White Spot, ping-pong, and #9... SO MUCH FUN!

Melia called to say that Awana is cancelled because of the snow. Why am I not surprised? More time to post stuff on Facebook walls and such! Then I expect I'll start on the word search book - distraction will rule, as does slaying memory dragons! (I really ought to post something on Dallas' wall, too... and do what I warned Jon I would: post something on Harmony's wall about his swerving in the middle of lanes!) There's a snowfall warning for the day, and we'll have 10 centimetres with a -12 windchill: I don't think I'm going anywhere soon! Thank goodness I'm fine with food and distraction - and hung out last night with friends! Ada also just called to see whether I knew Awana was cancelled - yup!

Steph picked me up last night, and we went to White Spot, where I was determined to have something without chicken! We had Pale Ale, Sleemans Honey Brown, calamari, and two fajita salads while talking about breaks / Korey / guys / behavior / stress / Melissa / Cecilia / Kate / Rachel / Dave / honesty / Christmas cards and plans / guy friends / alcohol tradition / frank thoughts / online people not being all bad / Corey being one of my close friends / irrationality / Jeremy / past stuff. The salads were definitely good value, since it was a huge plate with lots of beef and veggies and cheese - the shell was also good eating. In retrospect, I shouldn't have chosen White Spot since Karen and I are going there on Tuesday pending snow, but it's okay! Watched sports on TV, and heard about Evel Knievel's death. After that, she bugged me about LOVING THROUGH CARING, and then we decided to go to Ping-Pong to hang out. Good thing I have such a caring sister who'll always be there for me! When we got there, I accidentally wandered into the non-public washroom, but then I haven't been to the table tennis club in months, so that's understandable. :P

We hung out with Cindy, Karen, and Grace - Dylan joined us a bit later. Ivan came downstairs to see if Karen wanted something to drink, and offered something to all of us. We all declined, and he went away again. Karen said that we had to find sweet quality guys like this, since we all thought her husband was so sweet. He's always like this with everyone, not just his wife! His brother and her sister-in-law think there's something wrong with it, but everyone else seems fine. (never mind the "get a room!" joke my sister made a while back!) Talked about kids' teasing, names, Moo, "soaked in grace," the one-litre bubble tea place (SO MUCH CAFFEINE!), yin-yang, Hannah, Dorcas, Sarah, binding agreements / mortgages, opinions on my name / my same-name story, Asian teachers being the majority, Texas / California, Bible Study (Proverbs), "Dumb," sports, it being too cold, the COMPLICATED family trees (Phil / Melia and Chrystal / Emily being double cousins!), etc. I thought of telling Dylan that people are naming their little girls Dylan nowadays, but I'm sure he already knows! After a bit, we went upstairs to hang out with everyone else.

Said hi to Isabel, Mike x2, Phil, Emily x2, Benjamin, and Stella - Stella's baby is due in a few weeks, and she thinks it'll be a girl. Billy congratulated me on my Committee appointment - I think I'll get through this with the help of my friends, much like another thing! Benjamin (who was wearing a Canucks shirt) gave me a few blueberries, which I thanked him for. He had to be done with them after a bit when he started throwing them on the floor - dealing with a blue stinky mess tomorrow would be NO FUN for his parents, anyhow! Billy noticed Steph's Canucks jersey, so brought his son over to where she was joking with Joey / Melia / Angus. We all marveled over the similarity of the tops, heh. Afterwards, I decided to see what random stuff my grandma had given me along with fine bone china dishes: a religious booklet (according to Angus) all in Chinese (I'm throwing that away), a bar of soap (at least that's usable...), a very thin photo album, and some other random stuff. She's getting old, that's for sure!

Melia and Angus looked so cute sitting together - gives me some hope! People in the loony bin think Angus is Mexican, and that's not even close! Talked to Auntie Ying for a bit - she might as well enjoy her last day of her leave of absence! Saw Anthony, and waved to him - he was discussing the Spice Girls concert on Sunday with Emily and Mike. Ivan told me that my brother was being a bad influence on him, and I'm not surprised! We wondered what Quan was doing under a table, but she assured us that it was temporary. Jeremy and Eric were plying against each other at one point, which led to jokes about segregation. Greeted them when they came to rest for a bit, which was good. Joyce brought out her football, which led Steph to want some action. That resulted in her and Cordia knocking heads together - OUCH! They were all right after a bit, though. Eventually, the night ended - I said hi to Christon, Citrus, Sam, Lesley, and Raymond. Lesley says her dreams aren't remembered 99.99% of the time, but something haunts her from the last two weeks. Raymond has the whole month off since he saved his vacation days until now - might as well have time for shopping and reading and such!

