Steam Works works as a dinner place - yay, MissionsFest!

High-scoring words of the night so far:

UNYOKES (174 points) - against Linda B. [4W, 3L on Y] (a good deficit-erasing word!)
QUAIL (135 points) - against Angela V. [5W, 2L on Q]
VISITOR (171 points) - against Cathy S. [4W]


I met Eric more or less on time, although I somehow couldn't recognize the car until it got closer to me. I think this is where my vision problems will start; yikes! No, I couldn't hear him yelling my name out the car window. Eric alternately teased me about a certain subject and blamed me for the city's latest homicide: I do NOT go around killing old men in their apartments, thanks! Good thing he didn't try blaming me for the child sex tourism laws! We made it to Canada Place with ten minutes to spare: I said hi to Mike T., Emily C., and Jonathan in the lobby before grabbing a Missions Fest guide to read. Eric and I had no time to eat, but at least I felt safe with him around so I wouldn't get lost. He even told me to take the elevator instead of the stairs - good deal!

I stuck close to Eric all night, especially when trying to find a seat. It was very crowded since Tony Campolo was speaking: they even opened up a back part of the exhibit room, which they never do! He found Calla and Johnny, so we decided to sit by them and their friends when he couldn't find anyone else. Good thing, since it REALLY started to fill up afterwards! Unfortunately, we had to let a certain person in, but it's okay. I let Eric borrow my pen to write on an offering envelope, and he threw it back into my bag later - all good, hehe. Campolo gave a challenging talk about anti-consumerism, filled with humor. It was fine, but there was this annoying lady behind me who kept saying "Come on!" (in a positive way) to almost every point he tried to make. I had to content myself with glaring at her, haha. (and the enforced friendliness of handshaking? NOT GOOD, haha.)

Afterwards, we said hi to Chung and Karen... then headed over to where people were congregating around Sarah and Hannah. Talked to them, their brother Lucas, Cindy (more laryngitis!), Vanessa, Steph, Vivian, and Christon for a while before heading over to the exhibits. Good to hear that Sarah is volunteering, and that Vernon is coaching volleyball. Wandered over to the exhibits, and spent some time looking around. Bumped into Mark, Sam, Tony, Ivan (who I talked to for a minute), Amasiah, Sonya, Emily L., Mike K., Lanie, and Joey before finding Jon at the International Justice Ministry booth. Waved to Jeremy's brother since he did the same for me, and asked what was going on since there seemed to be a funny story in progress at the time.

Jeremy said that Mark had come here from Kelowna on a school field trip, and the guys wanted to go to a bar on Davie St. The only problem was that the guys didn't know what Davie St. is famous for! (gays!) So of course Jon was making jokes about how the guys would walk in and be disappointed at the lack of chicks - "why are all the guys here paired up?!" Hahahaha. Reminded me of something in the MissionsFest guide about a seminar led by "people cured of homosexuality" and another descriptor about "155 million people in the world suffering with homosexuality." That's the guide's words, NOT mine! Shortly afterwards, they left since Jeremy has to work, and 5:30 AM comes pretty early!

After some hanging around the booth (Henry came up with Andrew and Michelle C., and wanted to know if Jon could give him justice), we learned about human trafficking and such in Cambodia. Daniel and Michelle W. came up, just in time for Nathan to find us as well. Jon remarked that everyone from our church who was at MissionsFest had come by to see him: "It's like I have my own fan club!" Pastor John and Stanford had a discussion about football while Nathan, Eric, Jon, Christon, and I made plans for later. Since Jon would meet us at Steam Works later, we went to the book section.

We looked through the books (I joked that Eric should buy a Chinese book) until Eric and I got pretty hungry. Said bye to Mike T., Emily C. (talked about Chrystal - I understand the nature of stuff), Vivian, Dylan, Deb, and others on our way out. Steam Works was a good time, as usual - except that the stupid ATM refused to work. Eric and I FINALLY had our dinner - burger and linguini with pale ale and tea, anyone? Oh well... at least I got to go home just before midnight! Discussed free beer / coffee / pizza, J.J. Beans, Andy, Nathan's future kid being named Tobias after the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT character, blue cheese and bacon on pizza, yam fries, Toronto, plans, the organ "murder" music, Wordscraper, my random non-logical mind, Steph's whereabouts (NO idea), humor, challenges, mishearings ("Jon and Christon are NOT going out!"), sushi and sake, spending a lot of money on food, saying "Randal / Martin / Dylan" in French accents, how I shouldn't blame Korey for everything (I'm not - it's just how HE ruined my friendships!), hockey pool stuff, and more. Now I must get SOME sleep! Eric Ho also left me messages, which of course I wasn't around to get - maybe next time!


Misreadings of the night:

1. "Prepare for a Gruesome Retirement" (in my Gmail news) - I read this as "Prepare for a Gruesome RESTAURANT." Of course, my morbid curiosity was aroused!

2. "Well, be prepared next time!" (Corey, upon learning that Eric and I had nothing to egg the Church of Scientology with - we passed it on the way to MissionsFest) ... I read this as "Well, be PREGNANT next time!" Oh dear.

Poo nugget for this weekend: The Longest Hour and a Half - On January 31, 2007, a Pennsylvania man became stuck in a portable toilet when he dropped his keys in the toilet and tried to rescue them. After forty-five minutes of yelling, children playing in a nearby field heard his screams and went for help. He was rescued by police after an hour and a half of standing in waste without shoes or pants. The portable toilet had to be demolished to get him out. Afterward, doctors treated him for minor injuries and removed the toilet seat, which had become wedged around his midsection.