particular paddy

 2 clogged ears. gah.

yesterday started out sunny and pleasant.  after church i did a little video, introducing the world to my flowers.  not long after that the hail started.  it can't be hailing, i thought.  it was.  it was flying almost horizontally from the west straight into my balcony and threatening my new babies.  naturally after i did a short video exclaiming the obvious "hail!", i rescued the flowers, pulling them off the ledge down to the floor and blocked them off from the wind with some bins.  then i rued that my favourite neon orange polka dot socks were wet.  i just washed those. they are the first socks i reach for if i am reaching for socks.  more accurately i dig for them in the sock drawer.

i went over to erjuhn's house for dinner.  fatima said it was weird.  she said adults of our age don't do that. i said "i don't think it's weird."  "you don't think anything is weird." she retorted.  this prompted me to text erjuhn to make sure there was no misunderstanding about intentions etc. his answer satisfied me.

 i still don't know how to spell his name.  he lives very close to metrotown in one of those low rise apartment buildings.  he said i could park next to him in the tenant parking.  the entrance for the cars to drive through was very narrow and i was nervously navigating it.  there was a car following behind me which made me more nervous.  then it honked at me.  i was like 'how you dare.'  but it turned out it was erjuhn himself and he was honking to tell me to go left but i didn't look at him and went right. i do my own thing ok.  haha.  no i turned around and parked next to him.  

he was just coming back from superstore with groceries for our dinner. we went in the side door up a few stairs and the first apartment was his.  we took our shoes off at the door and erjuhn offered me his house slippers but i said i was ok with socks.  his apartment is spacious and sparsely furnished, a couch, a square coffee table in the living room.  the balcony overlooks the back of the building.  the kitchen is a galley kitchen with a little dining area adjacent, where sat a tiny table and two chairs.  there are two bedrooms, one of which is completely empty besides some power tools that he uses for his work.  the bathroom was unremarkable.  everything was meticulously clean.  not a speck of dirt.

i am learning a lot about erjuhn.  one thing is that particular is too soft of a word for him.  i sat at the small table and we talked while he cooked.  i learned all about his work and his current difficulties with a friend he went into business with. he does tiling and it seems that he is very good at it.  he showed me a fireplace that he got asked to do that was such a difficult design the designer couldn't find anyone else to do it.  he did that job over 4 days and said he dreamed about it when he closed his eyes.  but it looked beautiful.  

food issues.  he has hinted to me before that he is very particular when it comes to food.  we talked a lot more about it. he has this way of explaining it, "if my eyes tell me i can't eat it, i can't eat it!" \he said when he was little he used to get beaten for not eating the food served and still he couldn't eat it.  it seems to be sauces that are thick and viscous are a big thing for him but it isn't limited to that.  sometimes there is a food that he can eat if he cooks it but if someone else does, he can't.  he is very sure to explain that he can't help it.  he just can't eat it.  once his brain says no, then--it's no.  he also told the curious story of the peach.  he used to eat and enjoy peaches all the time.  they had peach trees and they used to eat them all summer.  but when he was eighteen he touched the fuzzy skin of a peach and he couldn't eat it anymore.  the hairs on his arm stood straight up.  once his cousin teased him about the peach thing and he said ok i'll eat one and just putting it in his hand all the hairs on his arm stood up and he went to take a bite and beads of perspiration broke out all over his body.  his cousin was like woah! ok stop stop.he

i brought snickerdoodles for dessert.  luckily erjuhn's eyes told him he could eat them.  he was worried that i might bring something he couldn't eat and when he saw the cookies he was like "phew, they are dry". (ie. not wet or sticky i think).  i did contemplate bringing pudding and i think that would have been the wrong choice for him.

to me it seems like he got stuck in that stage kids go through.  the picky stage.  it seems to have a physical component, but i wonder if there is some pychological explanations to the food issues.  it causes him some social issues.  like he had a korean girl friend in edmonton and she wanted to take him for korean food and when the got to the restuarant and he smelled the aromas of that food he couldn't even go inside.  and when he makes new friends he has to explain the whole thing to them so they don't get offended when he won't eat their food.

another interesting thing i learned about him is that he doesn't seem to notice when it gets dark.  he was working in the kitchen and was totally in shadow and finally i was like "why don't you turn on the light?  it's getting dark"  he then told me that he never notices that.  and when he turned on the light he said in his mind he sees everything as bright as it was before it got dark.  he said when he is working on a job his assistant is always like \"why are you working in the dark?" and he tells him "just turn on the light if you want to.  i don't notice it." it happened again when we were eating.  i got up to turn on the light.

so anyways we had a lot to talk about.  i found out that he bought that little table so that he would have somewhere to serve me dinner.  but although he cleaned it already he was still worried about it so much so that he had to put down newspaper before we ate on it.  i noticed that he uses newspaper while he is cooking too.  lays it out on the counter and then rolls it up with the crumbs or whatever and keeps his counters clean that way.  well that's the end of the erjuhn tale.  when i left i noticed him moving his car.  he had parked me in his spot.  he's a nice guy thoughtful and respectful guy with a considerable amount of quirks.  so far i'm glad to know him.

this week is publish week for the news & views and i'm down to the crunch.  i was working late although from home, putting the articles and pictures in place and designing etc and only my hunger drew me away at about 6.  i roasted some carrots and made some chicken skewers.  both were just kind of ok.  i didn't put my heart and soul into it.  then i had some scripture time followed by care task time.  after that i put a few more articles in place before jumping in the shower.  today i sang while i showered.  i used to do that a lot.  i sang two little boys and i heard him come.

and now i must sink into oblivion.