Grandma NO FILTER / Dawn and Eni's wedding

Managed to renew most of my library books before going out to Dawn and Eni's wedding and banquet. Somehow, I needed to survive the afternoon and evening with my parents, and also needed to survive tomorrow! The thought of next Saturday kept me going! Mom told me that she had Princess Cruises chocolates for me, along with some instant noodles. "You should boil them in water first to get rid of the wax!" This time, I didn't even bother telling her that it was an urban legend. They're not the most healthy thing to eat, I know, but that doesn't mean the wax thing is TRUE! (she also had no idea how to pronounce "Eni," or where Albania was!)

We discussed Vegas and who might look after Big G, who at least knew she was on her way to a wedding. It wasn't until later when Steph told her that it was Dawn's wedding that she clued in! She kept offering us something to eat - maybe she was hungry - but I told Steph that she'd offered me cookies while a funeral was actually going on once! (even if I'd wanted to eat them, I JUST WOULDN'T!) Again, she has NO FILTER! She asked Steph how long Pastor Bob was going to talk for, and opined that they (ministers) said the same thing every time! My poor sister was trying to shush her! During the prayer, she told Steph to move her purse and program because someone might take them!

Saw Benedict, Jen, Karen Lew, Vania, Uncle Reuben, Auntie Christine, Vivian, Uncle Timothy, Auntie Lillian, Auntie Catherine, Uncle Y.C., Uncle Hansel, Auntie Cathy, Lawrence, Andrew T., Uncle Cho-Kai, Auntie Anna, Linda Yan, Jenny, and others at the wedding at UBC. Jon talked to Dawn's parents Uncle Albert and Auntie Betty, but I figured I could do that later. I expected some religious content, as Dawn's parents still go to church. Not sure how personally religious Dawn is at this point, but it doesn't matter to me. My parents think that she can work on Eni, which I don't think will help if he dislikes it. I'm not saying there can't be religious conversions or whatever, but it's none of our business! Jon decided to clown around with his tie, and put it around his head for Steph to take a picture. The actual wedding ceremony was pretty good, and PASTOR BOB officiated?! (for some reason - Eric says "declining vision," and I say "only met the guy THREE TIMES!" - I couldn't recognize him at first) I guess it makes sense since he was pastoring in Hong Kong for a number of years. The ug told me about the Whip last week; I'd heard about it, and it seemed to go well. I liked Eni's mom's name, which is a variant spelling of Tatiana. :D

Later, Pastor Bob said it was good to see me there; I assume Jon had finished explaining our connection to Dawn's family since I'm sure he doesn't know that, and Dad came up to bug us jokingly about something. We asked Pastor Bob if he could see a resemblance, and he said yes. Later, we waited outside for some free coffee; I got green tea, and Grandma settled for hot water since there wasn't any hot chocolate. It was good just talking to people afterwards; Geoffrey is so tall now, haha. He says he misses Canada a lot, but will have to stay in Hong Kong for a few years yet! Said hi to Dawn's parents, who did come here from Hong Kong too.

The family decided to go to Granville Island later since it was near the restaurant for dinner. (Steph drove us there since she wasn't going to dinner; I told her that I'd forgotten Lisa's chocolate, but there was no room in Steph's clutch purse for it anyway) Had saffron and pecan bread from a bakery (interesting yellow coloring inside!), ate mango ice cream, and got some cooked sausage; I'll have mine for breakfast tomorrow, I guess! A bird pooped on Harmony's jacket, so she and Dad were cleaning it up! At Dockside, I found a use for Harmony's notebook... writing tag prompts! I saw Auntie Teresa, who said hi to me - since I don't have anything to say to her, I didn't say anything beyond a curt "hi."

Jon, Harmony, Lincoln, Karen Lew, and I spent time talking about housing / Eric Ho / Holly / Richmond / Joyce Station / minimalism in baby stuff / red wine / Mom's alcohol tolerance / upcoming weddings / Myles (Whistler as a wedding venue?!) / Sean C. / Uncle Keith the real estate guy / life updates / Emily Carr / pregnancy / RCMP / Citrus / Richmond / Joyce working for Facebook briefly. Megan and Andy came by with their 20-month-old son Joshua, who liked looking around at things. We said hi to him, although he was shy... understandable! Dinner was chowder or salad; steak, chicken, or vegetarian; coffee, tea, and tiramisu. We laughed at Uncle Albert's speech, but Auntie Betty really brought the religious points home when she spoke! Oh well, at least the speeches (the others weren't Bible-based!) weren't interminably long! Saw Ivan and Karen Choo later; Karen said she DID get my email and meant to respond with a White Spot lunch invite to celebrate our birthdays, but got swamped with work. She says maybe mid-April would work for her; we'll see! I'll have to tell Randal about this tomorrow if I see him, haha. Everyone laughed when Eni said he was looking forward to getting to know Dawn better, hehe.

Afterwards, my parents decided to go to Shoppers Drug Mart. (Mom was frustrated that Grandma kept telling everyone that she'd just gotten back from Hong Kong, and threatened to pack her off to Hong Kong to live with Uncle Michael instead if she wanted to go there so badly!) I was tasked with staying in the car so Grandma wouldn't wander off. She asked me three times in ten minutes what took them so long, asked whether "White Kid" (white Eric) had a girlfriend yet, and told me that she recognized "E," "R," and "S" from the Shoppers Drug Mart. (she was VERY SURPRISED when I told her that particular store location never closed!) She also told me that she knows the English letters for "Shoppers Drug Mart" and "London Drugs" are different, even though she doesn't know what they say! Maybe Lisa is right, and Big G is playing us all for a bunch of fools when she says she doesn't know English! Dad let me return my library books which couldn't be renewed anymore - well, I have one which I haven't finished, but nobody else has requested it.

At home, Eric called me when I'd just gotten in the door; I heard the "beep" and figured I'd catch him online instead! Of course, I had to restart the computer first after I caught up on things. It was then that I got an unexpected offliner from someone, which was nice, but NOT as nice as the news that Vancouver had a 3-2 OT win over Colorado! As I thought, Eric got back to me online to say that I was going to "flip-flop" about going to church. (and bug me about 54-40's SINCE WHEN, and my vision) I have to go tomorrow, though; I won't get a ride to the baby shower from someone if I don't, and I won't get a ride to the Italian food dinner from Steph if I don't go to the shower! Thank goodness the baby shower provides me with an excuse to get out of a thank-you lunch at Tsui Woo! Every time I type "baby shower," I want to type "bridal shower" - WTF, brain?! I also reminded Steph that maybe she should get something for Jane; I just got her a dollar store photo frame in a very small gift bag, but that's just me and my budget!