Joy Ride

The actors: Me, the Boy, the Boy's sister, mother and his step-brother.

The scene: Five people (the actors above) crammed into a small Toyota (Camry, I think?) going from Vacaville to the Boy's Aunt's house in Novato. The Boy is driving and his step-brother is in the front passenger seat. The Boy's sister, his mother and I are squished together in the back.

How to give the Boy's mother a heart attack:
***Everytime we're going downhill, the Boy's step-brother and sister raises their arms in the air screaming "ahhhhh!" as if they're on a roller coaster ride. Even scarier when the Boy lets go of the steering wheel to join in. Naturally, the Boy's mother screams: "All of you stop it! You're going to kill us!"

***Everytime we pass by a body of water (i.e. pond, lake or ocean), someone opens the windows all the way down and shouts "water, we're passing by water, please prepare your life vests." Keep in mind the weather was rainy and about 50 degrees.

***Whenever the Boy's mother would tell him to slow down or be careful switching lanes, comments that followed were:
-- "Oh no, watch out, there's one car in front of us."
-- "Come on Toyota, we gotta catch up with the three cars in front of us."
-- "I see red flashing lights!"
-- "Wait, there's blue flashing lights too!"
-- "Wow, that old time Buick just passed us."
-- "Can't you go any faster than 50 mph?"
-- "Watch out for the turtle on the road. Oh wait, that's us."

***Whenever the Boy's mother threatened to take over the driving, comments that followed were:
-- the Boy: "oh no, kill us all now. It'll save some time and suffering."
-- step-brother: "Okay okay, slow down. I'd rather have Quyen drive than let you get into the driver's seat."
-- the Boy: "Hell no. Quyen can't drive either!"
-- sister: "we're doomed."
-- me: "Hey! I have a very clean driving record, thank you very much."
-- the Boy: "That's because you never drive."
-- step-brother: "If [the Boy's mother] drives, we'll never get to your aunt's house."

And that was just on the ride to his aunt's house. I was suffering from a food coma on the ride back to his mother's house, so I kinda tuned out all the ragging on his mother's nagging. By the time we got home, the Boy said to me: "Why did you and my sister fall asleep and make us boys suffer like that? My mom wouldn't stop talking!"

Oh what fun it is to ride in the company of the Boy's family.