On Sunday, Kyle and I decided to check out the mission in San Juan Bautista. It’s the Spanish mission that was featured in Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. It is the largest mission in California and still an operating church. I’ve been wanting to visit it for awhile now.

San Juan Bautista is a cute town full of adobe buildings, cacti, and chickens. The first thing we did was eat lunch at the surprisingly good Mission Cafe:

Kyle about to order

Then it was up to see the mission. Along the way, we saw a chicken:

Actually, there were chickens everywhere. I like chickens. We also saw a lot of people, including these boys, who were walking along a fence ala Huckleberry Finn:

When we got to the church I was surprised to see that it didn’t have the bell tower that’s in Vertigo. In fact, the original bell tower was taken down because of dry rot in the period between when Hitchcock decided to film the movie there and when he actually began filming. As such, he had to add in the tower in with sets and effects. In real life, the only bell tower is this one:

We took a tour of the church’s museum. I liked seeing the original walls and choir books. Then we went into the sanctuary itself.

Mass was about to begin, so we didn’t take long in there. People were praying to and paying this doll some money:

Then we wandered around the grounds, which are quaint and lovely. There’s an old graveyard, lots of plants, a carriage house, and statues everywhere:

There’s also part of the original El Camino Real and the San Andreas Fault.

Afterwards, we explored the town and then went to The Garlic Shoppe in Gilroy. That place offended my deep and abiding love of garlic. Garlic blue cheese butter? Garlic ice cream? Pickled garlic? Can I get an ew from choir?

Kyle and I on New Year’s Eve 2008.

I had a great New Year’s Eve. We went to a 1933 Prohibition Party in Valley Ford. We dressed up like the 30s and danced to the musical styling of the Bluebellies. Then we stayed up until 4 a.m. talking and the next day went to McNears for lunch. Having a good New Year’s is such a relief. I hate downer New Year’s.

Just for the record, I thought 2008 was a great year. I’m a little tired of people complaining about it. Very few people I know had bad things happen to them in 2008, so I don’t get all the good riddance stuff and the hiding from New Year’s Eve.

I don’t feel like writing a long survey like I’ve done the last few years, but here are some highlight from 2008:

Kyle and I spent the first year in our own house and did a lot of remodeling. It wasn’t as hard to adjust to the financial burden as I had anticipated, although we did cut back on some of our usual indulgences. Still, I had a lot of fun. I saw art and science. I went canoeing and snow shoeing and camping. At home, I planted a huge garden and read over 70 books. We got a free trip to Las Vegas and went on a couple of road trips. In September, we went to Kentucky to visit friends and family. While there, I went to a writer’s conference and saw Joyce Carol Oates speak. We also had parties throughout the year, the most fun of which was an impromptu election party to watch Barack Obama take the presidency.

Our silhouettes at an art exhibit in Kentucky

Professionally, both of us did well this year. I wrote a lot of articles, including ones for magazines like Entrepreneur and The Writer. I got to interview writers and artists such as Anne Lamott and Nellie McKay. On top of that, I published short stories, judged a book contest, and held a literary reading. Kyle got a book deal with Pearson Publishing, became a columnist for Linux Journal, and gave a lot of speeches, including one at LinuxWorld. He also got a promotion—he’s now Systems Architect at QuinStreet.

Squash from the garden

The year wasn’t perfect, of course. Obviously, there’s the economy, which is depressing. There were some projects that didn’t work out and some minor disappointments here and there. And some things were just lame. Still, a good year.

I will answer one question from the survey: What are some things you would like to do in 2009?

I’d like both of us to finish our larger writing projects before April. I’d like to go to Puerto Rico, be more active, and save some money. I’d like to be more involved in the art community as a whole, whether that means supporting other artists or just playing around with art myself. And I’d like to emotionally win over the onslaught of negativity and fear the news is throwing at me every time I turn on the TV. That last one is a challenge indeed.

Redwood tree from my Humboldt County road trip.

I hate to admit it, but this is me: Vehement Anti-Cell-Phone Guy Finally Caves.

Whiting said he was reluctant to accept the “encroachment of technology” into his personal life, and explained that he “[does not] plan on becoming one of those people with cell phones.”

“This is for emergencies only,” he said. “In case my car stalls on the freeway and I need to call for help, or in the event that I absolutely must get in touch with someone but am away from home.”

Whiting first used the phone Sunday night to check movie times for March Of The Penguins.

“In fact, I use it so little that, when I went to the theater, I forgot to turn off the ringer,” Whiting said. “When it started ringing, right away I said, ‘Who’s the jerk with the cell phone?’ and I didn’t realize it was me. Suffice it to say, I felt very guilty.”

“It was my girlfriend, though, so I had to take it,” he added.

I still think cell phones are leashes. I still think they allow us to drift through life in personalized bubbles. I still think their effect on community and traffic is suspect. Nevertheless I was forced to get one because, well, life just went that way. Apparently The Onion gets around to all of us eventually.