Did John Denver know that his song was a bit prophetic? When I drive through places I often sing songs that remind me of that place. For Iowa, I sing Iowa Stubborn from Music Man, for Tulsa it’s always Livin’ on Tulsa Town, and for Colorado…Rocky Mountain High. It’s like a compulsion but since I drive solo there’s no one to annoy with my idiosyncrasies.

At the tail end of August I took a break from driving for a few days to celebrate my daughters birthday.

Miss Morgan O’Shae, the light of my life and the jelly to my peanut butter (because she’s sweet and I’m nutty) turned 24. She is well on her own path of growth and change as she recently started school for massage therapy. She had taken to it very well and she now has a definite direction her life is going towards. I couldn’t be happier for her or proud of her. I might be feeling a bit misty eyed just typing about it.

We had planned a full schedule of shenanigans planned including Morgan getting her first tattoo, visiting her great grandmother and aunt, mani/pedis, shopping, and food food foooooooooood.

Speaking of food, I love people who smoke their own meat. I especially love people who smoke their own meat and share it with me.

After a quick jaunt to Costco to procure supplies, Joe (my future son in-law) smoked not only a brisket but salmon for me.

Please excuse the nibbles taken out of the salmon. Sometimes I forget to take pictures before sampling.

While Joe was slaving away over a hot grill. (Ok, maybe slaving is a harsh word to use for what he did…) Morgan and I jetted down to Colorado Springs to visit my Aunt and Grandmother. Because of weird family dynamics that I won’t expand upon, neither of these women have seen my daughter since she was a wee babe.

We had a nice visit at their home and then went to dinner at Till. A review of my experience will be in another post but I will happily give you a preview by saying “Zomg Yum!”

So, what do you do when you have four generations of women together? You take a picture, of course! Added bonus is the cute waiter photobombing us in the background. I also kinda love the fact that my Aunt and I are both wearing black while my Grammie and Daughter are more colorful.

After the visit, Morgan and I headed back to Colorado Springs to hit up The Tattoo Shop for a bit of ink. This was my 6th and her first. I hadn’t made an appointment for myself but was hoping to slide in. Dwayne, the owner, had a client no show so Winner Winner Chicken Dinner for me!

Morgan wanted a fox skull with a crown of roses. Ok, I can get behind that. It’s where she wanted it that had me concerned.

She decided the placement for her first tattoo would be at the top center of her back. Here is how that conversation went.

Me: Um, are you sure that’s where you want it?

Mo: Yep

Me: You know, being that this is your first tattoo and you don’t really know what it’s going to feel like, you might want to choose a less painful spot.

Mo: Joe says it’s not that bad.

Me: Everyone experiences and processes pain differently.

Mo: It will be fine.

Me: Ok but the last thing I’m going to say is out of all my tattoos, the one on my back was the worst.

So her artist (who’s name I’ve forgotten because I’m horrible but I loved his work and I’ll probably be seeing him next time I’m in Denver) drew up a great sketch and they sat down to get started. I was in the other room getting my own work done. I look over through the little window and see her in the chair, head dropped forward, tears streaming down her face and into a garbage can they placed in front of her. She wasn’t crying she was sobbing. At one point I heard her say “I should have listened to my mom.” For you mom’s out there, you know that right there is gold.

Once my tattoo was done I replaced the receptionist who was holding Mo’s hand and I settled in for some crushing and bruising. Man, that girl has a grip!

All in all she took 3 breaks, sobbed a gallon of tears, and moaned and whimpered firecely but she finished the tattoo. At the end the artist told her that she was firmly in the top 10 of all time tattoos for him because he had never seen someone cry and cry out in pain so fiercely but refuse to quit.

Yep, that’s my girl.

The piece I got for myself was just a small piece of something I’ve wanted for a while. The picture I took is before the guide ink was washed off so it’s not a clean look. It’s still healing and in the flaky stage currently so this will have to suffice. Bonus points if you know what it stands for.

I loved this shop. The vibe of the people. The quality of work. I think I found a shop to get started planning and working on my sleeve. There are other artists all over the world that I’d love to have art by, but I have plenty of skin and lots of time for that.

The other fun thing we did, besides satisfy a craving I had, was to hit up Seoul Korean BBQ. If you are in the Aurora, CO area, I highly recommend this place.

This picture does not do justice to the entire banchan we had at our disposal to go along with the three different meats of our choosing. We wen’t with the honey combed pork belly (pictured on the grill) and a marinated beef and chicken not pictured. Also not pictured is the kimchi soup which was to die for, the scallion pancake that I wanted to sell my first born for the recipe for (sorry Frobebe), and a table cooked omelette.

The biggest problem with Korean BBQ is that it’s really too much food for me. Over two years ago I had 80% of my stomach removed so my intake capacity is waaaaaaay lower. Then again, LEFTOVERS ROCK and I ate on that kimchi soup for at least two days when I got back to my truck.

Pictured in the lower bowl with the ladel with a Korean drink called Makgeolli. A great article about Makgeolli, it’s history and hopefully it’s future, can be found on Eater.

If you have not tried this drink for yourself, next time you’re dining out at a Korean restaurant, give it a try.

I finished out my visit by having dinner with my good friend Nick who I hadn’t seen since somewhere between 2001-2003 (because neither of us could rightly remember). Nick and I met in Tulsa while working in a call center for DirecTV and some of those times were wild and wacky and a bit of a rollercoaster but they will always stand out in my mind for the people I met and the things we did (including my ex-husband but he has no place here *waves*). Oh man, do I have some stories from those days…

Now, I’m back on the road and have been pushing hard (which is why this update is much later than I would have liked it to be. I’ve had to flip my schedule at least twice and I’m currently in a bit of a tail spin. At this point I have a two week push until my next mini vacation when I head to San Francisco with two lovely ladies to wreck the town like a radioactive lizard!

Until next time my lovelies! Xoxo