Hello everyone, it's been less than a year and I'm returning to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Unfortunately Aunt P passed but it was a rather sweet departure. As you know (or can read here), Mskate, mom in law, and I went to see her over the 2023 new year, and about 1 month later her son (Cousin M) went to see her, and then a month or 2 later her sister and nephews went to see her, and then her other brother was there for her final breaths. She had at home hospice and her last expressed thought was a happy one, someone played flight of the bumblebee and she said "I used to play that." RIP Aunt P.
This time mskate and I flew alone since the in-laws were driving, and since they were driving (along with it being a short trip) we didn't have to pack much (2 backpacks and 2 small carry-ons). When we got to the airport I grabbed one of the abandoned luggage carts in the parking garage just to be my goofball self with the 2 easy carry-ons (super overkill) and hopefully pull a Tom Hanks and get the deposit for the cart. Unfortunately there wasn't a cart rental kiosk thing so I just left the cart by the TSA. The really crazy thing is I ran into a coworker while in line, which was fun introducing her to mskate. Once we got through we basically just hung out at the terminal. Since Paul Rubins (aka PeeWee Herman) died recently I watched PeeWee's Big Adventure on the plane, and it was quite entertaining. I see why people enjoy it and love to quote it. After that movie I watched a Pink Live In Concert thing, which was ok but wasn't great. I like her music and all, but the story of the concert was very sexually charged and I just don't associate Pink as a sex symbol. Like, if it was Madonna or Katy Perry I would understand since they are kind of "I'm sexy and I'm flaunting it," but Pink always struck me as "I'm attractive, but I'm more about the punk rock and roll" like Avril Lavigne. Whatever.
So here's a funny thing, we stopped in the same Utah airport we stopped in for mskate's grandma's funeral where we had to run through the terminal and barely made our connection. Thankfully this time we had an hour between, so it wasn't crazy this time. Unfortunately there still wasn't much time to explore the airport, but there wasn't a whole lot to explore anyway from what I could tell. Here's where it got frustrating, the flight was overbooked so they were offering people $500 to wait for the next flight 2 hours later. This wasn't "$500 flight voucher," it was "$500 visa gift card to use anywhere." I wanted to take it, but I couldn't because we had people waiting for us. Then it went up to $700, which was really hard to turn down but I had to go to see my family. As our flight was getting closer they announced it was $900 per person, which would have come out to $450 an hour for both of us but I had to hold strong. The flight is starting to board, and now they're offering $1000 per person to wait for the next flight. I look at mskate with the look of "this is REALLY hard to turn down," we could REALLY use that $2000, like pay off all the credit cards and put that to a house, but our family was worth it. Then someone stepped up and claimed it, so it wasn't even an option at this point. The flight was super basic and didn't have the TV, so I just watched videos I had downloaded on my phone the whole time, just pokemon and static shock episodes.
Just like last time, here is some stock footage of the plane flying I'm uploading with creative commons licenses.
We land in the Albuquerque airport no problem. We were getting picked up by Uncle J (the brother who was with Aunt P when she died), and this was kind of funny. Mskate hadn't seen him in close to 20 years, so she didn't really know what he looks like anymore, just that he's a man in his 60s and the car he was driving, so we're just waiting at the ride share pickup location looking for an older man driving a black Nisan SUV. We saw a lot of people driving the same car he was driving, but they all were the wrong age or already had people with him. This is when it got wild, there was a single older man driving a black Nisan SUV that was pulling up to where we were standing (he knew the pillar we were standing at), and we thought that he was Uncle J, but then he started shooing us away as we approached mouthing "no the other guy." Not too much longer Uncle J showed up and it was a good ride. I sat in the back seat taking b-roll of the scenery while mskate caught up with her uncle. This was good for them because it was an hour long drive from the airport to the house.
I didn't have anything to offer to the conversation, so here's a bunch of video I took of the drive and landscape, also uploaded with creative commons licensing.
