T-shirts, shorts, STARCRAFT 2, Hien, huge tents, and CHARGE WARS!

Teunis and I got out in plenty of time for Eric to arrive, so that was good. One of my neighbors said hello; having not seen him before, I was even less inclined to say hi than I normally would be in the morning... oh well. Thank goodness Eric pulled up, and we set off - discussed characters, X-MEN, the Aldergrove drive-in, "banning you from the States" (an obvious joke), the Shamwow / Slapchop videos email, DARK KNIGHT, INCEPTION / DREAMSCAPE, DARKWING DUCK, and more. Eric thinks I should like it if there were dream assassins in real life, haha - whatever! While Eric jaywalked, we crossed the street to get inside the church. Saw Dad at the front desk, so wondered where the bag of stuff from Mom was; it was on his desk, and I grabbed that (maneuvering between Rick and Pastor Edward) before heading in to the sanctuary. Yup, I'll call him the night before I come to spend time with Grandma! (probably Wednesday)

I got an Alaska "Inside Passage" T-shirt / a light blue change purse / a blue skirt / pink Disney socks / two large candles / tan shorts / interesting-looking RAW EDGE off-white pants / a mousetrap / a warm homemade-ish scarf / blue Aladdin socks / a very thin undershirt, NOT kept. This means that I'll be keeping the men's shorts which I purchased yesterday. Pointed out Mr. Creep to Teunis after Christon had said hi to us. Talked to Ivan's brother Nathan about some stuff (like a broken pencil), and confirmed that Jeremy got my email - I had to send him the pooping cat, man! He saw the fireworks for thirty seconds from the top of his building last night - sounds about right. Then Teunis told him about a time with Krista when the lightning show surpassed the fireworks... I greeted Cindy and Dianne meanwhile.

Also talked to Emily, Nina, and Gerard about going to Playland with Carlie last Thursday - Hellevator and the Log Ride, man! Not surprised that they still have the ink from the stamps on them! Said hi to Grace, who knows it's bad to have caffeine while pregnant, but she simply HAS to! Welcomed Connie back from Germany, and later passed her two birthday cards (one for Jenny, one for her) during Communion. I went to the empty pew ahead of me before the ushers could get to my proper row, since I wanted to avoid needing to get by anyone for any reason! Later, I said hi to Daniel as we were leaving the sanctuary - I also said hi to Auntie Cathy, and said I'd heard she was at the mall yesterday. Yup, Hansel had told her that he'd seen me!

Moved into the fellowship hall to greet a few people (like Darren C., and Emily Lam back from Denver), and resolved not to get coffee - Mr. Creep was already helping with the tea, in any event. Said hi to Geoffrey, told Kevin about the black diarrhea (it's okay - he's a health inspector!), and introduced Hien to Teunis as "this is the man who is ENFORCING a five-week break from Minute Rice, haha." While he was telling her stories about Harry Potter / HUGE tents / the SCA, I talked to Christon and Jeremy about my past week / what we perceive to be Jon and Harmony's financial state ("They might have a child - but they won't have a house down payment! Wait - they're going to ITALY so soon after Dave's wedding?! Wow - I guess Harmony must be doing pretty well!")

Went outside the hall to say hi to Benjamin, Noah, Frances (happy birthday), Mel, Micah, Isaac, and some of the other people - Calla confirmed that she got my phone call a couple weeks ago to RSVP myself to their wedding and dinner. Now I have to remember to do the same thing with Jason Y. and Karen! Also greeted Andrea, who hoped that there were guitar lessons today, otherwise she'd have dragged her heavy guitar around for nothing! I told her that Eric said that there WERE lessons on today (Mike got back to him about it), and commiserated about lugging heavy items around only to find that you didn't need to do that after all: "What... you couldn't have told me BEFORE?! UGH!"

Soon afterwards, I headed upstairs to Toddler Sunday School - saw Jesse (cried again), Ashley, Ada, Conor, Amos, Amanda, Harrison, Jason, Mattias, Ramen, and Shira. Gave the kids some stickers, complimented their drawings, planted the lunch idea in Auntie Ying's head again, talked to Conor about his new spinny toy / speaking Mandarin, and was pleased that Jason seems to recognize me now. He wanted me to see a big boat that he was constructing out of Duplo - NICE! When I saw Amanda's sister Hannah later, she wondered whether I'd put the belt on my hat myself - nope, it came like that. Talked to Rachel about her friends, as well.

