That's your son?!?!

When my hubby was 13, he finally got to go visit his dad at his place in Las Vegas. His dad had decided that he wanted James to meet some of his other relatives, so he had driven all the way to Minnesota to pick James up. They left MN and went to Wisconsin to James' grandmother's house. This was the first time he had seen his dad in years, and the first time he had ever met his grandparents.

When they were still several miles from his grandparents house, they hit a snag. While trying to pass a pickup truck, the driver suddenly slammed on his brakes and turned left in front of them. In James' opinion, the accident would have been a little less annoying had he not JUST opened a bottle of Pepsi. A nice big 20-oz plastic bottle. The initial clenching action of his fists from being startled by the accident emptied the bottle all over the windshield like a geyser.

After making sure everyone was okay, James took out his camera and proceeded to take pictures of the car with its hood up to the windshield, and of the accident in general. Nothing like having pictures to remember your first visit with your dad! To which his father commented: "Do you HAVE to take pictures of that?" James replied: "Come on! This is my vacation; I gotta have pictures to show my mom!"

On a side note: they had just rear ended a pickup truck in a vehicle that had just been repaired a few weeks earlier from hitting a pickup truck head on. James' next comment was: "So, are you going to fix it up so it can get T-boned now?" He received no answer to that question. (However, his dad did actually have that car fixed. The next time James visited him, he asked: "Do I need to keep my eyes open for pickups?")

So after the car was towed, they were sitting at the local police station filling out the accident report, and James gets to meet his grandfather for the first time. He picked them up and brought them to his house where they were supposed to go.

Later on, it was decided that he - James' grandpa - would drive with them to Vegas in HIS car, and that James' grandma would fly in a bit later on for a family visit. When they arrived in Las Vegas, they went to James's stepmother's work. Hubby finds out that his dad has not yet told his wife that her newly repaired vehicle is now sitting in a shop waiting to be fixed, again. So, James' dad decided to go inside and explain things to her before bringing her out.

James waited in the parking lot with his grandfather, resting by laying on the trunk of his car. At 13, my hubby was already about 6 foot 1, and so he easily took up most of the space on the trunk. Just so you know, his dad is shorter than him, barely even with James' shoulder.

Eventually, his dad comes back out with his wife. Her first question was: "Where's my car?" Apparently, she thought her husband was joking about it being in a shop. She's a slender Vietnamese woman that is even shorter than her husband: probably about a foot shorter than James!

As they approached the car, she smiles and says: "So this is your son." She has her hand out to shake James' hand. James stands up from the car and puts his hand out. At which point, she snapped her hand back to her chest and fell backwards into her husband's arms, exclaiming: "That's your son?!"

Although politically incorrect, the first thought to run through James head; as she fell back; he could just hear a little voice saying: "Ack! Godzilla!" Also in the back of his head, he heard a voice tell him to: "Put your hand down, idiot!"

All in all, it was NOT the best first meeting, lol!

James NEXT visit to their house was on Christmas about a year or so later. He got to meet some of his stepmother's family. It was an interesting meeting; as the first person walked up to him, he looks WAY up and said with a heavy Vietnamese accent - which sounded funny to James: "Ooo! You must play football!" James replied with a simple no. The relative asks: "Basketball?" "No..." "Whatchoo do?"

"I draw," James stated in a deadpan voice. He stopped asking questions after that...

Later that day - Christmas Eve - James was asked if he wanted to go bowling, which he thought was odd being that it was a holiday. In MN, the place would probably have been closed. In any case, hoping for some activity with his dad, and the fact that James loves bowling, it seemed like a fun thing to do.

It wasn't until right before they left that he found out that his dad wasn't going. James would be going with his stepmom's family. This was rather annoying because the purpose of his visit was to spend time with his dad, but because of work, James had mostly spent time by himself reading a book.

Anyway, James went bowling with a group of about 10 Vietnamese people that he didn't really know - not including his stepmother - and as anyone who has ever gone bowling knows, the first thing you do is get your shoes. The worker was asking everyone for their shoe sizes and received a bunch of requests for 4s and 5s. At last it's James turn, and he says:  "Size 11." He could see the confused look on the guy's face as he wondered out loud: "Are you with THIS group?"

To James surprise, they bowled really well. On the other hand, he averaged about 90, which was really good for him at the time. However, he wasn't having fun being part of a group of people he didn't know. (He's painfully shy, especially back then.)

On his way back home - during the flight - he gets more surprises. When he got on the plane, he found out that they had apparently double booked his seat. So they brought him to the front of the plane to wait to see if they could find him a different seat, and then finally decided that since there was no one sitting there, they would put him in the very front of the first class section.

"Finally! Some leg room!" He exclaimed.

Thinking he had just lucked out, he opened a comic book and lay it out across his lap, he leaned back for a nice big stretch; head back, yawning. At that exact moment, the plane lurches, and he thought: "All right! We're about to take off and I can read my comic book and relax the whole flight."

But as he glances out the plane window, he sees snow coming down. It took him a few moments to realize that they weren't leaving. They had just locked onto the terminal... in MN! He realized that when he leaned back, he had fallen asleep! He'd spent the entire two hour flight passed out with his mouth open!

"That had to be hilarious to the stewardesses," he grumbles to himself as he gathered his things and then left the plan. But it could have been worse. At least he wasn't gripping the arms of the seat in terror the entire time!