louisiana stories

I was in Campti, Louisiana last week for work. There were a couple of funny things that happened during the trip, so I thought I would write about them. Campti is too small of a town to actually stay there, so I stayed in Natchitoches. Think about how you would say that town name, you're completely wrong, it's pronounced Nack-A-Dish. I have no idea how they get that pronunciation from that word...confusing, but again, it is Louisiana and they pronounce things differently.

When I go on work trips I normally meet some of the operators that work in the paper mill. They are friendly and like to talk to me, probably because they don't get very many girls working around them. I wish I could have recorded some of the conversations I was in because their accents are so strong, it is sometimes hard to understand what they're saying, but kind of funny listening, too. One of the guys I was working with, Eddie, was pretty nice. He gave me suggestions on where to eat, gave me his phone number on the back of a map he drew in case I got lost, talked me into trying alligator tail, wanted me to try fried frog legs (no way!), made me laugh by making fun of another guy there that was taking dancing lessons so he could dance with his daughter at her wedding, and even made me this miniature little copper scorpion. Pretty funny. And no Annemarie, I wasn't interested in him. But I thought it was sweet that he made this little scorpion. So cute, I have it in my office, now.

A couple of more random things. I was driving into the mill one morning, listening to the local news and there was a story about these two women that got into a fight at the Wal-Mart in town. I guess one of the guys that was with one of them ended up grabbing some scissors off the shelf and repeatedly stabbed the other woman. He was arrested and being held for attempted man-slaughter. Needless to say, I decided to not go into Wal-Mart when I was looking for a place to grab a snack.

I did have some good southern/Cajun food while I was there. Besides the fried alligator tail (which really wasn't that great), I tried some meat pies (basically meat empanadas), dirty rice, bbq pork sandwich, chicken po-boy (this is just a warm sandwich, but the chicken was seasoned so yummily), baked chicken, chocolate cream pie on a pecan crust and some peach cobbler. I know, it looks like I'm a pig, but I was there a few days. And I'm going back on Monday, so maybe a few more stories will come out of this trip.

acupuncture

I love running and I haven't really been able to do it as much as I would like to since July last year, JULY! It has been frustrating to say the least. I developed trochanteric bursitis, read about it on wiki. But basically, I could not run on it for several months while I was going to physical therapy. The bursitis part actually went away through that treatment and no running, but I have had an irritated muscle in my left hip since then. It's the most annoying thing ever. I've been working with a sports medicine doctor and we tried the PT first and he did a x-ray on my hip, did a MRI of my lower back, went back to PT for core strengthening....our latest treatment method was acupuncture. Yes, I know, it seems a little new age and all, but I was willing to try it. I went 6 times and nothing really helped, so I am thinking I will next try the cortisone shot. I have been able to start running some again, but it's still a nagging pain in my hip muscle (I don't know the name of whatever one it is). I would really like to be able to just go out and run and not have to think about this anymore.

So, here are a few shots of my back with the acupuncture needles in, they are really quite small and don't even hurt. Except there was one that she put in my hip that must of hit a blood vessel because it swelled up and bruised immediately. My sister does acupuncture, I should ask her what she thinks of it, maybe it works for other things.

my new band

Bart just did this on his blog and since he is so cool, I'm going to copy him. Follow the instructions below to make the album cover of your new band.


I love my new band, Wichita Wild and our new cd, Energetic Men of Good Will is so awesome. I wish I could have gotten as cool of a photo as Bart did, but I didn't want to cheat, so I got stuck with some crazy kid running in the sand. Maybe it goes with my album title? If I saw this cd, I probably wouldn't be too interested in buying it.

1. Go to Wikipedia. Click “random”or go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together and post it.