A Wedding in Cuba

Craig's brother and his fiancee called down to the house last night. This is the first time that I've seen them since last year. I find it strange that they don't visit more often because they only live a few streets away. It seems they only come to the house if they want something. Also, the fiancee keeps her future mom-in-law at arm's length and doesn't give her the respect she deserves. This pisses me off about her because the mom is awesome. I don't know what her deal is.

They are in the midst of planning a wedding in Cuba which I cannot go to because I'm American. After more than 40 years, the US still has an embargo on Cuba which I think is unnecessary. For those of you not up on your American history, the reason why the US imposed the embargo was because the Castro government expropriated the properties of US citizens and corporations, because of Cuba's alignment with Russia during the Cold War, and the US's paranoia with Communism. It doesn't make any sense how the US granted China "the most favored nation" status while continuing to impose a trade embargo on Cuba. Both are communist countries. Maybe it's because we owe China billions of dollars and they're practically running our country.

Back in 2000, I went to Cuba to expand the research I did when I was living in West Africa. I couldn't take a direct flight from the US obviously so I had to sneak in through Mexico. I requested that my flight itinerary not show Cuba on any of my documents and my passport not to be stamped by Cuban immigration. They stamped a post-it note, stuck it on to my passport, and retrieved the stamp when it was time for me to leave Cuba. When I returned back into the US, instead of showing immigration my passport, I showed them my birth certificate. This was before 9/11 where you didn't need a passport to travel from Canada and Mexico. Now a passport is required. It was a piece of cake. If I had gotten caught? A $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in jail! I'm actually jealous that she's having her wedding there. Cuba is beautiful, the music is awesome, the family I lived with was uber awesome, and I'd love to go back and visit them someday. Maybe that someday will be soon? I hear President Obama has plans on extending an olive branch to Cuba in hopes to lift the embargo and loosening travel restrictions. We'll see if he can pull this one off.

I asked "what's-her-face" where her wedding was going to be and she said, "Santiago de Cuba".

I said, "That's way down south, I never got to explore that area. I hear it's beautiful. Is it?".

"I don't know. I've never been to Cuba", says what's-her-face, "Have you?".

"Yes, I have a few years back. I stayed in Havana with a family and did research in Matanzas."

"Where's Havana?", the-bride-to-be asks.

"Um...it's the capitol city of Cuba." (you know the country where you're going to get married?)

She gives me a blank stare and says, "Oh, I didn't know that".

Ok? You're going to have a destination wedding in a country you know nothing about and have never been to before. In addition, you're going to make everyone spend a shitload of money to attend your wedding. Furthermore, have strict orders not to have anyone stay in the same hotel as you, and not see anyone after the wedding. So she expects guests are just going to attend her wedding for a day and leave the country after that? Bridezilla anyone?

Craig shook his head in disbelief, "What a numpty! Obviously, she was absent the day they handed out intelligent cards!".