Home! Home! Home!"), Andrea, Maisie, Isabel, Daniel (who said Nathan left early since he was sick with his Hong Kong flu), Joey, Emily, and some others. Jeremy left to go find a bus, and said he guessed he'd see me on Sunday... yup, gotta do the WAVE again, haha. Eric and Steph showed up finally; a few minutes later, Chung and Karen asked us who we were waiting for: Jon! He showed up just then, and we all left... we could have picked up Jeremy from the bus stop since he was probably still waiting, but Eric thought that wasn't necessary. Vented to Steph about our parents' behavior yesterday: yes, it was a good thing that I didn't go off on them since they were kinda cranky already for unknown reasons, but STILL! Ugh. If no one drives me home past 1 AM, I'd be stranded a whole lot more times than I care to think about! (yay for friends who are willing to give me rides all the way to Richmond from Vancouver and such!)

On the way home, I was relieved to learn that Jon HAD signed Rachel's birthday card in time for her leave-taking on Tuesday - Steph told me that Rachel said: "Thanks, Sarne!" I'm not surprised she calls me that family nickname - Kate and Jessica did / do! (reminds me: I should tell Jeremy that Mom doesn't know how to spell Flime!) It's sorta true that I look at what my sibs write in cards, but I'm curious! (or nosy, haha) Jon still has all the other January birthday cards somewhere in his room, so they'll all be LATE! DAMN! Eric said that he has the all-day committee retreat to look forward to tomorrow: he hopes it doesn't go from 9 to 5, but maybe till 3 or so! As someone with experience in these matters, I told him GOOD LUCK since they planned general things for the year ahead and such! His Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) in Victoria at U.Vic seemed to be more efficient, since they had 45-minute meetings once a week! Steph said that she'd forgotten to ask Joey about his Minnesota Wild-Vancouver Canucks experience yesterday night: we can tell how he'd say, "They lost 5-2! Ugh!" My carmates also discussed the church theme for 2007, my notes on the talk, ping-pong, and the Evite... then they also wondered where a certain person was tonight: uh yeah, it didn't really matter to me one way or the other even if I *did* notice that he wasn't there!