KODAK MOMENT
2:03 p.m. on September 19, 2006


Time for my Dad�s girlfriend�s son's wedding!

The weird thing is we actually grew up together. She (let�s call her Susie and her son we will call Wesley) was friends with my Mom from early on. Her 2 sons, who were younger than me by a few years, would spend time at our house when the families would gather for parties. The main memory I have of Wesley was that he was a little bossy and his younger brother always had a constant stream of snot coming out of his nose.

I saw Wesley for the first time in about 20 years just last year at my own wedding. The roles were reversed and he was in charge of housing our parents, only he was smart and put them up in a hotel instead of having them stay with him. In the time that had passed since we were kids, he had grown into a handsome young man, and was actually quite kind and interesting. We both moved to Seattle about 10 years ago just by chance, but never thought to seek each other out. Who knew my Dad would end up with his Mom?

The day before the wedding, we went to Wesley and his brides� house. I thought we were just going to drop off Susie so she could help with the last minute details, but my Dad & I ended up pushing up our shirt sleeves and helping, too. At one point my dad, Wesley & I went on a crazy drive around town to pick up supplies. We ended up in a fish store in China Town to pick up some Betta fish to use as table centerpieces for the reception. Betta fish are quite colorful, but you cannot put two males in a tank together, because they will fight each other to the death. We ended up buying 16 fish, each in separate plastic water cups. Only 15 would fit in the box, so I volunteered to carry one. I had the perverse desire to take a sip as I carried him around the city streets. I named him Paolo.

Finally my Dad & I were able to ditch them for awhile and I took him to the conservatory of flowers and to the Asian Art museum where we watched a strange film. The film was in a peculiar dark room where you sat against a wall that was facing another wall where more spectators sat. There is a screen to your left and another to your right, both showing a different perspective of the same film. You would look back and forth at the stark imagery, back and forth. Nothing much happened in the film, but it was meant to depict a woman�s life without men.

After that I took him to a see where Bruce Lee is buried. While we were looking for his grave, we saw a strange man wandering around with a bunch of Dahlia�s, so after we were done paying our respects to Bruce and his son Brandon, we directed the wandering man to their spot. We then picked up Susie & she wanted to see the graves, too, so we went right back to the cemetery. We could see that the Dahlia�s the man left as an offering were torn to shreds and scattered about as if he had an episode. We also saw that he left his digital camera on the nearby bench. After taking a few shots of our butts with his camera, we hid it amongst the flowers on Bruce�s grave and then left a note for the man in hopes that he would return. The note said: Bruce has your camera.

The next night we went to the wedding, which was lovely, but I was horrified to find out that the seating for the reception was assigned. Instead of being sat with my Dad or our old family friends, Sasha & I were sat at a table with some of Wesley�s co-workers, who we did not know. It turned out to be OK, because who sat at the center of our table was none other than Paolo! I took him home with us & bought him a bigger tank. Sweet fella.

All in all, the visit was not THAT bad. My Dad only made me want to stab myself in the throat with a fork about 4 times total, so that is getting better.







Space Holder. - February 12, 2012

BEAUTIFUL BOY - August 26, 2011

COUNTDOWN - July 13, 2011

SEXAY - June 16, 2011

BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS - May 30, 2011

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