Different MissionsFest, Pho, good discussion hangouts

When Chinese Eric picked me up tonight at about 6, I was pretty much ready to go. I was surprised to see him at my door, but it was all good. He wondered if I'd eaten yet, and I said that I had planned to eat something quick in the food court. Then he said that we could go eat something later if I was still hungry; that sounded like a good idea to me! He'd finally read that email I'd sent him about Korey and my own medical issues (which I updated him on later without any awkwardness!), and figured that I was doing the right thing. "Of course I'll stick by my GOOD FRIEND!" he said - as if I'd expect anything else! He also updated me on Korey's profile pictures on MSN; what he said made sense to me, as well as how he always plays video games with white Eric! I do know that happened a LOT when he was here / when we were dating, that's for sure! We also discussed torrents, the music industry, Paul's accident (not even I would wish that on him - it's NOT COOL!), parking, his health, Chinese medicine and Western medicine, hockey, downtown traffic, the Olympics fence barriers finally GOING AWAY, improvement, small change for the parking meter, and the downtown meters by bars not closing till 4 AM. Also talked about his cousin and the nagging he's endured over his motorcycle, Cindy, Dianne, Nathan's research and not personally seeing results, movie nights, meeting him at the food court with the rest of them, later plans involving cheap bottled water at Shoppers Drug Mart (so heavy otherwise!), people he might know who would be at MissionsFest, and more. He said that when I'd originally called today, he was driving... his dad had the phone, so poor Eric was fidgeting because he wanted his dad to ANSWER THE DARNED THING! At least things did work out in the end!

He dropped me off while he went to go find parking, and I went to the food court / Tim Horton's using the outside steps - good thing I could still see enough to NOT trip! (man, I hate my night vision sometimes!) I found white Eric, Jon, Jeremy, and Geoffrey standing around; after some discussion on whether we should leave now / Chinese Eric's phone number, I went and bought some sushi to tide me over. When I got back to the group, white Eric gave it a LOOK; hey, I'm the one eating it here, NOT YOU! It was the quickest option I could find, especially since Jon really wanted to leave RIGHT THEN! Of course, Chinese Eric showed up in a couple of minutes after that; Jon then wanted us to eat and walk (saying that I didn't matter much), but loyal Chinese Eric stuck up for me. Good thing I only had two pieces left to stuff into my mouth! (White Eric's reaction: "Wow!" OH, DO SHUSH, BUDDY!)

By the time we made it to the hall, we couldn't get in since a lot of people were getting kicked OUT! We did manage to bump into Jon C. and Ivan, though. Jon saw a bunch of other people he knew, of course. Eventually, we decided to just wander the exhibition booths for a while instead. We met up with Kevin in the hall, and discussed Fellowship retreat locations and such till we saw the book display! Talked about The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis) being needed for Sunday School (I'll perhaps lend white Eric my copy if I can find it), Meredith's Complete Book of Bible Lists: A One-of-a-Kind Collection of Bible Facts (Joel L. Meredith) being interesting, especially since it was $7.99 with tax [I actually bought a religious book - Chinese Eric promptly borrowed that and Passive-Aggressive Notes: Painfully Polite and Hilariously Hostile Writings (Kerry Miller) when he got to my house later], media releases and the Evergreen Line (Geoffrey is BUSY at work!), Kevin's work being relatively quiet (good!), Eric's opinion on the Skype Committee meeting (he insists he didn't send me those emails in error - mics didn't work... typing was a pain), transit and the Skytrain, parking in the casino, small group outing (potluck and movie?), Pastor Bob living near Metro, and more. We saw some people attempting to ride a bike as one of the exhibits; it didn't work too well, heh. (this inspired Jeremy ranting about riding bikes in snow) Also saw a bunch of clothing and shoes, which Chinese Eric compared to a mall before he saw why it was there - hahaha!

