Grandma & Toby

My grandmother, Virginia, loved to travel.  Before she died in September, 1987, she told me that she always wanted to "touch" the West, that is to "touch" Pacific Ocean.  But thanks to the society's oppression on my grandmother as a Deaf person, she struggled to have a decent life.  It was not easy to raise a deaf family in an era of Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War.  It was nearly impossible to find a decent job in the era that allows hearing people to discriminate deaf people openly.  All in all, hearing people do make deaf people very poor back then. 
 
It was not until the passage of Americans with Disabilities Act that pretty much neutralizes them from continuing to discriminate deaf people in 1989 or 1990.  But it was too late for my grandmother.  She never saw the Deaf President Now Movement.  She never saw the Americans with Disabilities Act being enacted. 
 
When I grew up, she always talked about how fun it is to travel.  How fun it *must be to experience something like that.  Her farthest trip was to Columbus, Ohio.  She grew up in North Carolina and died in Virginia.  I believe she only visited 7 or 8 states in her lifetime.  As a child, I vowed that I will not be like that. 
 
Today, at 30, I already visited 42 states, 3 foreign countries.  Of course, I intend to blossom the visits eventually.  Only Hawai'i, Alaska, North Dakota, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Iowa seems to elude my demands.  But two states (N.H. and L.A.) will be "touched" shortly.  This is to appease my guilt for my grandmother who wanted to visit -- I'm sure she is glad that I'm doing this for myself and for her as well. 
 
Now, Toby of Deansworld, he seems to be in the same path with my grandmother.  He hasn't visited many cities nor visited the West.  I thought of my grandmother.  I decided to buy him a flight ticket along with myself as we flew to Seattle, Washington few years ago.  Even if he does not enjoy the town, I knew that he is done "touching" the West.  That makes me feel contended, to a degree. 
 
But Toby, god damn you, you came to NYC on a last-minute plan and partied then vanished on me.  Not nice.  Not nice.  :-)  Maybe I should call Mordru to sic on you ... like this picture!  ;-)

  
"Toby messed my fan up last weekend!  And you shall pay for it!"

 
R-