Cindy called Becky to see how she was, then wanted to go out to eat with Anthony, Melia, and Angus. Joey declined since he was dropping Sam off at Garden City Hot Pot (a night with his lady friends, haha?), Steph declined because of her long week (working 12.5 hours on Wednesday because of month-end with all the big bosses away?!), but Jon and I were up for #9. Raymond has tickets to next Saturday's game against the Penguins - SIDNEY CROSBY! (he educated Lesley on why it was such a high-demand game, too!) Discussed hockey pools and three shutouts in a row before giving Dylan very simple directions to #9 since he doesn't know Richmond all that well. I reminded him that next year's Committee would be dominated by the Richmond contingent, so he'd better get used to meeting at Pastor John's house! Eric laughed at that, haha. Jeremy and Nathan declined to go out anywhere - turns out Jeremy arrived with Phil. (and had had two beers with Jon beforehand!) Grace gave me a Rice Krispies bar while we talked about food and how it was good to be with friends (for sure!), and Karen reassured me that our lunch date was still on. If I feel that I can't make it, I'll call her!

Once we got to #9 (slaying!), we wondered how many people would show up. We opted for a table instead of a booth, and eventually wondered where Dylan was - he was talking to Chung. Talked about Cindy's class wanting boundaries, her teaching, letters / warnings, and her trying to be more firm. Jon said that Dad could just take over the role of "father figure," but then he might just scare the kids! Too true... sometimes he's not the most kid-friendly person! I remember the time at Summer Conference when he told Julie that she was holding up the food line and being too slow, oops. Joked about durian, Kenny Rogers' THE GAMBLER being Melia's song when she walks down the aisle at her wedding ("he knows when to hold them, and he knows when to fold them... hide them!" YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK!), last Sunday at Jeremy's, Anthony being okay with eating a huge plate of fried rice by himself (he almost finished it!), and how we know we shouldn't do certain things anymore. No more fat camp, and veggie camp wouldn't be any fun! Jon and Dylan said they couldn't do what Anthony was doing then, but might have when they were 18.

At one point, Jon refilled our teacups by taking the teapot from a nearby dish repository, and then placed the teapot on our table. The waitresses noticed; one asked another if she'd given us permission to do that, and she said no. So then we were busted: "No problem, but you can't put the teapot on your table!" Haha, oops. Cindy asked for some hot water since she's extremely sensitive to caffeine, and was wide awake right then. Then she said she had to train all summer for her teaching work in the fall - bed at 11 and up at 6:30! She called her parents, and Melia joked that she should say that she was out finding a man, haha - apparently, her mom's hilarious! Jon added his own twist: "We're at the border / in Seattle, and won't be back ALL NIGHT!" Haha. Anthony said that he had some strong coffee after working a typical day (12 to 14 hours), and then slept right afterwards! Jon said that he'd had a red-eye (espresso with coffee shots, or something - like Americano?), which was good for being wired when he only had five hours of sleep. I should get into that, or maybe not - I get pretty wired at times!

Angus wanted fried goodness, which he got in the form of tofu with spicy peppers... when I ate a piece with a lot of peppers on it, Anthony wondered if it wasn't terribly hot. Not for me! Jon says that I have an iron stomach for that kind of thing, which is good. Maybe I'll have some hot and sour soup one of these days, haha. Dylan offered to scoop me some beef noodles - sure, why not? Friends like these are much appreciated! We knew they'd have huge portions, so we took that into account while ordering a few dishes to share. Melia jokingly asked Jon: "Would you like some vegetables, darling?" to which he replied in kind: "Of course I would, honey cup, or whatever..." I had to help him with "honeybunch," haha. After talking about teacher dignity and farting / stomach rumbling, we settled the bill and left - we said goodbye to everyone, wishing Angus a good Las Vegas trip. Jon called me a cougar - meh. Got home and pretty much went straight to bed after calling my sister to tell her that she was weird - she'd apparently called me three times WHILE I WAS WITH HER during the night! Must be her cellphone playing some weird tricks!