Day's Off & Prison

My last day off is slowly coming to an end as the day nears evening & after a week away from my normal work routine & 3 days off I'm getting that nagging thought - "I'm really not looking forward to going into work tomorrow." I have feeling in my gut that I used to get on Sunday's when I was in college & had to face another week of classes. Ahhh, such is life I guess.

Sunday I spent most of the day just relaxing. Yesterday Randy & I hung out at the Zoo to take advantage of getting in free on Monday (County Residents). Today has been pretty relaxing. I've spent my time reading, checking e-mail, getting caught up on blog reading, wrote some post cards (get those mail boxes ready!), had an exciting trip to the post office, spent money grocery shopping (spent twice as much as normal...but I guess that's expected when it's been a month since my last trip!), cooked a yummy dinner, re-organized my kitchen cupboards (it was mass chaos!), and watched some re-runs of "The Deadliest Catch". I even finished some final unpacking from my trip (only my carry on is left & that's mainly snacks). All in all a nice balance of relaxation & productivity!

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet from my trip. I'm waiting until I get to my work computer to unload my pics since I can't burn them onto CD on my PC...plus it'll take less than half the time on my work computer. It's not nearly as slow as mine! So look forward to lots of pics in the near future!!! Some of the ones I took are pretty darn cool I must admit!

So on to my trip. I won't talk much about it now (I'll tell more when I post some pics). All in all it was a pretty awesome trip! I'm glad work sent me because Louisiana is one of those places that I would have never went to on my own. And I had a great time & so much of what I saw was really beautiful! So I guess I gotta thank the man!

My favorite part of my trip was hands down my tour of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. It is the largest state prison in the country (with over 18,000 acres of land). 90% of it's inmates are serving life sentences without much hope for parole. It was such a unique thing to experience to be touring the grounds & getting a glimpse of what was once known as "America's Bloodiest Prison". It's a working farm with inmates working to grow & harvest much of the prisons produce that is needed to keep its population fed.

They have 1 of the largest number of working mules & horses in the nation. We toured 1 of the horse barns & got to see some HUGE draft horses & talk to the inmates who take care of them. I was a little taken aback by being allowed to roam freely amongst inmates serving such long sentences for what I imagine to be brutal crimes to deserve such harsh sentences. But then I remembered that these men are simply people who've made some serious mistakes & are now paying dearly for them. But that behind their crimes, they are people. They seemed happy to see us, not because we presented a distraction for them to cause trouble, or because we could be taken advantage of - but because it was as though we were providing a break from the monotony of daily prison life. (Keep in mind, the inmates we came in contact with were "Trustee's" - men who have been in for at least 10 years & have nearly perfect behavior records, & are rewarded for their good behavior by being assigned jobs they can enjoy & with added privileges.) Their was a definite pride in their faces & their voices as they showed off the horses that they spend their days caring for. It was a really cool experience.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for pics in the next couple of days.