So here's the "extra sad thing" that happened. The reason the in-laws drove is because they were bringing the dogs, including Duke the really old dog who we kept thinking might leave us any day now. We told dad-in-law to leave the dogs home and this would do Duke in, but he wouldn't listen. Unfortunately we were right, and this was it and they had to put him to sleep. Someone that knew Aunt P knew a traveling vet that was able to take care of Duke. When mom-in-law went to get the door she knew it was the vet and brought the younger dog Delilah to greet the vet, and the was thrown off saying "this isn't the patient, right?" We're told it was a good little service since it happened while we were flying, but it definitely was weird having Delilah sniff me without having Duke jump on me.
After we unpacked it was time to go to The Video Library with IRA. Quick refresher, The Video Library is more than just a video rental store that is managing to stay open in 2023, it is the oldest video rental store in the United States and the second oldest in the world with hundreds if not thousands of titles, and the original owner is still running it 42 years later and gave me a little interview last visit. IRA wasn't much of a "rental store kid," so he didn't REALLY get it, but still enjoyed seeing all the titles. That's OK though, because I was having a great time. About a week prior I asked some people around different discord servers I'm on if they have any questions they want asked if I can interview the owner and this is when I got my interview with those questions. She remembered me from last time and was happy to see me again and do another interview. I'm really glad she has a giant store that kept IRA busy for finding movies to rent because I spent probably 30 minutes just interviewing her and having some conversation. I also didn't leave empty handed, because I rented The Adventures of Prince Achmed (the oldest surviving animated film) and Disaster The Movie 2021 (not to be confused with Disaster Movie 2009 or whatever).
After the video store we went to dinner. It was a pizza and Mexican place. I think I ended up having a burger because that was like all they had for me (didn't really want more tacos), and it had something special like brisket or friend jalapenos or something like that. One of the things that was weird was like a methane vent, so I pulled out the book of matches I had with my camera that I picked up somewhere and lit a match. It helped make the place not smell for a moment, which was good. The main thing that I need to point out is the bathroom wallpaper. It was a rather awkward pee.
The rest of the night was pretty calm. I remember I primarily watched Disaster The Movie. I'll give a quick little review, think Celebrity Death Match and Robot Chicken made a movie about the end of the world and they could do things they couldn't do on TV (namely nudity and strong profanity). It was quite funny, and really used the whole stop motion animation to it's advantage with really wild scenarios that were still somewhat grounded in reality (like gruesome deaths that are played for laughs). The even wilder thing is at least at the time of writing there isn't an IMDB or Wikipedia page, and it had some decent size actors and director as part of the production (like they have IMDB and Wikipedia articles, but no mention of their work on Disaster The Movie). Really wild.
It's now Saturday and the big day. Mskate and her dad walked down to the cafe to get breakfast for everyone, which mainly consisted of chocolate croissants. Before the family arrived we went to Kakawa's Chocolate House and got some specialty chocolates for everyone. I had to get my spicy Aztec chocolate, this time in both ice cream and brownie form; ice cream to share with the family and get their reactions, brownie to take home.
I watched the Adventures of Prince Achmed until the cousins showed up. When they did we all visited for some hours. We then played bananagrams. It was pretty interesting, though I'm not super good considering I'm not the best speller. After a lot of visiting we went to the cemetery where they did the memorial ceremony. The chappel was very interesting, because on the ground they had the symbols of the 4 elements (water, earth, fire, and air), and they were all the same as found in Avatar The Last Airbener.
There were also pictures of the zodiac constellations. I thought I had some pictures, but I guess I don't; here's a small part.
It was definitely unusual, especially in the very "Mexican Catholic" area we were in. There was also a quartz fountain that was pumping chlorinated water that made our fingers smell when we touched it, which was something "us boys" were having some fun with. The ceremony was pretty good. Most of it was stories told by loved ones; family, close friends, and business partners. Aunt P knew a very many people and was very accomplished, and had a lot of different perspectives and stories which was very interesting to mskate. Speaking of mskate, she didn't think she would get up and tell a story, but she did and did well. After the ceremony we had the luncheon, which was mostly hour d'eurves (or however it's spelled, the appetizer things served at parties), with a lot of things I didn't care for, but whatever, not my celebration. Then this happened, I was tasked with helping the male in-laws with packing up things to take home and mom-in-law said "get the water." The funeral service provided little bottles of water that were everywhere so we gathered those up and was getting ready to leave. Mom-in-law then chases us down "not THOSE waters, THESE waters" (as she holds up a package of grocery store mini-water bottles). We brought them back and one of the directors (who definitely had "the mortician vibes") said "you could have taken them, it's part of the service we provide." Whatever.
