Yesterday I decided to give my arm a break and check out some of the touristy attractions around downtown Santa Fe. The museum I wanted to see was closed, so this primarily consisted of going to the famous churches downtown. Apparently, Santa Fe is home to the oldest church in the US, the San Miguel Mission, which is currently under construction for renovation, and costs a dollar to enter. The next church on my route was the Loretto Chapel. This one cost $3 to enter, and I did. The church features a continuously looping recording that explains its history as well as the famous spiral staircase. According to the recording, this spiral staircase was built by a guy (in the 19th century?) who used only a triangle and hot water to shape the wood... and probably a couple other things that I can't remember, but the gist is very few tools. The staircase has no external support (it's not attached to the walls near it, nor does it have a center pillar/pole thing that it uses for support). The only thing holding it up is the "perfection of its design," says the recording. This guy also happened to build the thing and then leave without taking payment or leaving a bill. He also didn't build a banister for it... so maybe he was hoping to make it a death trap and he didn't really want payment in the first place. Eventually the nuns got another really great architect to build a banister. The chapel no longer functions as a church - as if that weren't evident by the $3 admission or the looped recording, but does house community events from time to time. The only way out of this chapel is through the gift shop, which, upon entering, has a metal water cooler-type thing labeled "Holy Water". From its tap, you can pour yourself and tiny refreshing cup, or you can easily purchase one of their handy, pre-filled vials for a mere $3.95. And, if everything in the gift shop is too pricey for you, or you just happen to collect smashed pennies, there is a convenient penny smasher outside that will leave your penny with the imprint of the famous stairs. I love it when Christianity turns so smoothly into capitalism and consumerism.
On to the next church! The final church I stopped at, St. Francis Cathedral, did not have a cover charge, as it actually does still function as a church... from time to time. Inside this church are all kinds of artistic treasures including paintings of saints. One of these saints is surrounded by parrots and holding a small dark child to whom he is waving his finger. Another is severely dressed with a hand on the shoulder of a dark child who is wearing a headdress. Another is standing over two young children, a boy and a girl, and the boy is bent over carrying a huge black bag full of something. Ah the saints! Thank goodness for white, christian imperialism and the conquering of the savages! Outside this church there is a statue of the first Native American to reach sainthood. If only I were naive enough to see it as the native people rising to the ultimate heights of spirituality and acceptance into Society (with a capital "S" because there is only one true society, of course). However, I recognize that this was all part of the destruction of another culture and the imposition of certain white, European ideals. Despite all that, I did pay my $0.25 donation to light a prayer candle and I prayed for something or someone to save us from ourselves. To give us some assistance in stopping the oil leak. To preventing us from killing off ourselves and our planet for our children and their children.
After that, I sat outside in a nearby park and knitted a few rows and ate an apple before walking around the plaza and heading home. I love downtown Santa Fe; it is so quaint. The Plaza almost reminds me of Disneyland, so neat and perfectly laid out, with christmas lights in the trees year round and pots of flowers hanging from the street lights. It's like nice part of the wild west.
That evening I went to aerial training at Wise Fool. We seem to not ever have enough time at aerial training, but we did get some things done. Teal and Ant and I worked out more of our Jungle-trio routine and it looks like it will work out pretty well. Teal and I went over a couple things, but mostly just found out that we are much slower climbing and transitioning between moves than we thought we were, so we had a better idea of how many things we could fit into the routine.
After aerial class, a few other ladies and I headed downtown with stilts and puppets to walk around the Reporter Block Party. The Reporter is like the SF Bay Gaurdian, it tells people what's happening around town. Since I hadn't been trained in stilts before, I got to carry around a bird puppet and be my friend's hand to lean on if she, up on the stilts, thought she might fall. It was pretty fun; there was lots of dancing and free samples of honey - which I absolutely must buy before heading home because it is so delicious. That night as we left, there was talk of adventures for this weekend... lake trip, hot springs, sleep over... we'll see.
This morning I got up and headed over to my instructor's house to watch her eight-year-old daughter while she trained and worked on a routine. The plan was for us to go to their neighborhood pool and chillout until the afternoon when her mom would be home. The pool wasn't open yet when I got there so we jumped on their trampoline a bit to start off with. My little charge, then told me that her knee was hurting and that she didn't feel like going to the pool, but would prefer and board game. She picked one out that involved shopping in a grocery store; you had a list and had to get all of the things on it before you could leave. During this game our imaginations ran away with us a bit. At some point a dog was in the store farting, which smelled so bad, I used my bubble gum to blow a bubble that I could breathe out of instead of inhaling the foul air. This giant bubble burst all over me so I had sticky bubble gum everywhere. Somehow this started a bubble gum fight between us and I ended up repeatedly stuck to the floor or some other thing with bubble gum. Then, a honey spill was causing my shopping cart to get stuck to her toes every time I tried to take my turn. Then the store started repeating everything I said (over the intercom?). Then the dog started farting again, then pooping, then pooping on me and all over my house. Then it was a whole nother ordeal to get clean. At some point there were also bees that kept stinging me, but not her. Needless to say, when her mom got back I was exhausted. I seem to always get myself into these situations with kids; I react strongly and play along with their games and then things just get crazy and they keep making up more radical stuff to get me to keep reacting. Then I just don't know what to do, cuz I can't just say, "ok that's enough, it's not fun anymore," and it is fun, it's just I somehow let little kids have complete control over me in that way. They create the world and I just go with it no matter how crazy.
Right after her mom got home we were supposed to have a stilt-walking lesson in exchange for the childcare, but my friends texted me from the gym and told me to come train with them. So, I went to Wise Fool and climbed around on the fabric for a while. It was good though because Teal and I actually choreographed our routine. We came up with the moves and it should work with the timing, we just need to work on synchronizing with each other and the music. After this, I was even more tired, but since my instructor had the time today and I wanted to learn before Sunday so that I could stilt-walk at a Father's Day event, I went back over to her house and walked to a nearby park to learn how to walk on stilts. It went really well. I didn't get hurt at all and I picked it up really quickly; my instructor says I'm a natural and she had thought that would be the case when she agreed to teach me. I can already walk on my own, do pivot turns, side-steps, grapevines, and nearly a box step. It was great fun and I'm really glad I did it. She's going to give me instructions on how to build by own stilts so that if they don't get a shipment of them in that I can buy a pair cheep before I leave, I can make my own when I get back to Berkeley.
Now it's time for a relaxing evening. I'd thought I might go out for another movie night but apparently it was canceled, so I might just chill at home or go for a walk for some yogurt!
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