The Great San Diego Crawl of 2013 Part 3

After I park the van, I walk up to the taqueria that I told you about in part 2.  The group is gathered around as I cross the street.  They all have a shit eating grin on their face.  You know the look.  Big smile, squinted eyes.  Yeah, borderline mischievous.  As I'm approaching the group, Bucky says "we have an idea."  I said "yes."  They looked at me confused.  I said "whatever the idea, I say yes, lets do it, I'm all in."  I figure at this point, the day is about to take its twist, turn for the crazy.  Nate gets a bigger smile and says, "are you sure?"  I said I was and they told me that I needed to get a tattoo.  I nodded my head without a flinch and reiterated, "yes, I'm down like Charlie Brown."  There was only one reaction caught on camera that really summed up the feelings of the group.

Yes, we told Brandon he could shave my leg.  Peck again has a confused look on his face.  We go to the tattoo parlor next to the taqueria.  No dice, few hour wait, we are giving up and going to hit a bar then head up to the next taco joint.  Luckily, the guys suggested their sister shop which was just a few blocks up.  We go to the orange store front and introduce ourselves.

The best part of the day was listening to Bucky, Mark and Nate explain the tattoo we were going to have put on me.  A pig that is inside a taco.  "We want a bewildered look on his face."  Nate then says, "imagine if you were in a taco and about to get eaten."  The artist, nodded his head, said, "got it" then came back with this:

So the logo was born.  We now have a logo for The Order of the Taco.  There is one addition and that is an earring.  A pig, with a scared, bewildered look inside of a taco.  Is there a better fit, I think not.  Mark and I looked at each other and said "perfect." So yeah, that drawing led to this:

 

As I was lying there getting this impromptu tattoo, the guys sat there wondering what to do:

They walked up the street and saw this awesome guy who is a forever friend of the Order, Brian.  As they are doing that, more magic happened.  Bucky and Chris made a sweet old lady on a motorized cart cry.  Let me tell you something, in this case, they cannot still serve a purpose.  Unless you take the laugh factor into consideration.

She is going by and almost takes the guys out.  They don't say anything, this is of course their story and she whips by them, almost goes up on two wheels and goes around the corner.  Obviously after she cusses them out for obviously being rude and talking trash.  She comes back later, Chris takes the dive out of the way and Bucky engages her in a game of chicken.  Yeah, this man has no fear.  She comes back and apologizes.  The Order is sure that she heard them talking trash about her after encounter 1.  She comes back crying and apologizes, saying that they are nice and that she overreacted and has had a bad day and most people are so mean.  Here's my take on this story, there is a reason that winners write history.  Yeah, I said it, we got to write the story, so we are the innocent nice guys that were victimized by an older, very heavy woman on a motorized cart.  

So many of our members, and I mean most of them don't have tattoos.  They don't realize that they take time.  So they came back and regrouped to find out the next step in the day.

James's face says it all:  "I need a beer."  The group went up the street and hit up a great local place.

They all had a great time and James is so much happier now:

Yeah, so everyone is enjoying a few cocktails, having some fun, getting more hungry for more tacos.  I continue to lie there and get inked.  I was enjoying myself.  Artist said it was the first time anyone has ever not moved at all and his first pig inside of a taco.  He is a great guy, from the Philippines.  His family lives in the mountains and was not effected by the devastating hurricane that hit his country recently.  

The tattoo was done, and I went to meet the group.  I was of course passing on a cocktail as we had to get to driving.  Tattoo is perfect:

Yeah, I dig it.  The guy did a great job and I look forward to going to see him again for another tattoo in the future.  Seriously, it was a great time.  I'll save up some cash and maybe get "The Order of the" put above this bad boy.  Yeah, I know, it's not for everyone, but it works for me and it represents how anything can happen with me and these guys and we will always have fun.  It is a testament to my appreciation to all of these guys and how much they all mean.  This is my Neverland.  It is a made up world that I control and imagine all that I want to imagine and it just appears.  These trips are a fantasy for me.  A fantasy of fun.  Just great people hanging out, enjoying a great time.  I lover "Order" and I'm glad she's on my leg.  I never would have believed that I would do something like this and don't have the intention of doing it again, but I have no regrets for this tattoo.  I've been pining for some new ink anyways.  We ran into the artist right after the tattoo, he went on break:

We all headed towards the cars from here.  Paul and Peck were heading North to LAX, Peck had to catch a flight back to Denver, Paul needed to get some rest, the rest of us went to Casa de Monstrosity to catch a beer there, regroup and get some more tacos so that we could enjoy the Kings game and the USC/UCLA Football game.

Here is half the group in the "Red Dragon" heading North to regroup, there is much more to this story, but that is for the next blog.  Part 4 is coming soon.  Thanks for reading, Stay Excellent.