When we got back to the house we set-up for the party. There wasn't much that needed to be done, but we also had to relieve the dog sitter, and the funeral luncheon was winding down already so it wasn't like we were there for a long time. This is when I told the one care taker about Aunt P not letting me join her in her own world (one time she was spacing out and her care taker that day asked "[Aunt P] are you in your own world?" and she said a drawn out "yeeeessss," then I asked "can I join you?" and she said "nnnnooooo"), and that got a good laugh with "she had a way of speaking her mind." The main fun thing from the party was getting all the cousins to to try the Aztec chocolate ice cream. One took a spoon full and was "mmmmm, it's good ice cream but I don't see - WOAH now I can feel it." The other cousin was "wow, that's hot and unexpected, my son would really like this, too bad he wasn't able to make it." Cousin M thought "this is not my thing," and IRA was reluctant to try it but then was like "it's OK I guess but not for me." I think one of the "adults" (the generation of our parents) tried some and thought it was OK, but it was really my thing and I finished it the following day. Then the rest of the party I basically spent it talking with Cousin M's friend who flew from like Chicago about videogames. It ended up being really good for both of us because we were both "outsiders" since we were like the only non-blood family members there at this point and it was more of a family reunion than it was a funeral. Near the end of the night we did group pictures since this was like the first time in decades everyone was together, and probably will be the last time for another many years. After everyone left I finished my movie.
It's Sunday now, and that means it's the sabbath and time to go to mass. We went to the Basilica like we did last time, but there wasn't a memorial for the Pope and fallen officers nor was there a special blessing for the governor this time (again, I don't think I will ever go to a more interesting mass than that one). It still was pretty neat though since it was in both English and Spanish, with some of the hymns having English and Spanish verses in the same song. After mass we walked back to the house and took an alternate route that saw other things. There were some cool gift shops and street vendors (one with some REALLY funny hot sauce), and we walked by what is labeled as the oldest still standing church in the United States. I thought that was Our Lady of La Leche, but I guess Saint Augustine is just the oldest settlement and the original church building wasn't still standing. Whatever, it's still pretty cool.
The rest of the day was kind of do our own thing, and after some rest I returned some of the movies and spent more time at the Video Library. I wrote many more questions and further interviewed the owner. I think I have at least 1.5 hours of material now, and hopefully soon I'll edit it into a feature length documentary interview thing. She expressed interest in carrying any movie I end up making, which would be really cool. Hopefully I can find the time after some life commitments to get it done. After all the time she gave me I ordered her a copy of Rewind This since she never saw it and since it's a documentary about the VHS format that has a section dedicated to video rental stores (2 things that interest her) I know she'd enjoy it. I also bought a cool T-shirt and got this great picture with her. Again, if you're ever in the Santa Fe area I highly recommend checking it out.
After that I went over to The Drurry Inn and got some video with The Meem Room, a conference room that was made by the architect who's last name was Meem. One of the concierge saw what I was doing and said "yeah we get a lot of people taking pictures with The Meem Room, it's where all the memes come from," and then told me how it's actually named after one of the architect who designed the hotel. Here's the video.
After that I walked back, and I just kind of relaxed for some hours. At some point I had lunch, which was left overs I think. Part of the relaxing was watching Nickelodeon on Aunt P's TV since they still had the cable set-up. There was this really interesting thing where the TV remote had accelerometers to select the options while pointing at the TV, kind of like a Wii but for comcast digital cable (or whatever it was). After relaxing we went out to dinner at a restaurant where Cousin M got catering from for some kind of fund raiser thing, and they have an outdoor patio where we could bring dogs (where Delilah made a bit of a friend, or tried to since the family wasn't letting her see the other dog, but I'm getting ahead of myself). Since the restaurant was in the downtown area I decided to explore some parts of the city I hadn't explored yet while the rest of the family waited for the table. I wasn't avoiding them, I offered for others to join me but no one else wanted to see what Santa Fe had to offer. I walked by the city's historical museum and would have really enjoyed seeing it, but unfortunately I wasn't going to have the time to do it, so instead I just enjoyed the adobe architecture and found a neat toy store. Unfortunately they didn't have the kind of toys I'm interested in (such as Pokemon and pop culture puzzles), but it was still pretty cool to see. I didn't have a lot of time there because the table was ready.
