Joanne

One day, talking about Christmas celebrations, my fourth-generation Ukrainian-Canadian friend Joanne asked me if I celebrated Christmas. I said that I was like a Jehovah's Witness, who did not celebrate Christmas for its pagan origins.

One day, I told my fourth-generation Ukrainian-Canadian friend Joanne, coming back from her gym, that I liked sitting in a jacuzzi. Like a Japanese, I like being in water in a spiritual way.

Mary and Joanne are both expecting twins.

On the 25th of March of 2022, I was eating at the Lulu Island pizzeria, whilst Rose the Filipina vendor and a white lady customer, who was sitting at a corner table, talked about mortgages and vacations to the Philippines. They were yelling across the room. I went to the cafe, and on the way, I said hello to my Ukrainian friend Joanne. At the cafe, Karina the Russian made my iced black tea, which I drank. At home, on my Social Media, I watched Patrick Stewart's videos on Shakespeare sonnet readings, as I had been doing for some days. The videos were done in Southern California.

The total number of cases is estimated at just under 2,000, but some public health experts, including Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), say many cases are going unreported as patients resist hospitalization and isolation wards, preferring to entrust their care to family members instead.

Joanne discussed the problem with Mary.

After 18:00 on the 15th of April of 2025, on Lulu Island, I walked to Tim Hortons café, there to meditate whilst having an iced coffee with oat milk. Joanne my Ukrainian-descent neighbour popped in to buy a Wild Blueberry Muffin, for her neighbour Eve. With the brown paper bag in her hand, she sat for a moment at my table, and we talked about meditation. I said that I used to go to meditation classes in a Thai Buddhist temple, Wat Yanviriya, when I lived in Vancouver, BC. Joanne said that she meditates every morning, but without formal postures. Joanne is the wife of my friend Rod. Joanne likes astronomy. I like women, and men, of course, who like astronomy. After Joanne exited, by then it was about 19:00; I watched the glow of the sun behind the townhouses outside the bay windows. The sky there was cloudless. There were a few brown men in the café.

This sunny I-don't-know-if-it's-hot-or-cold day of the 22nd of May of 2025, I went walking several times to Tim Hortons café, from about 5 in the morning till after 10 at night. I enjoyed Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes and Sausage, an Earl Grey Tea with oat milk, an Iced Classic Lemonade, an Iced Coffee with oat milk, a Green Tea with oat milk, a Roast Beef Craveable Sandwich, and an expensive Habanero Chicken Bowl. At Starbucks café, I enjoyed a White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew with oat milk. On the street, I passed by Joanne the Ukrainian-descent star-savvy wife of Rod the camping enthusiast. I saw Stella the regular Greek Starbucks customer come out of Kin's Farm Market with tomatoes and greens for making Greek Salad with feta cheese later. I joked that she might be making "moussaká"! At night, at Tim Hortons café, there was a Filipino family, my ex-neighbours. As for religion, my Syncretic inclination is mainly towards Animism and Buddhism, but I don't discount other belief systems. I visited the Roman Catholic church on St. Albans Road, and it was another confession day for the little boys and girls. The interior of the church is like a big clam! Near Bowcock Road, I gazed at the big Empress Tree, its purple blooms wilting. I visited Halal Meat & BBQ, across the street from Tim Hortons café. I admired the Western Asian, Central Asian, and Southern Asian foods on the shelves there—"fantasy brown country"! I was looking for dried apricots and halva.

It's the 18th of May of 2025. Around noontime, I walked to Tim Hortons café to enjoy an Iced Coffee with oat milk. On the way, I saw my neighbour friend Rod washing his big camper, as he and his Ukrainian-descent star-savvy wife Joanne intend to camp in Okanagan. The café was really crowded, this Sunday. The long table with an ice hockey rink drawn thereon was full of Orientals: Two Japanese, one in black and one in beige, and the rest were Cantonese. The sky was clearing, with more blue, and the temperature was rising.

In the morning of the 11th of August of 2025, I microwaved the salty sushi-chorizo rice with nori sheets and bitter-melon mung-bean soup. I had also a mug of lukewarm lemon water. I ate on the balcony. Sitting out there near under the potted branching plumeria redeems my lost days of summer. Later, I walked, picking blackberries to munch on the way, to Tim Hortons café, there to have oat-milk iced coffee. Rod stepped in to get breakfast with bottles of orange juice before his and his wife's long camper trip circulating the BC Interior, being back sometime in September. His wife Joanne is open-minded, spiritual, and likes the stars and planets. She's Ukrainian-descent. In the afternoon, sitting and standing on the balcony, feeling the warm breeze, I sip my iced lemon water in a mug. Down below, the neighbour Moli Wong's rose garden reminds me of an Earth scene in Isaac Asimov's book, Pebble in the Sky.