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Shaquille ONeal and A Cowboy’s Wife on a Plane, Together

I checked in through the self-service machine for my flight on American Airlines and noticed the option to upgrade to 1st class. I didn’t even think about it to be honest, I just said heck yeah! Scheduled flight time was 4:40pm. Because of storms, actual flight time was 7:30pm but about 30 minutes before that, here comes a very, very tall fella who I recognized right away. You could hear whispers all around saying, “It’s Shaq!” What was even more funny is that those whispers were from GUYS! Clearly they were sports fans but it was hilarious to see the guys go gaga.

Shaq boarded the plane while we sat another 30 minutes before boarding. Now I knew he would be in first class of course but it never dawned on me that *I* could be the one sitting next to him. NEVER. But then I walked onto the plane and who do I see next to my 5E seat???? Yep, Shaquille ONeal. How.freakin’.cool.

I just smiled, then he smiled. I said, “Soooooo, I know you have over a million followers but you should totally follow me on twitter ’cause I’m kind of a big deal.” Yep, those are MommySnacks words but I couldn’t resist! He said, “What’s your twitter name?” I told him and that’s when he twittered,

shaqreal

Now he was telling me he was twittering this so of course, I touched him. Then he twittered this,

shaqreal2

Yes, it was sorta setup but who cares! I won a prize and Shaq twittered me! lol  Not only did I gain a ton of followers after that, I got a lot of tweets asking what the prize was.  Well, there really wasn’t a prize to be quite honest with you. I told him, “People are asking me what the prize is so I’m just gonna tell them it’s me getting a seat by you on the plane.”  He said okay and we started talking about family.  I showed him my bag with my boys and man on it and he asked who that was riding that horse.  I told him who it was and what he was doing.  He was amazed…so amazed in fact he didn’t believe me and asked the people around us if they’ve heard of wild horses and such. It was hilarious. Then he tweeted this…

shaqreal3

It was really funny because it was time to turn off our cell phones and he kept hiding his.  He kept tweeting and did not want to put it away.  So the flight has started and we are comfortable.  I got my feet up, crossed in my seat and he took his cap and shades off.  We started talking more about guns, ranches, him being a U.S. Marshall, his 6 kids who range from 13 down to 2, his wife of 5 years who says, “37/12”. His real age and how he acts.  lol  It was great conversation and we laughed a bunch.  He even had this little gadget that when we both placed our thumbprints on it at the same time, it told him exactly who I was and my complete address!!! Can you believe that!

After a long conversation, Shaq slept for a bout 15-20 minutes or so.  Then is was supper time!  He ordered the Chicken Parmesan and I got the Tortellini.  He asked if my Tortellini was good and I said very good….so I asked if he wanted to try it.  So he did, then he took more  and put it on his plate! He also burned his mouth after he just saw me blowing mine off to cool it.  He ordered Diet Coke.  I said, “Diet??”  He said, “Yeah, I gotta maintain this body.”

He asked me to take a picture of him and tweet it. He said to tell everyone that he was snoring so loud.  Yes, that’s the 12yr old coming out! lol

One thing I noticed is how other people who were trying to talk to him sounded so fake.  It made cringe really to see how stupid someone can sound when talking to a celeb.  I honestly think Shaq saw how genuine I was, which is why about 30 minutes before the flight was to end, he looked at me and said, “I want you to have these.”.  I said, “Oh gosh no, I can’t take your sunglasses.  Those are Prada and cost a lot of money, but thank you very much.  It’s been a treat just getting to chat with you.”  He just smiled and said, “No really, I want you to have them..please.”  So I said okay.

shaqpradasunglasses

By the way, he said don’t smile…”It’s cooler not to smile.” LOL

shaq's prada sunglasses

For the rest of the duration of the flight, he played with my iphone. He has a Blackberry and said the iphones are too big.  He really liked the Lightning Tap game I had on it and wanted to “battle”.  So we battled. I got .38 seconds, he got .36 seconds and started singing “we are the champions”.  Then I got .23 seconds and then guess what he got???  .02 seconds. Are you kidding me???  I told him he’s a cheater!!!  I said you can’t cheat! He started singing, “I am the champion, you are the loser” using Queen’s song of course.  It was really funny actually.  He finally gave me my iphone back and said that he might just have to get one for the apps.  By this time, we were landing and he told me to tweet that fake snoring picture of him, so I did.

shaqsnoring

It was the most awesome thing that could have happened after a crappy 3hr delay of sitting at the airport.  He was the nicest person ever!  Too bad the only camera I had was my iphone:(  Oh well, it was still all awesome!