The patio was pretty cool, it was like "the back yard" of the restaurant, with wood fences and such. There was another patron with a dog and Delilah wanted to meet him because she's a very friendly dog, but dad-in-law and the other people didn't want the dogs to see each other probably because strange dogs could be best friends or they could get too rough and hurt one or the other, or just start fighting. Oh well. Dinner was pretty good. I think I had a beef enchilada. There was a problem our waiter, getting things wrong and taking a while, where I think the manager stepped in and took care of us. Since it was an authentic Mexican place I sad "gracias" when he brought me my food, and he just smiled and said "de nada." Then when we left we saw the dog in a dog house that was probably the owner's. The dog saw us but I think this one was a little more aggressive and probably wouldn't have gotten along with Delilah.
Later that night when IRA finished all his movies I walked them back to the Video Library. While on my walk I took some ambient sounds for the audio library I'm putting together (specifically flowing water on some fountains and crickets chirping). I also explored some of the art at dusk, which was pretty cool. While there I took a bunch of video and pictures of the Video Library for whatever use I might need. I spent probably a bit too much time just admiring the store because eventually mom-in-law called me and asked where I was. That was basically it for the night.
Now it's Monday and fly home day. We didn't need Ron to the Rescue this time because the in-laws had their van and took us to the airport. We packed up everything and loaded it up no problem, making sure I got my brownie. We said bye to Cousin M and IRA and set out on our hour long drive to Albuquerque. Delilah joined us on the drive, because she likes to drive. Since we see them all the time it wasn't a big thing like when we saw mskate's uncle, but I still got a lot good b-roll footage. We got through security no problem and we explored what small amount of the airport there was. I wanted panda express but unfortunately they wouldn't open until our plane started boarding, and that wasn't going to be OK. I had some kind breakfast, but I don't remember what specifically. While on the plane I watched "the man who saved pinball," a biopic about a man in the 1970s that proved that pinball is a game of skill and isn't gambling in the sate of New York. It was pretty cool, especially since I had a vague knowledge of the story already since I'm a pinball fan; I knew some places thought it was gambling and regulated it as such, until some big court case where an expert player called every skill shot and made the score counter roll over due to it being a game of skill.
This took us to a Georgia airport where I was able to get Sabarro's pizza (or something like that with the big slice). There wasn't a ton of time to explore the airport, but we still had our fun. Unfortunately I didn't find a candy store where I could get a Spongebob Finders Keepers egg, oh well. We got on the plane no problem, and I watched Ravenfield, the "Nick Cage is Dracula movie." It wasn't very good, mainly because there wasn't nearly enough "Nick Cage as Dracula." I was expecting super wacky Nick Cage doing a weird Dracula all the time, but it was primarily about his underling which was OK but I came here for "wild Nick Cage." Oh well. When we landed it was quite late, but no big deal. We left pretty close to where we came in on Friday, and when we walked by the TSA we saw the cart that I had left there 3 days prior. Pretty funny.
Overall it was a really good trip. It was sad of course, but it was the first time all the siblings had been together in decades and we were all able to be there for each other, and Santa Fe is such a cool city. Hopefully you can find The Video Librarian at the Video Library sometime soon. Since Aunt P was cremated she's going to be scattered in some very special gardens; her best friend's garden in Santa Fe and the church garden her mom is scattered in. There's probably going to be another little ceremony in Tuscan that mskate and dad-in-law are going to go to, but it's not going to be a big thing for everyone. I'd definitely like to go back to Santa Fe in a year or 2 just for purely leisure, but we'll see. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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