May 2024 in review

This is the nineteenth post in my Month in review series.

Despite traveling to Montreal, getting engaged, and Riya practicing intensely for a large scale dance performance, we always find time for dinner dates together as a couple, and a few parties to dance and enjoy friends’ company. We had a little engagement party back in Santa Fe to share some cake with friends. I even took Riya backpacking one night in mountains near Santa Fe.

The theme of the month is: fiancés.

Trip to Montreal

Early this month, Riya and I took a week off to visit Montreal.

I helped my brother and sister with my dad’s move. My girlfriend and I had some time together as well. We went to the spa (which was great after 3 days of moving), we walked on Saint-Laurent, visited boutiques and cafés. We also had some time to play with my three nieces at my brother’s and my sister’s homes.

Riya and I met in Montreal three years and a half ago, near a fountain on Place des Spectacles. I love our “first met” story so much, I always thought it would be a beautiful narrative arch to go back to the same spot to propose to her. So one morning during our stay in Montreal, I had our friend Max take Riya to that spot. I was waiting for them. I proposed to her, and she said yes! We came back to Santa Fe as fiancés ❤️.

Invaders of the Heart 2024 – The Return

As soon as we returned to Santa Fe, Riya resumed practicing and preparing for Pomegranate Studio’s annual Invaders of the Heart theatrical dance production. We watched the 2023 edition The Radiant Tarot together last year, shortly after Riya joined the company. This year’s show was just as impressive. It’s got light effects, projections, original music, lots of dancers from Santa Fe, New Mexico and surrounding states. But also, Riya was part of the cast this time, what a beautiful dancer!

There was so much depth and breadth in the show’s artwork, choreography and inspirations. The Return refers to pre-Greek matriarchal religion of the Minoan civilization, a sustainable relationship with nature and our bodies, a celebration of divine feminine and masculine, exalted sexuality, the understanding of time as infinite cycles, and of death as an act of creation.

Visit The Return website for more information about the director, artists and dance companies involved.

I made a short reel highlighting Riya moments and a sampling of various scenes. I’ll let you know when the official video of the performance becomes available.

Did you hear the crowd’s energy? That was a show sized for a large amphitheater. Usually, Myra takes the show on tour around the United-States. Last year, they also did Mexico. We think there’s going to be at least one representation in New York, hopefully more!

Month activities

Photography

Month favorites

• Trip to Montreal.
  • My siblings and I helped my dad move.
  • Dinner at KazaMaza.
  • Spa Bota Bota, massage and water therapy.
  • Walking and thrift shopping on Boulevard Saint-Laurent.
  • Mocha break at Café In Gamba.
  • Oysters and cocktails at Café Darling.
  • Nachos and honey mead at our friend Max’s place.
  • We got engaged!
  • Dinner at Toqué!
  • Visit at my brother and sister’s home to distribute lil’ gifts to my nieces.
• Zu Hot Pot in Albuquerque, after landing.
• Dinner at Museum Hill Café in Santa Fe.
• Engagement party at home with friends and delicious cake and drinks.
• Big dance show, Invaders of the Heart 2024: The Return.
  • Dinner party with the dance company after both nights performances.
• Self-learning and process improvement project for my personal bookkeeping and accounting.
  • Reviewing accounting basics, debits and credits,
  • Learning how to do multi-currency accounting and trading correctly,
  • Learning how to do taxes in the United-States,
  • Migrating from Beancount to GnuCash,
  • Automating lots of tasks with Python scripts, reducing toil from monthly bookkeeping activities.
• Backpacking with Riya.
  • One night wilderness camping, about 1 hour walk away from the trail to find a suitable flat ground on the saddle between summits.
  • Not too far from home, we could still see Santa Fe, which is really beautiful at night.
• Tender Fire sourdough pizza in El Rey parking lot.
  • A very popular weekly event, known only by Santa Fe locals.
  • They set up their kitchen outside, with a brick oven on a trailer.
  • Absolutely amazing pizza dough.
  • Conversations with random people.
• At work, I did lots of programming in Python, made a few adjustments to a metrics collection agent I wrote, and created visualizations in Grafana dashboards for my customer. I feel proud of finally having something concrete to show six months in our migration project.
• Dinner with Riya at La Seina.
• Love+Happiness DJ dance party at Tumbleroot with some friends, dancing until midnight.