i had plans to meet up with one of my neighbors for a cocktail and i chose one of the well established restaurants on Gaylord Street. it's next door to a marijuana dispensary. as we sat outside on the patio drinking our wine i started playing a game in my head. which of the well dressed passerby were headed to the dispensary? i brought my friend into the game and soon enough we were chatting with our server about the implications of legal dope smoking in Colorado. you know where this is going right?
yep, my friend and i end up over at the dispensary looking for something to help up sleep better at night. seriously, we weren't looking for some buds to smoke or a high but an edible that would have us sleeping like babies. i told the greeter we'd never been in a shop before and go easy on us because we were newbies. the guy [well dressed and middle aged] who walked in right after us laughed and commented, 'oh you ladies are going to enjoy this'. after checking our ids for age and residency we are admitted into the shop where a budtender [yes, that's what they call them] was standing in front of a bar with shelves of product behind her. molly was very helpful.
it was like walking into a high end chocolate shop. lots of different choices and pleasant, knowledgeable staff willing to answer our questions. we'd been warned off the chocolate and both our server at the restaurant [who had way more experience than she was admitting] and our budtender recommended we try the gummies for an easy night of sleep. we were in and out in less than 10 minutes which included some additional browsing so kudos to Lucky Sky for making that a great shopping experience. wish i could say the same about the Whole Paycheck in Cherry Creek where it might take longer and cost just as much to get a few slices of cheese.
we left with our black sealed bag of edibles and laughed all the way to my car where we split up the goods. my friend started opening the top which is the typical childproof cap for drugs in Colorado. not understanding her strength she gave up and passed it to me. i put my hand on the cap and it fell off. this sent us into another fit of laughter and we blamed it on a contact high from being in the shop.
we divy up the goods and here's my half of the purchase. we talk about how much take and agree we should cut the dosage in half as recommended by the budtender for 'nonsmokers like us'. unlike my few experiences with smoking pot when i was growing up there was nothing that felt dirty or shameful about buying our gummies. total investment $24 for the bottle.
the next day, after a good night of sleep, i wondered, were we supposed to tip the budtender?
i had barely landed and logged onto a wireless network when my phone lit up 
whatever the case, these attacks will gain the terrorists nothing. not a great start to my stopover in london to visit friends for a few days.
my brother has been so supportive of all my travels and even took me along when he climbed Kilimanjaro ten years ago so it seems appropriate that i spent my last weekend in the US with his family before i am off on my next adventure - living in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. it was a great couple of days and he did my final pack to get all my bags within my 23kg allowance. plus cooked up some amazing vegetarian enchiladas and served up smores by the fire under a clear, star filled sky with an almost full moon. meanwhile, my nephew and i decided on matching tattoos... 
we divy up the goods and here's my half of the purchase. we talk about how much take and agree we should cut the dosage in half as recommended by the budtender for 'nonsmokers like us'. unlike my few experiences with smoking pot when i was growing up there was nothing that felt dirty or shameful about buying our gummies. total investment $24 for the bottle. 
although there are westerners who have created organizations to care for dogs and provide neutering services it is not generally practiced by Thais.
i fell in love with these puppies. they were just a few doors down from my fruit and coconut stand so i stopped by to check on them everyday. they were just few days old so their eyes were still just opening. the momma had ten puppies so she was absolutely exhausted. fortunately, the shopkeeper was supplementing the momma milk with some bottles and making sure the momma was well fed while she was nursing the puppies. of course, i wanted to take them all home with me but the shop keeper was selling them so i knew they'd probably go to good homes. 
