Made it home...

The trip home today was pretty uneventful. My classes wrapped up at 1PM and I caught the shuttle back over to the air terminal. After getting a little lunch, I settled into a chair for the hour wait for my flight. I'm happy to report that I visited airport restrooms in 2 states today and not a single person tapped their foot at me.

That reminds me of the first and only time I've ever been propositioned by a prostitute...

Back in 1993, I had spent 2 years at Louisiana Tech and had decided to move back home to Lafayette to transfer to USL. They were starting a new degree program in Insurance & Risk Management, and since that seems to be the family business, I figured that beat the Accounting Degree I was pursuing at Tech.

When I got home, I needed to get a job for the summer to put a little cash in my pocket. I called one of the guys at the plumbing supply house I had worked at in high school to see if he knew of anyone looking for a grunt. I knew it would be dirty work, but I also knew it would get me more hours and better pay than waiting tables. Within a day or 2, I was working as a helper for a 3 truck plumbing company. We worked on the plumbing for the TGI Fridays in Lafayette and had several jobs lined up rehabbing the plumbing in some pretty rough looking houses on the bad side of town. These were so rough that you had to lock the truck while you were working in the house or all of your tools and supplies would be gone

We typically met around 6:30 each morning at the supply house, replenished the truck with the stuff we would need for the day, and were headed out to get to work by 7:30. One morning, we were in the area in the Southeast corner of University Drive and I-10, before 8am. We pulled up to a stop sign and this rough looking black woman came walking up. She had the look of a crack whore all over her, and she looked like it had been a long night. She walked up to the truck and said "Hey, Baby. $20 and you pay the room at the St Francis Motel."

Now, I grew up Southern Baptist. My Dad was chairman of the Deacons at our church. I duck hunted with the pastor each year. I was not an angel, but you could say I had been sheltered. I didn't catch what she said and asked her to repeat it. Oh, My... I said no and Carl drove off. When the shock of what had just happened wore off, we couldn't stop laughing. Carl told the rest of the guys and they teased me about it for the rest of the summer.

There you have it. The first time anyone had offered me the "all access pass" and it was some strung out crack whore.