"I assume he's still going, even though I haven't talked to him in two weeks!"

Note to self: Break out of your comfort zone at certain times. You WILL have more than enough time with the crew, even if it feels like you're deserting them. At least you tried today - maybe later, haha. You told someone last night that you'd work on the lonely / new people - DO IT! Cruise stuff will rule, too. :P

This morning, I had two cups of coffee quite inadvertently - I should have asked my sister to bring me some milk instead with my breakfast! Oh well, no harm done except probably when I try to sleep tonight! Sister told me that Dad had wondered where I'd been yesterday - not at church! Apparently, he'd gone down to the basement to see where I was since I'm usually there: I've been accumulating quite the number of "free" Saturdays, and it's horrendous! (blood donation, being sick, not being able to get rides out, etc.) I think that this is the year with the most absences in my six years or so of being in Awana, heh. Apparently, Anita had given everyone a lecture yesterday on attendance and such - I heard more about that later from Andrew, too. Nothing I personally can do about it - sigh. I'm sure certain people will also hear about it too!

When we got to church, I thought about talking to someone, but ended up not doing so. I know I wouldn't necessarily want to be disturbed while reading magazines, and certainly not by a crazy morbid person! (I agree with someone else's description of me, heh) So instead, I contented myself with being part of the Nathan / Steph / Jeremy / Eric / Sam / Danielle / Citrus circle - we bugged Sam about not respecting his elders when he accidentally jabbed one of us, haha. (his brother's so TALL now!) Jeremy wondered why Nathan needed a Rockstar energy drink, and I asked him just how much sleep he'd had last night: only four hours?! He couldn't have gotten home THAT late... then he said that he'd been preparing the Powerpoint and such for leading worship this morning. THAT explains it, sorta. (talked to Auntie Ying a while later - she feels young at heart even though her two kids are getting married, yay!) Later, Citrus' mom told Danielle and me that Nate looked like he'd lost weight - maybe, but then we're not objective enough since we see him all the time!

Sat next to Jeremy as per the usual, and said hi to Danielle / Christon: you bet those two will be at the Wii night at Citrus' later! (that replaces the Colorado-Vancouver PPV at Eric's) Melia and I admired the past Take It To Heart posters that Chrystal had brought with her: she doesn't remember how she made certain letters out of construction paper! (and no, she did not do the Chinese characters!) Jeremy wondered about the two roses: maybe one was a boy, and the lighter pink was a girl? (Pastor Edward said that one was for Rosenda, and the other was for someone in the CSC) We proceeded to watch the worship team have an off day in terms of the Powerpoint not being plugged in, possibly singing the wrong thing, not leading us into a song, and not starting off the Doxology properly (accompanied by an audible "Oh crap!") - mental blanks were rampant, heh. Sure, we laughed when these things happened, but kinda felt bad too. After service, Danielle commented that she needed something to eat - she hadn't had any breakfast! I told her that I'd made my sister bring me breakfast, and Steph joked that she was my slave. When I said that I'd had two coffees, Melia thought I was all jittery - not really, but it hit me later!

Followed the usual crowd out the door and down the ramp - we got to see baby Abigail and interact with her big brother Nathaniel... so very cute! He even gave Frances a hug before he left... aww, so special! Asked Melia how Awana had been yesterday - she said it was fine, and that they made the boys do more work since I wasn't there (at least they did THAT!)... she even emphasized not to worry about things! I'm not - just asking how it went, heh. Emily told Angus that a friend of Mike's had broken someone's arm while arm-wrestling with them, yikes! I asked Angus when his birthday was, and the specific date (May 19) - Melia and Chrystal told him that I remembered EVERYONE's birthdays! When I told him that I gave him my word I'd remember it with a card, he said that he'd give me his word on his expecting a gift. So I joked that I'd simply take a piece of paper and write "Dear Angus, Happy Birthday! Love from the crazy clan" - that can be his gift instead of an iPod or whatever, haha. Melia, Vanessa, and Steph were all wearing brown, heh. Then I showed Eric that I was wearing a different pants / shirt / hat ensemble, but he didn't seem impressed - CHEH! I'll get him for that later, hehe... perhaps I'll wear the same thing tomorrow night, and see if he notices then! We overheard Danielle talking about "dying all the time and getting frustrated," so we thought she meant in real life - thank goodness she only meant in video games where the guys just bully her and never teach her anything! (no competition!)