We shook hands and swapped some info and said goodbye.

Shaquille Oneal and A Cowboy's Wife

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    • I did Andrea!!! He LOVES Mexican food so that was a plus on my side. I said, “You know where I live now, you’re welcomed anytime you want to get away and I’ll cook all day long for ya!” :)

      Reply

  11. Oh my word! How cool is that! I had always heard he was a nice guy but to give you his Prada sunglasses! Seriously! That is one cool man. Thanks for the play by play. Felt like I was there!

    Reply

  18. This is just the coolest thing ever! I had to show hubby your pics with Shaq, he is uber jealous of you right now! (and so am I!) He always seems so personable and fun to be around when you see him on anything. Glad you had a good flight!

    Reply

  20. What a cool story! I live in Phoenix, but followed his LA career long before. I’m glad he’s cool in person. People who “fawn” with fake crap are SO transparent!

    Reply

  22. That’s so awesome – how fun! I knew Shaq was pretty cool, he was groovy on Twitter and all. But then I read about his being at that restaurant with that other blogger. (A guy – did u read about it?) And after that I knew he was ‘just a person’ – so great when celebs are still ‘just people’, you know?

    But now this – wow, he’s even cooler! Very awesome. Nice that he was so real with you.

    Man, I get so nervous sometimes around any type of celebrity that I almost don’t even want to meet them. LOL So I’m sure when I actually do, I wind up sounding like an idiot, too! Ha!

    The glasses? Wow, that was cool.

    The gadget? I have to know more about that thing! Please tell us more!! (The thumbprint one…)

    Reply

  28. Hahaha i showed my bf your twitter picture sitting next to shaq and he was like do you know her? i was like yeah! Well…sorta. I follow her on twitter. He mumbled somethig about the damn computer and walked away. He only uses the computer to look up sports news and fantasy football – thats it. no email, no twitter, no facebook nada!

    Glad to hear Shaq is so nice!

    Reply

  30. That is the coolest thing EVER! I am green with jealousy- I never get to sit with anyone cool. You are making me think I should upgrade that seat next time :)

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  34. LOL- i love it… i haven’t ever really heard anything bad about him- except from haters. i heart shaq daddy!!!! i would have sat on his lap and pretended to fall asleep. lol

    Reply

  45. I had so much fun reading your post. It shows that neither one of you are fake. You treated him like a human being, not a celebrity. Oh, fantastic sunglasses!

    Reply

  47. Lori, I’m so glad I got my act together and came to get the 411 on the Shaq avatar. What a GREAT story! My aunt still tells her story about flying with Hulk Hogan back in his WWF days in the ’80’s. And I love that you were able to bond over Twitter. What a great life!

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  48. very cool about the whole thing. Love how he was so friendly and how into twitter he is! Sounds like a fun trip…probably one of the highlights of the whole trip, right? It would be for me.

    Cracking up over the guys going gaga for Shaq! He is one that you can’t miss no matter how clueless you are about sports…lol!

    Brianas last blog post..Mercedes Benz: 10 FREE Downloads

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  49. YAY! I can finally comment on this!
    I was SQUEALING over your tweets and the picture!
    Yay for you!! Such an awesome experience. Being a real person appeals to everyone xoxo

    Reply

  56. Now I totally have to follow Shaq on Twitter and be all “hey you shoult totally follow me back becase ‘A Cowboy’s Wife’ said that you were really cool”.

    Yep, that’s my plan.

    Michellew_s last blog post..Can You Relate?

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  60. Lori, I knew you had a super attitude by working together on a few things at Collective Bias, but giggled all the way through your post here. I needed a break from the documents I was writing and you reminded me to take a moment to smell the roses (or play iPhone games with celebrities!)

    Thanks for the fun read,
    Sarah
    .-= Sarah Daigle Scott´s last blog ..Snow Garden =-.

    Reply

  67. I was talking to my boss today and he was complaining abouthis back hurting that he needed icy hot. That’s where Shaq comes in. Had to tell him this story and he wanted to read about it. thanks again Lori for sharing your stories, they do bring up conversation and a “smile”, sometimes a tear. Love ya!

    Reply
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