Random Photo Friday: Goofy Cousin Edition

This is my cousin, Rob. Although, back when this picture was taken in August 1992, we called him Robbie. You wouldn't know it from this photo, but evidently he grew up to be quite the hunk of let's-not-go-there-he's-my-cousin.



His mom, my aunt, invited me to go with them on vacation to Florida, where they have a condo. They picked me up here in Texas, and when they left to drive back to Canada, I got to fly all by myself for the first time back to Dallas. My dad picked me up from the airport, and on the way home we happened to pick up a kitten, who turned out to be our weird cat, Buster. He deserves his own post at some future point.

Anyway, we enjoyed snorkeling and seafood and visiting the wildlife park, where my French-Canadian uncle flouted the rules and rolled down the window in the middle of the lion habitat. He nearly got us eaten by lions, and most definitely got us yelled at by a nice park ranger who didn't want to see us get eaten by lions.

He met another Canadian couple on the beach and made polite small talk with them. Once they left he spent several minutes mocking them for the way they said, "Eh?" at the end of every sentence. Evidently the Québécois don't talk all funny like that. Of course I only understand every third word of his "excellent" English.

Oh, but back to Robbie. He mocked me for not knowing French and believing that a salon is a place where you get your hair done instead of a living room. I mocked him for not knowing that a word can have more than one meaning, and also for pronouncing the letter "z" like "zed."

He was kind of bratty, being an only and very much wanted child born into a family with more than enough resources to pile upon a precious son. I suspect a little part of my being invited on that trip was to play the role of big sister and cut him down to size a bit. At one point I refused to swim with him because he was being kind of jerky, and I made him apologize to me, so I think it might have worked.

I haven't seen Rob in years, and I don't know if I could pick him out of a crowd. I guess as he got older he had more of a life in Montreal and didn't have time to be dragged down to Texas to visit family. He has probably been here once or twice in the last 15 years, but for whatever reason, I didn't have time to be dragged two counties over to visit with him. If he comes for Christmas, I'll be sure to take an updated photo to compare.

Thanks to Holly for reminding me about this whole random photo Friday thing.