I asked Chinese Eric if he was still up for Sunday and the All-Star Game, but it turns out that his mom's scheduled a delayed Chinese New Year dinner. It was all good, as I know there will be other hangout opportunities! I guess he thought I was seriously disappointed or something, so he put an arm around me - it's okay, man. I get it! So then I told white Eric that I was up for church on Sunday, but HE told me that he'd be out all day! "There's a worship leaders meeting, and then I'm going to Jeremy's. Why? A birthday dinner for someone you probably don't want to be celebrating... and no, I am NOT kidding!" Chinese Eric saw his grin, and later told me that he'd figured out who white Eric had been referring to... so did I, actually. There is NO WAY that I would be up for celebrating Paul's birthday, that's for sure! So of course, I promptly changed my mind. Guess I have another free Sunday to myself, although I wouldn't have minded the hangout, either!

When Jon was preoccupied talking to another person he kinda knew from his bachelor party, everyone else decided to leave him there! Chinese Eric and I headed for the back of the room where we could sit and rest for a while. He was tired from being out all day driving his grandma, and I just appreciated the chance to rest myself from walking around! We talked about Trinity, Regent, other Christian schools, Jon / Harmony / pregnancy / babies / responsibility, the iPhone scanning thing, relationships, friends dating, films, hot dogs, my giving him a hard time about last year's memories, religion, Nathan and the Bible, our not wanting to listen to Christian music 24/7 ("I like VARIETY! Small doses ONLY!" he said - I agree!), and more. I'm glad we get along quite well! When white Eric and Kevin came up, we decided to see if Jon was still talking; apparently, he'd gone off somewhere! Chinese Eric and I pretty much decided to leave soon afterwards - at least he got as much worth out of his parking charges as possible, haha! (we got to the car when there were 12 minutes left)

I didn't really feel like going to Denny's for a meal before we stopped by Shoppers, but he did let me decide since I was presumably the hungrier out of the two of us! We discussed Pho in general, sharing the bathroom with siblings, Erica, personal stuff, possible trips to Hong Kong, red meat, Australia, cold water, and more. Finally, I decided that we might as well go to a Pho Hoa place in Richmond since we'd been talking about it a lot! He apologized for it not being more fancy, but I didn't care! Next time, if he really insists! He joked that I should take him out for pizza, too - hey, whatever works! Talked about aging, grandmas, the good memories of the group hangouts, health, gum, bubblegum and pink, memory, how it was still good seeing Jon (if you think he's busy NOW, just wait till he has the BABY!), my parents going to Russia later in the year, the cold winter weather in Russia (his friend went there for work once!), salty noodles, tea, large bowls, tripe, hot sauce, bean sprouts, relaxing at my place later (of COURSE!), more personal stuff, and other stuff.

When we got to my place and he'd helped me with the water (of course I thanked him for that AND the Pho!), I signed into Trillian and was surprised to see a couple of messages from James, which I promptly responded to. Eric read it and wondered what that was about, so I had to show him a Facebook profile page and pictures, of course! "Yeah... I guess he had a bad day at work today, and thought of me for some reason. See this status here, which I saw earlier? Poor guy!" "So where is he from? Here?" "Ha, I wish... no, he's from TEXAS [*highlights place of residence*], of all the places! I'm assuming he went to bed early, since 8:10 here is 10:10 there." "How long have you known him?" "Oh, about five years now. He's awesome!" "... INTERESTING picture!" "Oh, I know... I saw that angry one on my feed earlier, and I didn't know what to think! I was like, are you mad at everyone or the world right now?!" "So did you talk to him?" "No, I had to do some stuff before you picked me up!" "What's his line of work?" "He's a clerk at a convenience store. Oh wait, I think I know why he had a bad day..."

After that, we discussed some Cracked article that Chris W. had linked me to JUST as I was about to leave - it was about hilarious Chinese toys, which he thought was nasty, and I thought was funny. Then we discussed thirstiness (take a water bottle!), Engrish, the word FUCK in mistranslations, Teunis ("I see him pop up on his friends' statuses - I'm just like MEH!"), how it seems as if white Eric's friends and my brother's friends are really asses, signing the guestbook, Vanessa, A&W, curses, and more. He left before 11, saying he had to get some sleep; totally understandable! It was an interesting evening for sure, even if we didn't get to go to the plenary session!