A Trip to the Pen

On Sunday Chester, Jane and I made the northern trek to the Louisiana State Penitentiary aka Angola Prison aka "Alcatraz of the South" aka "The Farm". Unfortunately I GREATLY underestimated the length of the line waiting to get into the rodeo and we sat in traffic for an hour and a half before getting through the gates. This delay cut into how much actual rodeo we were able to see, but I managed to snap a few photos of the events we saw.

 Two big ol' buffalo

Those same buffalo + a one armed cowboy on a horse are on TOP of that cattle trailer in the middle of the arena!

Inmates attempting to retrieve a chip off of the head of the white bull in the "Guts & Glory" event. The fella who succeed was the record holder with 19 snatches (it is unknown how long this inmate has been there or how many rodeos he has participated in) and was said to be rewarded with $500!

Correctional officers directed us to the trail of vehicles being routed to the outskirts of the prison's property. I had no idea that the place was so large! There are hundreds of cows roaming around in the fields.

 Another shot from far out of the prison.

Some Angola information:

• 6400 (ish) all male inmates to 1800 (ish) staff members
• 18000 acres bordered by the mighty Mississippi on three sides
• Mostly consists of dormitories (as opposed to cell blocks)
• Houses death row inmates
• Includes a several manufacturing facilities:
• Farm Warehouse: distributes agricultural supplies
• Mattress/Broom/Mop shop
• Printing shop: prints documents, forms, etc.
• Range Herd: managers 2000+ head of cattle
• Row Crops: harvests crops including cabbage, corn, cotton, okra, onions, peppers, soybeans, squash, tomatoes, and wheat 
• Silk-Screen group: produces plates, badges, road & highway signs, and textiles
• Tag Plant: makes licenses plates for Louisiana residents & overseas customers
• Tractor Repair shop: repairs agricultural equipment
• Transportation Division: delivers the manufactured goods
• 9 hole, 72 par golf course on the grounds (not for use by inmates)
• Has an inmate run radio station (KLSP 91.7FM) as well as a bi-monthly publication, The Angolite.

Parental Visit

The parents made the 15ish hour drive down to visit there one and only daughter last weekend! Here are a few highlights from their visit:

We stopped by the spooky skeleton house on St. Charles to check out their clever decorations

Stopped by Sucre for a little sweetness :)

So many hash browns were eaten! Yum!

Cultured them a little with a Dong Phuong run for bahn mis! Snapped a photo of this creepy cake while there.

Lake Pontchartrain was looking big and blue.

Wandered around the French Quarter and admired the work of my artists.

Sunshine and cool temperatures blessed their entire trip--late October/early November really is great in New Orleans! 

Hiring People Sucks: Round 3

For my third annual installment of "hiring people sucks" (see round 1 here and round 2 here) I thought I would follow a similar format to 2013's adventure and highlight a few of the things I had the pleasure of reading this year. 

• "Extremely sharp memory which is useful in remembering orders" Well that's nice. I see what you are getting at, but the wording sounds odd.
• "Stand for 12 hours periods, maintain high level of excellent." Hours periods? Nope. Level of excellent? Not a thing. Both in the same sentence? Definitely not. *big sigh*
• "Provided patients' personal hygiene." Again, I think I know what you are trying to say, but if you are providing this to someone else it is no longer personal hygiene. 
• "I enjoy the food industry, or I would not be looking for a happy job." Food industry = happy job? Alright, sure. If you did not enjoy the food industry does that mean you would be looking for another emotion job? Sad job? Mad job? 
• "Running food,perping,and exoping", "I had to stack chicken on a boat on the river", "I learned the love of chicken", "I love my job and I made a lot of money" All of these bits of promising information came from the same atrocious resume. This was a young guy who could really benefit from someone proof reading his document. What is "perping" and "exoping"? How exactly do you learn "the love of chicken"? Makes chicken sound like a verb instead of a noun. Telling me you made a lot of money is just inappropriate. 

I have already gone through a round of interviewing at this point and had an encounter I can only describe as slightly surreal: young guy, would NOT make eye contact with me, we walk around the kitchen and packaging room and then I was asking him about his previous jobs. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "I see you worked at Domino's. Why did you leave that job?"

Him: "Well, I was working very hard for $7.25 and my manager was editing my hours."

Me: "Oh, okay, that sounds like a tough situation. It says here that you also worked at the Superdome?"

Him: "No, that is not true."

Me: looking at the resume in my hand trying to figure out what I misread. "Oh, umm... it says 'Mercedes Benz Superdome' here?"

Him: "Yeah, I didn't work there."

Me: with a very confused look on my face "so this whole section is not true?" there was an entire blurb about his position and responsibilities in what I am now realizing was a fictitious job

Him: "Yeah, I was advised that my resume did not look full enough so that is just made up."

Me: "Oh, ummm ok" (silently thinking "WTF?!")

So, as I say every year: I HATE HIRING PEOPLE! I want so bad to print out everyone's resumes, edit them, and then sit down with these people and help them fix this crap they are submitting! It is very clear that folks google templates and phrases to use, but for the person reading them it is oh so painful to work through! I have not officially hired anyone yet, but was able to get a good vibe about two of the applicants I met with. Never a dull moment.

Paint Project

A few months ago I went on a little shopping spree in Denham Springs and snagged a small side table that matched the design of my chest of drawers. (You may remember that within my first few weeks of living in New Orleans I painted two chest of drawers and nearly lost a toe in the process.) The pieces all have similar tapered feet and an otherwise simple frame and drawer system. 

The side table had recently been painted a light, pale blue, which is nice, but I wanted everything to match! 

So last weekend I took advantage of the the nice weather and lack of rain clouds and got to sanding and painting.

I am happy with the results. Now to switch out one of the tables beside my bed. My hodge podge room looks slightly more coordinated now!

I'm Still Here

Hi! Yes, I am here. October is slipping away from me rather rapidly. There was a tease of fall weather the other week that I reveled in until it quickly turned back into summer-like heat. I am telling you, it does not feel natural to watch scary movies when it is 80+ outside but I am doing it anyway! It is the Saints bye week, so no football this weekend. Luckily though The Walking Dead returns tonight!!! I am so excited!!! I have re-watched a lot of the previous seasons, and specifically the end of the last season so I am in the right mind set. 

So on one hand there is no football that requires watching this week (of course tons of other teams are playing, but I don't really care about them) coupled with warm weather = not fall... but then on the other hand TWD returning and seeing lots of houses decorated for Halloween = fall. According to my Weather Channel app I will get some upper 50 degree evenings early this week, so that should help my horror movie marathon feel more right.

I suppose if the weather isn't going to cooperate I must take things into my own hands: I changed my background pictures on my phone to fall scenes from Virginia and plan on going with black finger nails shortly. My Pinterest boards have seen a lot more pumpkin related pins as of late and I hope to turn those pins into tangible treats real soon! Oh fall, I do miss you!