After a year I have returned to write a new entry. I have been working at a law firm in Lafayette for almost 10 months, but I recently was offered a new job. Starting Monday I will be working for the State of Louisiana as a Medicaid Analyst, just like my sister! :) I went for my pre-employment drug test last week. What a fiasco!

The directions they gave me were: The office is in the Saloom II building off of Kaliste Saloom, directly behind the fire station. So I go to the building directly behind the fire station, and it it has lots of spaces marked "Customs Officials Only" and no sign saying Saloom II. So, I go to the building that I KNOW is Saloom I and look for it, and go to the building that is right next to it and find out it is Saloom III, and ask people if they know where Saloom II is, and they point me to a house looking building that lo! has a drug testing place in it. So I go into the drug testing place and say, "I think I have an appointment" and they have no idea what I'm talking about. I ask them if this is Saloom II building, and they say yes. They ask what company I'm getting tested for, and I tell them State of Louisiana, DHH, and they look like deer in headlights. (Apparently they had never heard of the State of Louisiana.) They suggest that I go to this OTHER drug testing place. So I did. Once I got there, they said they DID do testing for DHH, but I should have some kind of paperwork. So I was going to head home to call the lady and 'splain the situation to her. On the way home, I decided to go back by that building I had first pulled up to, it looked like it had another parking lot on the other side, and I thought IT might have more clear signage.

So, what do I see when I first pull up? "SALOOM II" and I think to myself, "Well, CRAP." So I go in the building, and there are no indications on the signage of who's office is where that DHH has an office there. Then, taped to the wall I see a laminated piece of paper that says DHH Training Room <-------- so I follow the arrow. It leads me to a COMPLETELY empty corridor, and an empty room with a sign on it that says DHH Training Room. I follow the hallway some more, and poke my head around a corner, and see the parking lot I first pulled into at the beginning of my journey. I hear a voice, it says, "You must be Kelley." So, I relate (a shorter version of) this tale to the lady who knows my name. And she asks, "Do you have a gray car?"

ARG!!!!!!!

Check this out :)

www.retrojunk.com

Have fun!

And Bruce said, 'Be careful out there.'

The other night I went to pick up Chris from work at about 2:00 AM. One of his co-workers, Bruce, told him to be careful out there given the late hour. Bruce wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.

We were headed for the freeway, about fifty yards from the left turn that would become an on-ramp when a guy stepped out into the street about 50 feet in front of us. I changed lanes in an effort to allow him to finish crossing before we got to him, but he back tracked and stepped back into the center of our lane.

The first thing that came to mind was, carjacking. Though, why anyone would want to jack my car I have no idea. I tried to quickly go around him by changing lanes a second time, but once more he stepped in front of the car. He didn't seem to have a weapon, so I felt a little safer. Now was just the problem that I wanted to move another 60 feet, and he was in my way. Some other cars came up behind me and went around, I don't think they ever knew what was going on, why I was stopped in the middle of this overpass. Frustrated, I honked my horn at him. Naturally, that did no good. He just gave us a dirty look. Then I tried backing up a little bit, so I had more room to try to maneuver around him. He just followed us, so I still had just about 1 foot between my front bumper and his legs. He then gestured with his arms indicating that we should hit him. Another car came up behind me, so my options became somewhat limited. Finally, Chris suggested I make a u-turn, I waited until there were no cars coming up to us from behind (besides the one that was parked behind us and wondering why in the hell we weren't moving). And slowly, turned around on the one-way street, and made my way to another freeway entrance. The passenger in the backseat of the car behind us gave me a really dirty look as I made my u-turn. She found out soon enough what was up, as he jumped in front of their car next.

So, happy to be out of that situation, and wondering what on earth was wrong with the guy,(Drugs? Insurance money? Suicidal? Just plain wacko?) we continued on our merry way home. We were excited to see our exit. We got into the exit only lane, and noted a car pulled over ahead. It's brake lights turned off and he started moving as we approached. We pulled even with him, and he stayed even with us, trying to jockey for position to merge back into the lane. Now, normally in such a situation, I would have just slowed down when I saw him start moving, but he gave no indication that he wanted to get into the lane. He never put his blinker on, only when he began jockeying for position did I know for sure what his intent was. So, I slowed down, and let him get in the lane and just shook my head.

Eventually, we made it home, and locked the door quickly behind us.

It's Mordor with a 'D' ...

http://waxy.org/random/images/weblog/mortor.gif

I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.

Coercion

So, today I got an email from my cousin Rick, aka Taphu. It was a link to a blog he had created on my behalf. (He and my sister decided I needed a blog whether or not I wanted one.) I followed the link, and not only had the blog been created. There had also been two posts made, again, on my behalf. I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. This is my real blog. I have sanctioned no other blogs. Believe what you will on 'other' Elsdae blogs at your own risk.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/elsdae/