Back to Reality

I just spent six wonderful days with my brother and his wife in Colorado, and I am devastated to be back home. Well, actually, home isn’t the problem; work is. My job sucks, but I won’t whine here. I’m sure everyone has complaints about their places of employment. Lol.

Anyway, I flew to Colorado Springs last Monday. My brother (Rick) and his wife (Jayne) picked me up from the airport. We had lunch and drove to their house, where we watched “The Osbournes Want to Believe” and ate dinner. We crashed pretty early, and once I’d caught up on sleep, my vacation could fully begin.

Tuesday was relaxing. We got coffee and did a little sightseeing, including the Catholic cemetery in town, then binged “Outer Banks” and made these really delicious grilled cheese sandwiches with blueberry jalapeño jam, smoked cheddar, horseradish mustard, and caramelized strips of bacon. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. Then, we hauled ass down to this really small haunted house, because it was Halloween and we wanted to do something in honor of my favorite holiday.

Wednesday was exciting, as it was the day we traveled down to Albuquerque for the Wednesday 13 Performs Murderdolls concert. This was the main reason for my trip, though I extended it into a nice family visit instead of a two-day run for nothing but the show. I’m going to write a review of the concert, so I won’t go into details in this post. Let me just say it was worth the 4 hour flight and 3.5 hour drive. Meeting Wednesday 13 (and guitarist Roman Surman) was everything. I’ve been a fan of Murderdolls for 20 years, and I thought I might die. Haha! Wednesday could not have been nicer. I told him that he’d always been my favorite Murderdoll and he said “So give me a hug since I’m yours.” I melted. Oh, and he said it was obvious I wasn’t from New Mexico because of my accent.

Ok. I’ll stop. You can read the rest when I share my review.

Thursday was another lazy day. Rick smoked burgers for dinner and we watched TV. He and Jayne had to work on Friday, and I used that time to do an interview with Adam of EverFelt and bond with their cats.

Rick and I stayed up late, finishing season 3 of “Outer Banks.” When I got up Saturday morning, Jayne was at work and Rick had already found our first college football game of the day. Now, this may seem strange to y’all, but this was the thing I was most excited about, besides the concert. My brother and I haven’t been able to watch football together since he moved to Colorado. Our whole family are huge Alabama Crimson Tide fans, and this past weekend was a big game: Alabama played LSU. Jayne was bored, but Rick and I were happy, especially given that Alabama won.

And then it was Sunday and time for me to get on a plane and return to Alabama. I had two more days off work, which was lucky because I came home with the flu. Now I’m back in the swing of real life and I kind of hate it. Just counting the days until my next trip…

Vacation Mode Activated

I still have 11 days before I fly to Colorado to visit my brother, but my mind has already abandoned the real world. I am so ready to escape my job for a week. Plus, while I’m out there, I get my birthday gift: we’re going to Albuquerque for the Wednesday 13 Performs Murderdolls tour – and my brother bought me the VIP experience, so I’m meeting Wednesday 13!!!!!! I’ve been a fan since I was 15, and I just know I’m going to make a fool of myself.

In other news, I had an appointment with a gastroenterologist last week. I had been having some abdominal discomfort, up to and including mild pain just below my breastbone and slightly to the right. The doctor said it was most likely a pre-ulcer or an ulcer. I was given a medicine to coat my stomach when I eat and another that is supposed to help control my stomach acid. I also had an ultrasound done. Well, the office has not called with the ultrasound results, but the medicines seem to be helping. The only pain I’ve had in the past few days has been at work. One of my coworkers said that suggests an ulcer, because I’m hurting only when I’m stressed. I guess we’ll see. If I don’t hurt at all in Colorado, then the problem is my place of work. Haha!

Just wanted to share another personal post, give y’all an update on things. In regard to the music side of the blog, I have two interviews coming up: hard rockers Sever Red and the industrial metal band Corvin’s Breed (who is opening for Psyclon Nine on their upcoming Infection Divinum Tour). These will both be written, as I don’t yet have the option to do video or phone interviews. I’m also continuing my weekly Bands You Should Know, so if there’s anyone I need to do a brief blurb about, tell me in the comments!

I hope this post finds all of you well! Oh, and if y’all wanted to see a half-assed shot of what was visible in Alabama during the annular eclipse…

I was in the parking lot at work with three other employees trying to catch that. The picture might not be great, but we were having a lot of fun! Lol.

Posing as a Travel Blog, a.k.a. My Colorado Vacation

I spent last week in Colorado. Trinidad, to be exact. I flew out to visit my brother and sister-in-law, and to enjoy five days far away from my job.

We didn’t plan things to do, we just did them. My brother smoked burgers and ribs because I love his cooking. We traveled highway 12 and ventured up to Simpson’s Rest, neither of which we’d managed during my previous trips due to the weather. He took me down to New Mexico, over the Raton Pass, through Carson National Forest, and into Eagle Nest. On my last full day, we drove to Rye and checked out Bishop Castle. I climbed to the second highest level there, but was too chicken to go to the top (especially since it was raining and the stairs and rails were wet).

Other than that, I had downtime with family. We ate good food and watched a lot of Netflix and Hulu. I convinced my brother to sit through the Fear Street films (he actually didn’t mind them), and I think I got him hooked on “Outer Banks.” Oh, and I was introduced to my newest furry nephew, Lucifer.

I could go on and on. However, I’ll just tell my story in pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

(The cats get uploaded as individual images. I’ll group each day trip into a gallery.)

Lucifer
Lucifer again ❤️
Hanzo

Colorado (In Pictures)

We almost missed our first flight, our second one was delayed (because some genius put us on a plane that wasn’t equipped to fly/land in snowy conditions, despite the fact that we were headed to Colorado Springs), and my mom had a mild case of elevation sickness on our third day there. Other than that, the trip to visit my brother and his wife was an absolute success!!!! I had visited last year, but we didn’t get to do a lot of sightseeing, and this was Mom’s first trip – and first time flying. The whole area is so beautiful. (Raton, New Mexico, wasn’t that impressive, though. Lol.)

We’re both dying to go back already. I’m aiming for some time during the summer so we can get out and explore a little more. Below are pictures I took during our excursions, and one from the plane because I’m that person 🙂

A Quick Hi From Colorado!

I will do a longer blog about my trip early next week, but for now I wanted to drop in and share some pictures. I just didn’t want to break my posting streak while on vacation (as lame as that is).

We fly back home tomorrow, which sucks. It has been a fantastic five days – complete with much needed family time, lots of snow, some exploring, and really, really good food. I can’t wait for our next trip out here!

Central Park
The view from 12
We took a drive down to Raton, New Mexico