Pooing penguins and DEVIL WEARS PRADA!

Steph picked me up at 5:45-ish, and we were on our way to collect Fidela. It was good to hang out with her in happier circumstances than Saturday will be; after the funeral, I think our family is meeting with Erin's for coffee. The email replies were confusing, but I think that's what my mom and Uncle Eric mean! Talked about the stupidity of giving people cars for Christmas, ENCHANTED, THE DEPARTED, bad Chinese accents, Britney Spears memories / her sister getting pregnant at age 16, Clement's chef school / MBA program, my sister and me being low-maintenance and flexible ("I HAVE TO BE THERE OR ELSE!" is NOT in our vocab most of the time :P), Fidela's friend being stalked over the Internet, Andrea's 2001 get-together where Vanessa / Fidela / Steph did a Puzzle Trio Britney dance, running, Megan, Jocelyn, Elisyn, Dutch Blitz, half-marathons, the ice and snow in Vancouver / Burnaby, and Christmas. Fidela's California roommate didn't understand the concept of black ice at first when she got to Wheaton, and kept asking why it was BLACK. It's black since it's on pavement and invisible until you slip on the treacherous stuff!

Met Melia, Cindy, Becky, Calla, Emily, Chrystal, and Vanessa - we had SO MUCH FOOD to eat, and didn't even finish it all since we're getting old! Three kinds of chicken wings, two kinds of pizza, five-layer dip, Coke, Sprite, cranberry juice, Coke-flavored candy poo pellets (Emily likes things that poo, so our honorary guest was Pete the Penguin), two kinds of Tostitos chips, shepherd's pie, salad, and more! Steph got excited at Safeway and overbought, since it's been a long time since they got together! Talked about Pastor John always calling Tim "David," SWEENEY TODD, Tim Burton / Helena Bonham-Carter, Wayland, Megan dropping hints, jobs, environmental concerns, lists, church construction, choir, funerals, a Sunday get-together for James and Sanne (I can't make it!), their two kids Jenna and Saskia, Karen and Rod's cute kids Mariah / Sydney / Isaac, and how Melia's the first one out of their crowd to get married.

We also talked about long-distance relationships, Waterloo, RUPERT Street and bear nicknames, Derek, phone numbers, people mixing Vanessa and Vania up, Facebook (Auntie Susanna has it!), the DATING FOR DUMMIES book, emails, confidences, etc. I noted one difference between someone I used to know and these people: these people actually KNOW when I'm joking! (Becky and Steph were having their hair curled in the bathroom, so I told people to be careful with the curling iron, or else they'd sizzle their ears off. "HAHA, the whole night will be like WHAT?! WHAT?!" Hahaha.) Cindy asked how K was, so I told her that he was fine. He's just got on MSN and said that it's good to have me be happy since I've been very emotional the last few days - true, and it's time to move on! Dad to Steph when she showed the DATING FOR DUMMIES book to him: "You should be grateful that you have friends who care about your needs. Don't you think it's time to find a boy?" This was complete with pinching cheek - let's just say she ran up to her room and thought he should be more supportive! Chrystal, Fidela, Calla, and I hung out in the kitchen while Emily / Steph / Melia / Becky / Vanessa / Cindy were squealing and giggling like stereotypical girls in the bathroom. Calla and Fidela also have more friends who are guys than girls, and I said that we just got along with them better! They're certainly more restrained, haha. Calla learned about "the second stomach for dessert" very quickly with her guy friends, haha.

We got on a tangent when someone said something about a gross story. Steph absolutely did NOT want to tell it again, but had to for Fidela and Becky's benefit. Yup, it was the "lobster / wine / sex afterwards" story (Mom's reaction: "Your dad is gross!"), and the "you're interrupting my romantic time with my wife!" story from a week or ten days later. THOSE WERE SO DISGUSTING! Calla then said that she knows someone who walked in on her parents having sex when she was about six or seven - will the kid remember that? ("Mommy and Daddy are playing LEAPFROG!") Cindy thinks the kids are really aware, though... Calla said that little Benjamin was walking around on a DDR mat, and looked up at her to ask: "How?" The TV wasn't on, so he looked at her again to ask the question - so cute! We also talked about labor and delivery, the church that Tim and Maxine got married in (not OURS!), construction cutbacks like the other level in the underground parking / a court only having three sides, baby Noah, elasticity / enemas, etc.

After eating cinnamon buns from a can / tapioca for dessert (no red bean here!), we decided to watch THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA while munching on the colored chocolate mint morsels. Those used to be round and flat, and these ones looked like Chipits - SO GOOD! The movie was interesting - about this girl (played by Emily Blunt, who is going out with Michael Bublé) who's totally out of her element working at a fashion design magazine, and slowly assimilates into the culture there at a cost of her personal life. Her boss Miranda is a totally high-maintenance witch, She backstabs someone to get ahead, and does other such stuff... how thought-provoking! (the subtitles were good... but Seal is NOT a woman when he sings CRAZY! - "Woman singing," indeed...) Took a group picture after Steph gave people some bright useful pig lights; for something to hold, I grabbed the PRADA book.

When we went home, Fidela and Steph talked about name repetition / patterns. Ethan / Ian / Gabriel in our younger generation at church, Abraham / Isaac / Joseph / Sarah / Esther / David / Deborah / other Old Testament names in the Jewish community at McGill (Viv's friends in Montreal), Karen in the older people at church, Josiah / Hannah / Noah / Rebecca / Leah as general Biblical names and an indicator that the kids in questions are pastors' kids, and Joshua / Andrew / Matthew / others at Wheaton (Christian college) - oh my! Fidela's met a guy named JEDIDIAH at school... of all the Biblical names for your kid! We have plenty of younger guys who can only be buddies with the older girls since there are no girls their age. Steph thinks that she'll have to outsource like Erin did with Ben - I can't help, since I met K pretty randomly! Talked about Ben's consideration, his "hangout" list, Pastor John being a calming influence and taking a lot off Pastor Edward's plate, Green Village closing and being replaced by a seafood restaurant (the people retired!), snow, Fidela's being back at Wheaton on the 12th, and more. Had a fun night, for sure! Must do laundry tomorrow!