Commas, Pastor Bear, and substantial salads!

Decided to wear my Old Navy winter coat along with my sparkly shirt (Andrea commented that she liked it) - met Eric and thought about how people will be there for me. Talked about hockey, baseball and steroids, picking up Maisie, how I was supposedly responsible for the bridge closures because of an emergency landing by a Cathay Pacific flight, SIMPLY CRAP being more upscale than Booty Burgers, our imaginations, the rain, and Google maps. Picked up Maisie, who somehow thought we'd be there in ten minutes from the backup going onto the bridge - um, no. Discussed Christmas shopping for nieces and moms - CHOCOLATE, giftcards, cute trinkets, and more! Parking at the Earls was a challenge, as usual - honestly, it shares space with a Swiss Chalet and a number of other businesses! Yikes, indeed! Went to wash my hands before talking to Dylan / Raymond, which I'd complained to Eric about - they smelled like gross bacteria from public transit. ("They just smell, and need soap! Failing that, they need Purell - lucky for you, I don't have any!" "You also need a napkin / Kleenex once we get to Earls - you sniffed at least twice!" "That was my stuffed-up nose... and no, I am not a troublemaker!")

Talked to Grace about Phil, the care I'd shown to Uncle Peter by calling on Tuesday, Grandma's death (hurried breathing, relatives, ambulance, 10:30, peaceful, it not hitting Emily and Chrystal as hard since they didn't live with her), cooking / cleaning, Phil doing sermons / papers, eating in, going to Texas for two weeks on Thursday, Korey, and more stuff. Certainly good to talk to her! We should hang out at her place at some point - maybe in the new year. Tapped Jeremy on the shoulder and said hi: he said that his dark beer tasted like a lager, and thus was disappointing. He urged me to try some, and warned me to be careful since the glass was heavy - he was right about the taste!

Went back to my own table and talked to Dylan / Raymond / Randal / Vivian / Dawn about Black Friday / Boxing Day, Metrotown, Terry getting half-price Armani sunglasses last year, Christmas plans, shopping, work parties (Earls food isn't free, but better than HSBC and the lounge food!), holidays (no Hong Kong for Dawn because of only two days' vacation - but Eni instead!), throwing stuff at each other on Facebook, what we should order (Dylan's sick of turkey), pizza, salads, protein, and more. Tried talking to Pastor John's younger son Noah... I always want to call him Luke, for some reason. He's a pretty good artist for a five-year-old! Talked to his sister Hannah instead: school is fine, but I guess she might HAVE to say that since her mom / teacher's sitting right there! (the kids are homeschooled) She likes to draw too, and ordered penne Alfredo. Said hi to Josiah and talked briefly. Lesley and Andrea said they got my email - signed photo frame instead of a labor-intensive scrapbook it is! Went to sign the photo frame after I ate and talked to Andrea for a while - she'll have to take the loss on her bag with stuff in it, although it's a good thing her wallet wasn't in it NOT was there anyone attacked! (she was gone for five minutes, so there must have been someone hiding in the office!)

Later, I stole Vivian's chair when she went to socialize with others, and I decided that yelling across the table wasn't efficient. (the music's kinda loud, too) Eric was still there after coming over to talk to us about stuff - Dawn joined our discussion about Chilliwack, boyfriends, plans, Eric's two weeks of holiday, New Years, girl dinners, Steph, Cindy, working on undesirable dates (birthday / Christmas / New Years - getting paid time and a half doesn't make up for it!), driving, birthdays, dinner, family, how we were doing, Facebook messages / concern, White Spot's fajita salad (definitely substantial and WITH PROTEIN - yay, Eni!), and more. We decided that giftcards were the way to go for presents these days: "Now they can choose how to spend the money in a substantial amount, rather than you trying to decide which overpriced trinket they'll like this year!" "Yeah... the amount has to be over a certain number unless it's Starbucks or something - it's like, thanks for the discount if it's a $10 card for a restaurant!" Haha, so true! I've missed talking to Dawn, heh.

We also watched Karen do a draft of her photo frame contribution, and I suggested putting a comma in between "HOORAY" and "Pastor Edward" - it DOES look better with one, and Dawn agreed! Finally, I just did it myself since I'd be driven crazy by the lack of one even though the frame wasn't MINE. (Hello Kitty, Pastor Bear, Catholic rosary, Father Edward, "Reverend" not scanning in the "2, 4, 6, 8! Who do we appreciate?" song, ties, shirts, folded hands, etc.) Karen said that we should definitely do a lunch date again, since it was EASY talking to me for more than two consecutive hours - she seemed surprised it took me only 45 minutes or so to get home, haha. Hey, I'm all for another lunch date! I know the "talking for two hours easily" means that I'm easy to be with, which is what Andrea said a long while ago - we don't mind comfortable silences!

Waved to Martin, and tried figuring out with Dylan why my sister wasn't there. I have NO idea what she was doing! Later, we noticed a great-looking pink drink on someone else's table... Eric figured that it must be one of the margaritas, but we didn't know which one, and Dawn wasn't about to ask! ("If you ask the wait staff, they'll automatically assume you want one!") We discussed the expensive desserts - that sundae had better be MASSIVE with LOTS of stuff on it for $6.50! Even the soup was $6 - too rich for our cheap Asian blood, haha. Raymond said that he'd been to Shanghai Wonderful, and had originally heard about it from Facebook pictures - the place isn't a hole-in-the-wall like Shanghai Wind was, and the atmosphere is a bit better. Prices are more expensive, but still kinda reasonable!

Picked up Jeremy's jacket off the floor and told him about it while saying bye to assorted people - he joked that it wasn't worth $300 now that it had been on the floor, haha. On the way home, Eric placed a call to Jon - it went unanswered. We talked about Nathan, digicams, reminders, worship practice, ride status (called Melia, and we'll both call Henry tomorrow), rain, singing to me, craziness / insanity, STARCRAFT / STAR WARS / STAR TREK / WORLD OF WARCRAFT / HALF LIFE 2: EPISODE 2, servers, enemies, being right next to the enemy supposedly being too far to attack them (WTF?!), calling, finalizing plans, and more. He joked that he'd parked 50 miles away from the restaurant since he didn't want to risk towing from one of the businesses in the plaza - yeah, I'm SO sure! Good times, and I'm sure I'll have more of those tomorrow! Yup, I know what I'm in for on the rides to / from Chilliwack, haha. ALWAYS! (but not like the maxipad, hahaha!)