Dear Fans... (that line stolen from AJ2Hip4515)... my apologies. I write Day 2 of the Bear Visit weeks after the actual day. But no matter... I remembear mostly everything. Will try to show you more in pictures rather than bore you with words. :)
I go to the airport at 6am the 2nd day via the polka-dotted services of Drury and the airport. I get my suitcase thank the deities! No need to borrow clothes from my client which would have been embarassing. After dressing up, I meet Boss Aldous downstairs for a great breakfast. I love the Drury breakfast. It has all the favorite breakfast things I love.
OJ, milk, yu
mmy yummy eggs, bagels, cold cuts, cerea
l, and so many other things. Finally, we are ready
and waiting for Frima. Aldous and I have some anxious moments a
s we've never met them and we waited f
or a couple of minutes. We were hitching with them to the Bear Office as they had arranged for a rented car.
Aldous goes back for something and I am alone when Luc comes in. I shouldn't have worried. They were all very friendly. Later, I would realize they are very, very funny and such fun company. We drive off to our destination and even then, they were going on
about Pierre-Alain being late. Hihi. Funny.
Luc has been to the Bear Office many times but for some of us, it's a new sig
ht.
It's sorta like bungalow style and quite low key. There is only one small sign outside a
nd several blossoming trees outside.
Inside, it's really like the stores except that it has office space.
See the bears lining up the walls.
Some
o
f these bears have been retired already.
See the letters from different kids and parents. I
read about this wall in Ma
xine's
book so it was pretty special to see it in real life.
We got toured
around the bear offices and saw the huge auditorium (?) they were constructing. Of course, Luc and th
e boys were joking
about Head Bear talking about world domination. "DEAR BEARS!!!" The Frima guys were hysterical. And I mean that in a positive way.
I can't talk about the meeting itself but for the first day, it felt like a review of one of my Education classes about child psych.
After the meetings, Greg shuttled us to the first ever BABW shop. It was in a mal
l and there I made my first bear purchase. The usual bears I got were gifts from BABW. This one
, I chose myself, stuffed, chose clothes, registered at the kiosk, and paid for at the cashier. She was nice and gave me a handful of rib
bons. The best
thing about Heartfelt though was that she was stuffed by Greg. He spilled bea
r guts all over the floor and forgot JayJay's heart but I was 3rd so he alright with mine. I love Greg! He is one of my favorite Bear people.
After shopping for our bears, Greg brings us to our next destination. Dinner at something Papa's. I have to ask Dad for the name. I forgot. Before getting there, we were joking about Greg's car's GPS. Man, what was her name?! They were joking about her and real girls. You know like, "Gaddammit, Luc, I TOLD you to make a left!" Imagine if you had that in your car. It was a fun ride obvously.
When we get to the resto, we park behind the building. Jimmy and the guys gesture to a small trailer of sorts and ask jokingly if it's the restaurant. I was laughing all the time. When we get inside though, the food was fantastic! I mean, just fantastic. I told the chef the steak was just wonderful. Medium rare, yum yum yum. Sigh. The high points of the night were chatting with Frima and us having more understanding of each other's situations and also chatting with JJ. I liked him. He's really nice and smart!
I kinda had to make an effort for that night though. I don't socialize well with adults. With kids, yes. With adults I dont know very well.. sigh...
Anyway, the wine was good and Aldous enjoys it. So do the other guys. So much so that it made for a fun, scary ride going home. Waaahhh! They were making scary illegal turns. Somehow, we couldn't get to the hotel despite it being in sight. It was again, hysterical.
Aldous and I have a cigarette and retire to our respective rooms. I log in and do some work which eats up my sleeping time. I checked out the tv shows the night before and they seemed pretty boring. LOL.
I remember missing American idol and all my anime. :)