After having blueberries and other things, I talked to Harrison's mom Eva briefly... my peace for the past two weeks came from their trip to the East Coast. Harrison remembers the plane ride and selected things, but not much else! By the time I got downstairs (using the elevator) and maneuvered myself through the foyer crowd (saying hi to Rosenda), Christon had spotted me: "Oh, there you are! I was going to help him find you, haha." First, we talked to Eric about guitar lessons - Ivan was under the impression that they'd last about 90 minutes or so. Then I talked to Cindy and Dianne - their mom had made pasta, so wanted them home for lunch. Thank goodness that Mr. Creep decided to leave and NOT go for lunch, too!

Dianne wondered why Teunis had told her to call him "Tony" - "that's like Brother!" Hahaha, yes... just like your brother indeed! I told her that it was probably an easier name than his real one, heh. Made my VBS orientation excuses to Auntie Monica and Auntie Rebecca, too. Then I saw Grandma after looking for her (she found me), and talked to her about stuff like why I could NOT go for lunch with her even if Mom's not in town - she's confused, naturally. Told her that Jon and Harmony were at the same wedding where Mom and Steph were, and that I'd likely see her on Wednesday. She gave me some Chinese desserts, which I immediately passed on to Teunis since he was RIGHT THERE. "Oh, tell him that I didn't make them!" Sure, sure... let's just hope she doesn't get the wrong impression! (like the one where she tells Mom that she met my new boyfriend at church...)

Christon, Teunis, and I went for lunch at a place called KIMURA near Oscar's (and apparently a block from where Jordan is) - we saw Nai Chiu there with friends, actually. Teunis regaled us with SCA stories over miso / shoyu ramen with California roll (it was the special - a bit disappointing) - Clinton War, queens / kings, the police, anarchy, secrecy, swords, "CHARGE!", rapiers, Jordan, and more. Only later did I learn that Jordan goes to a Mormon church - he apparently isn't allowed to wear suits there since it would be too intimidating, haha! Later, he dropped us off at church - Jason L. FINALLY let us in once another woman was persistent enough.

Talked about an EMP device (just like on JACK BAUER!), other evil devices, books as escape, punches in the stomach / self-defense / his adopted sister / bad situation, and more prior to Eric's coming downstairs. Darren L.'s parents were looking for him, too. From there, Eric wanted to go to Richmond Centre to look for STARCRAFT 2 at EB Games. Discussed multi-culturalism, Cat, Kaili, WORLD OF WARCRAFT, BIOSHOCK, PORTAL, online gaming, smokers, school, clothes, FB being poorly designed, Bathroom Readers, and more on the way there. Eric apparently saw a discarded bra, and made a joke that I totally missed about leaving something behind - INCORRIGIBLE! EB Games seemed to have plenty of copies of the game, thank goodness! (saw Kin's Farm Market, which I was looking for yesterday - it's near OLD NAVY) I think Eric and I were both confused when Teunis mentioned that he could walk back home from the mall if we wanted to "visit" for a while... as far as I know, Eric just wanted to get the game and then leave!

While we were cutting through the sports store on our way back, I told Eric that I'd bought men's shorts yesterday on my clothes-buying spree. He wasn't impressed, so I said that the price / color / size was right. Of course he STILL had a (joking?) problem with it, because I am not a man... hey, I see nothing wrong with what I choose to wear! Better to pay $30 than $50 or more, after all! Got home and discussed laundry, Pastor John and his discussion on street people, being vague as to where he is / will be, Grandma, Mr. Creep on HIS radar as unreliable / an attention whore, cute recipes like the one for Jose Cuervo Christmas cookies which gets totally muddled halfway through, price tags, help, wandering through Queen Elizabeth Park tomorrow, complicated things, friends, Collective Soul / Christian bands, his not being able to tell what I'm interested in sometimes (makes it hard to plan outings?), and more.