TequilaCon 2009

So I decided to do this post to wrap up all the loose TequilaCon 2009 ends I’ve kind of left out there.  It is in the form of a bullet post for easier consumption…

Licked

• A big kudos has to go to the TequilaCon Planning Committee of Dave2, Brandon, Vahid, and of course Jenny who is the ringmaster without whom the show could not go on.  It was also awesome that Dustin made it down… and its thanks to him that TequilaMan made an appearance.

• I got affirmation in proving the whole Lick. Slam. Suck. TalkCast wasn’t a complete waste of time from Carrington, who said he wasn’t sure where the actual event was being held until he listened to the podcast.

• It was great to welcome the other TequilaCon 2009 Freshman Class - Whall, Ren, Sarah, Scott, and Marty to the little temporary tattoo club. 

• It was great to hang out with my fellow TequilaCon 2008 Freshman - Geeky Tai-Tai, Rachel, Robin, and of course Poppy.  It was also nice to actually meet Jason who had been in Philadelphia, but who I never actually met while there.  It’s good to be a sophomore. 

• I would be remiss to fail to mention our Capitol City Cab Driver Clarence.  On the way to BeerHer we passed a couple Sheriff cars off to the side of the road, and squealed like little groupie girls at the notion of it being, “Oh my God!  Is that Greg Solano!” Clarence chuckled and told us that no, it wasn’t Greg, but that he actually knows him personally.  Of course we told Clarence about how we read his blog, which I’m sure gave him a bit of a story to tell later on… “So I’m driving these out of towners, eh.  We see the Sheriff pissing on the side of the road and they get all squealy thinking it was Greg, eh.  Would you believe people actually read Greg Solano’s blog, eh?” Did I mention he reminded me of LeSombre?

Slammed

• The Dragon Room‘s Black Dragon drink was a huge win!!!  Even at $12 a pop… they are able to slay the absolute hardiest of the tequila drinkers.

• The view from the Cross of the Martyrs were pretty damn spectacular!  I tried to do a panorama… but unfortunately I am an unsteady shot so stitching it together just wasn’t going to happen.  I really think I need to invest in a new tripod for the new camera… because my old tripod doesn’t fare well under the additional weight.

• The Santa Fe Brewing Company has a delicious selection of beers and some killer Chili Cheese Fries with real green chili peppers in there!  The truth is that most of the food in Santa Fe had green chili peppers… which was a very pleasant surprise considering I was raised in the House That Bland Built.

• Santa Fe Plaza is a very interesting place.  Besides the marble monument in the center that had been altered (which will probably be another blog post at a different time) and an incredible slightly surprisingly high pigeon population, the people watching there is spectacular.  It’s definitely a great place to just sit and hang out for a few hours.

• New Mexico is a beautiful state.  Santa Fe is a beautiful city.  ‘Nuff said.  Scenery was an Epic Win.

Sucked

• Frontier Airlines has some very serious issues.  2 out of our 4 flights were horrible, 1 was okay, and 1 was awesome.  That’s a 50% EPIC FAIL rate.  They are a poor imitation of Jet Blue based in Denver with a nasty flight staff, serious comfort issues, and obviously some sort of unnatural infatuation with animals.

• The Hilton Santa Fe and their serious lack of wi-fi availability in every room was a huge suck.  On top of that, SPRINT’s Data Coverage in Santa Fe is also a huge suck.  It’s no wonder there aren’t more Santa Fe bloggers… they can’t get to the internet!

• The Georgia O’Keefe Museum and their shitty ass signage nearly sucked the life right out of me.  If you have restrictions regarding food, drink, photos, and bags then you should put that signage BEFORE you purchase the ticket at the Admissions Desk and NOT BEHIND THE SECURITY GUARD ripping your admission ticket.  In Georgia O’Keefe‘s defense, she really has nothing to do with her museum.  She’s dead.

• The Santa Fe Brewing Company doesn’t serve their own Chicken Killer Barley Wine at their own Pub & Grill.  That to me is fucking retarded if you actually WANT to sell what you brew.  If you don’t… then that’s fine… but some places think profit may be a nice idea.  I bet their going to be traveling to Washington to ask for a bailout next week.

• Finally, not even so much Santa Fe related… but on the way home we were stuck in a holding pattern for about 30 minutes.  Why?  New York City had heightened security after some dumbass decided it would be a good idea to fly Obama‘s spare Air Force One past the Statue of Liberty at a low altitude over downtown three times so they could take a picture.  That little mission cost taxpayers over $380k to do, caused panic, and made me lose 30 minutes of my life on the ground that I will never get back.  So yeah… the White House Administration gets a big suck for okaying that little stunt.  I guess they never heard of a little program called Photoshop.

Thus concludes my official coverage of TequilaCon 2009.

After ascending and descending to The Cross Of The Martyrs we made a brief stop in Santa Fe Plaza where we refueled and finally got some sunblock from the local Five & Dime.  Once we were rejuvenated and better protected from the sun’s beastly ultra-violet rays, we moved on to our next stop…

The Loretto Chapel.

What is so “special” about The Loretto Chapel is its reported Miraculous Staircase.  Apparently in 1872 the architect of the chapel died before completing his designs and a method for the sisters to reach the choir loft.  A regular staircase would have been intrusive to the small chapel, and using a ladder as men would do was not the best idea for the nuns or their all female student body from the associated Loretto Academy.  Legend has it that the nuns prayed a novena to St. Joseph (aka Jesus‘ stepfather, you know the one, the carpenter), and on the day after the novena had concluded a mysterious carpenter showed up who built them a double helix staircase without the use of nails or screws…

You’ll notice in the photo on the left above that there is an iron brace coming from a solid beam next to the staircase.  Both the iron brace and solid beam were apparently added in the 1980’s because the stability of the staircase caused by deterioration and use was called into question.  The craftsmanship is quite impressive considering the time in which it was built.  I was also very impressed by the presentation in the now defunct chapel.  There was a narration by both a man and a woman telling the entire story of the staircase and the chapel with some very soothing background music.  It was such a great experience that it inspired me…

… to get my picture taken throwing gang signs.  That’s M for Miraculous, bitches.

Another thing that impressed me?  The staircase was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries!  I LOVE that show!  Robert Stack was the bomb!

Of course, the internet has their own wisdom about the Miraculous Staircase at The Loretto Chapel.