working in louisianna

i've been working in shreveport, louisianna for almost two weeks. it's not my favorite place. and though there are some redeeming qualities, everything good about this town seems to have a downfall that makes the whole experience...less than what i would expect.

bike trails--i bought a bike right before this job and, not wanting to wait to ride, brought it along. the trails here are great, but all next to bodies of slow moving water with extreme mosquito populations. and they're crazy hungry. oh, and gators. i see tracks and dens and dead animals all over the place. gators weren't so scary until i watched a discovery channel special on them and saw how fast they can move above ground. now they are up there behind bears, hornets and kiwi.

bars--some of them stay open until 6 am, closing until 7 am for cleaning. sounds like a good thing? no. crappy people, crappy service and lots of smokers. really, non-smokers are the minority here. i can almost say that for the whole state.

casinos--i was crazy excited for the casinos here. i'm not a gambler, not with money at least, but the idea of a casino intrigued me: free drinks while gambling, nickle slots, lots of drunk people making a fool out of themselves and people foolishly losing money they cannot afford to lose. fun times yeah? again, no. i did not get a single free drink while i was there. i couldn't even buy a drink because i couldn't find a bar. lame lame lame lame. and the nickel slots are a sham. one nickel per credit, but you have to play a minimum of thirty credits per pull. that's 1.50...do they think i'm an idiot? and there's no pulling either...it's all push-button electronical crap.

this state offends me.