— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ पाँच —
I already
posted about Halloween, which included activity on both Thursday (also Shobhit's birthday) and Friday (actual Halloween), and I did that on Saturday—after Shobhit and I had already gone to the
Día de Muertos Festival at Seattle Center, as part of their year-long
Seattle Center Festál program. The Diwali Festival we went to last month is also part of this, and these two are the couple that we tend to go to every year we can these days.
I only learned when Googling it today that the Day of the Dead is celebrated by Mexican cultures not just on November 1 (as I have long thought), but on both November 1 (
Día de los Angelitos, honoring deceased children) and November 2 (
Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, honoring deceased adults). This means the stars really aligned for the festival at Seattle Center this year, which is usually scheduled for the weekend before Halloween—but, if the Day of the Dead actually lands on a weekend, they'll schedule it then. And this year, the festival, and this one they always do both days of the weekend, actually got scheduled on Saturday-Sunday, November 1 and 2.
Laney was going to check it out with me this year, but she was really hungover Saturday and canceled. Thankfully Shobhit was still interested in going, mostly just so we could walk to Seattle Center together and he could get steps in. He's really behind on his targets and as obsessed with his steps as ever, but it does resul in us taking a lot more walks together, and that's a good thing. We were only in the Armory checking out the festival for about 45 minutes, but we spent much more time walking there and back, and I did get
a 34-shot photo album out of it.
This was
fewer than last year, but more than 2023. It makes sense that 2024 would have the most, because Tracy joined us last year, which added new eyeballs to find things of interest. That said, while the Diwali Festival this year had a lot more to it than the last one we went to, this year's
Día de Muertos Festival felt slightly scaled back from last year's. Or maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough.
I did get some Mexican hot chocolate, though, which is unique and an unusually thick concoction. The Spanish name for it is
champurrado, and it's thickened with a kind of corn flour, giving it a bit of a gritty consistency. It's good, but I may need to make a note for next year that I don't need to go out of my way to get it again. You do get a pretty large cup for the $9 price (with tax), though, and I just poured it into
the Yeti mug I already had with me, as I had made tea to drink as we walked.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ पाँच —
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ पाँच —
Anyway, this event closed out my
Halloween events for 2025, resulting in five photo albums total for the holiday—actually the fewest I've had
since Halloween 2021. I had six each year in 2022 and 2023, and then a record seven last year—but, this year there were no "SEA Giant Skulls" scattered around town (disappointing), nor was there any other random Halloween event I went to, such as the Halloween Triple Feature I went to with Tracy last year (the only thing I actually dressed in costume for last year). I might not even have had a "Pumpkin Carving Party" photo album this year, and what I do have is
pretty lame, just an eight-shot album with six screenshots of AI-generated jack-o-lanterns that went over with a silent thud. We'll see what happens with pumpkins next year, but I certainly won't be doing anything with AI again. Maybe if I can find other photogenic Halloween events to go to, I can feel better about there not being a Pumpkin Carving Party next year, if there indeed isn't one.
I basically had no friends participate in Halloween with me this year either, both because of scheduling conflicts and, quite simply, the rain. Alexia did come to Seattle from her Issaquah apartment last year to walk North Capitol Hill with me on Halloween evening last year, but the rain was so miserable then that she quite understandably did not want to repeat it again this year, so she backed out as of Thursday—hence the walk Shobhit and I (and Sachin, for part of it—he would be the one friend who was part of any of it this year) took Thursday night instead, taking advantage of the weather when it was still clear. And then, Laney was going to go to the
Día de Muertos Festival with me Saturday, but wound up being too hungover and had to back out. She
had also planned to tour the SEA Giant Skulls with me this year too, only for us to discover they weren't even doing it. Whether that choice had to do with the vandalism they were subjected to last year or not, I really don't know.
At least Shobhit joins me for some of these things. He would have gone with me to the West Seattle Harvest Fest on the 26th, but he had to go to rehearsal, and I totally get his need to prioritize that. That's why I just drove myself out there. But, he did walk the North Capitol Hill yard displays with me—twice!—and he did go to the
Día de Muertos Festival with me, so I did appreciate that.
Enough either didn't happen this year or I had to do without friends or just on my own, though, that Halloween felt particularly low-key this year—especially when also considering how little Halloween fanfare we got at work. As a result of all this, I very nearly forgot to write up a Halloween email photo digest for this year. I even considered just skipping it, but then I realized: I haven't skipped that since the first Halloween photo digest I emailed out in 2009. I still took tons of great pictures this year, right? In fact, I wrote up a draft of the digest this morning (I was at work, don't tell anyone) and I found a solid 20 photos to include. I usually try to limit it to 18, and don't ask me why I zeroed in on that number years ago as the ideal number for a single email.
I'm not too worried about this being any harbinger of the rest of the holiday season, incidentally. I have
tons of holiday plans on the calendar through the rest of the year, some with family and some with friends and some at work, even if some have to bail they won't have the power to overshadow the whole season—nothing can prevent Matthew from loving the holiday season! I even created a specific "Holiday Events" calendar I can filter to on my Google Calendar. Counting the Halloween events, I have 25 holiday events on there for 2025. Three are in October; five are in November; 17 are in November.
Now, Shobhit may need to go to India at the end or even the beginning of December, which will mean missing some crucial stuff and that will be very disappointing. But it won't be everything! This has to do with his brother's plan to visit the U.S. at the same time, leaving their mom unattended to, but I rather resent the idea of this arbirtrarily dictating the dates Shobhit has to travel himself. And honestly, I'd be more disappointed if he misses our overnight trip to Victoria December 22-23 than if he misses Christmas. Ideally, he would fly out on Christmas Day just like he did last year, and we can still have our own traditional Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. That's a Christmas compromise I can live with. Right now, though, their mom might even just go visit their sister. All that is far from finalized at the moment. What I
do know is that I am going to enjoy the holiday season, goddammit!
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ पाँच —
[posted 12:33pm]
