huh.

So, looks like I won two tickets to anywhere Westjet flies. Westjet is a Canadian airline that flies all over Canada, and a now a bunch of places in the U.S. and Mexico, and the Caribbean, too.

sonofagun. I don’t know where to go. My first impulse was Newfoundland. Then someone said, “you could go to Cuba!” yes. yes, i guess I could. And who would I go with? The immediate assumption is that i will take my lover. But she said, “you know, you don’t have to take me just because i’m your girlfriend”.

She’s something else, that woman. Really. so I said, “well, I was kinda thinking it might be nice to go somewhere with Mom.”

“just what I was thinking,” she said.

So I called up Mom. “Wanna go to Cuba with me?”

“oh, not Cuba!”

I think we get stuck inside decades sometimes. Most people seem to be stuck in a decade not this one, seems to me. Mine is the 70s. I like the 70s best, because it wasn’t quite as whifty and ‘love and flowers’ as the 60s, but it was a period of really high activity in the women’s liberation movement, and that was where LOTS of the ground was prepared for accessible abortions and transition houses and equal pay legislation (if not yet practice) and women being able to get credit on our own, and–well–mmmm. gender-neutral language, some more public attention to male violence against women–at least a tiny bit less victim-blaming…also skinny ties, high school gym class, pointy-toed boots, pre-bunion feet.

anyhow. so, yes. the 70s. Favourite decade.

My mom, though, i think she’s kinda stuck in the 50s. So I thought maybe she’s a little bit…even though i think she’s social-democrat (her parents were BIG Tommy Douglas fans)..she was a little scared of communists. and i have a feeling she’d wear crinolines if she could. and poodle skirts.

So when i suggested Cuba, she wasn’t too happy. then she said, at the end of the call, “well, you pick the place and I’ll go. As long as they have flush toilets”. Wasn’t the commies after all. also i think she’s afraid of wearing a bathing suit in public. but she’s never been to a hot place. I think it would be good for her to go to a hot place. I’m a bit twitchy about the whole American Imperialism thing. and being “the ugly american” and all that. but it would be nice to take Mom to a hot place where mangos grow on trees.