When I finally went to Sunday School, little Sean seemed even better! He even leaned on me for a while - Auntie Tracy says he seems to respond to my love and affection, which is cool. (NOT THAT KIND, YOU PERVERTS - HE'S LIKE THREE YEARS OLD!) He even put his hand on my pant leg while he was playing with a toy - and even sat down for some of the time instead of wandering around the room. Then he led me over to the emergency procedures poster, pointed to some numbers on there, and repeated the numbers one through six.. later, he randomly repeated the numbers one through ten. Maybe with his type of autism, he can be a math whiz! Wilson came today after an absence of a few weeks, so Rachel was glad to see him: PICNIC TIME! (her grandma gave me some cookies, too - should take them out before I forget)

After Sunday School, I returned some Awana resources to Auntie Vivian while apologizing for taking at least three weeks with them: there was the week I was sick and obviously didn't feel like reading much, the week of Henry's blood donation, the Spring Break week, and yesterday where I couldn't make it. She told me not to worry about it (recurring theme), and told me that Anita hadn't been pleased with certain things - oh, I'd heard about it! (Anita wouldn't / didn't talk to me later when she was rubbing it in with Michelle / Hilary / others that they had to go back to SCHOOL and do HOMEWORK tomorrow!) Overheard Stanley telling Vivian to shut up, so we both bugged him about disrespecting his elders! Someone mentioned that Lawrence got his license last week - now that makes me feel old! Talked to Andrew to see how his experience at Awana had been - he said that Anita had indirectly lectured him in front of everyone because he'd done something really immature. Yikes! (but that's the way to do it: "certain people - and you know who you are - blah blah blah...") He wondered why my dad had been standing among them yesterday during debriefing since he usually leaves shortly after Awana starts: don't ask me, I don't know! After some more stalling, I went outside - people were out after Sunday School earlier than usual?! Wow! (12:50 or so)

It transpired that Jon didn't want to go for lunch with us since he had to get chocolates at some particular shop for Harmony's birthday - shouldn't you plan it EARLIER since her birthday is in a few days? (mailing stuff in a box doesn't take one day!) Vented about the ugfart later with Steph - we're not being NOSY; we just want to know certain things out of concern! Guess we'll both have to go to the lunch next week where Phil and Jon will discuss their pastoral vision for the church - better examples need to be set, dude! Should reply to Uncle Daniel's email before I forget - maybe tonight Wow, Easter is the week after next already! Good thing the vision lunch isn't on Easter, otherwise I would DIE from not enough sleep... Sunrise Service at 6:30 AM comes EARLY! Dylan asked Jon how last night's worship service had gone since he'd had something happen to his car: actually, we didn't go because of the comedy of errors that happened! (according to the people that DID go, there was some hip-hop dancing plus a cool skit!) Nathan was still holding his Rockstar drink afterwards, and I commented on that fact - he thought I wanted to finish it off! Oh no, not when I'd had two coffees this morning before service! (however inadvertent that may have been) Otherwise, sure - I'm not afraid of Nathan's germs!

At Mui's, we saw Gabriel's family - then while our parents were ordering, I recognized Uncle Ken and Auntie Amy walking into the restaurant! Man, we haven't seen them in some time... apparently, their only daughter Susan is going to be a mother pretty soon! Ken was Steph's favorite uncle when she was young - "I like girls better than boys!" - I remember playing Pac-Man on an Atari way back when they lived in a huge (to me?) house, and moved ALL THE TIME! Talked to them for a bit, too. Steph said that she'd treat me to the other cruise (gotta reciprocate on some level, heh), and told Mom that she was confused about which one she'd make it to. Then we discussed Vivian and Karen's character differences, Stanley's conflict and not having friends his own age, Julie and skating, Timothy camp which conflicts with a co-worker's wedding, Kakuro (two Volume 1 books?!), the TV show finale (I assume someone's still fine with it!), Dallas coming over for dinner on Tuesday, and various other subjects. Good times, haha.


I wouldn't be surprised if Corey thinks my caps lock key is stuck, since I'm yelling at him in like every other message... even resorting to the use of his full name! However, it's not MY fault he keeps sending me weird messages! Then again, he even encouraged me to yell at him the other night... I know he likes making Jane do the same thing, haha. So he really brings it upon himself, and he knows it!