I have had a crazy last few weeks with lots of things going on and a lot of new things coming up. I headed to Boise at the beginning of the month for a 2 day sales retreat. I am so lucky to work with such great people. I love my sales team. My sales girls and I had a great dinner in downtown Boise at The Reef. My super fun sister in law, Lisa joined us. We listened to an amazingly talented musician perform and then we hit a movie. It was a fun girls night out before our training began. ( I know the pics are bad, I only had my cell phone.)
Lisa and Racheal Shayna and I
Our training was lots of fun. We had a great motivational speaker and competed in different Wii games. I took the gold medal...only because I kicked butt in hula hooping. And believe me. It wasnt pretty. My boss got it on video.
Making our Wii characters Me winning the Gold. Yessssss!
My awesome Sales Team
After our training us girls headed to the mall and did some shopping and ate a yummy dinner. We had
lots of fun and found some killer deals.
Shayna and Bethany Me and Racheal
My Leadership Pocatello class had it's Law and Government Day last week. It was an interesting day. We watched a Taser demonstration at the Police Dept and then one of our own classmates volunteered to be tased. He is crazy! He was proud he didn't scream like a girl.
Next we headed to the Fire Dept where I got to ride in the ladder bucket. It took us 150 feet in the air. It was such a smooth ride I couldnt even feel us moving. The view of the city was awesome.
I had to get a picture by one of the firemen's locker. My brother Craig always calls me Shaniqua.
Next we headed to the State Women's Prison. This was a really eye opening experience for me. On the tour they took us to each of the security levels. We started at the minimum security block. We entered a room surrounded by glass walls. Inside the room was the guard. On the other side of the glass were all the inmates. They were milling about, watching tv and playing cards. It was very uncomfortable for me. I felt like I was at a zoo looking at animals, only these are not animals. They are women. I felt like I was invading their privacy. They took us into the glass enclosure and walked us right into one of the cells. Four women bunk in each room. There is no extra space. Their bunks take up every inch of the wall. They had pictures of babies and children's drawings taped to the walls. It made me sad. I looked at the women. They look like your neighbor, teacher, daughter and friend. I know they made bad choices to be there.... it just made me sad they had chosen that life for themselves. Most of these women are non voilent and are in prison because of drugs. I hate drugs. I hate the pain they cause to so many families. Next we went to the medium security block. The difference between the two blocks was stark. The women here were wild. They pressed their faces to the glass, glared and yelled. If you made eye contact they looked you up and down like a piece of meat. No one, including the guards liked this place. We left and headed to the maximum security block. As we were walking that way I shared my sadness for these women to one of my classmates. The warden overheard me and said, "Don't feel sorry for the women here. If you knew what they had done, you wouldn't feel bad for them." She proceeded to tell us about the one woman on death row in Idaho. She lived in California originally. She married, had children and then burned them all in their home. She got away with it. She moved to Rexburg where she got married, had children and then burned them all. Again. The maximum security block was very quiet. The women here are in cells by themselves. They are locked down. They stared at us through their door window. Most of them looked mentally disturbed. They took outside to see where they spend their outdoor time. The women in maximum security are put in a space that looks like a dog run. That is all the space they get. The tour was very informative but I had many emotions. I understand the hardness the guards and warden there have to maintain, but I still left feeling sorrow for these women. The warden misunderstood my comment... I strongly believe they should pay for their crimes. My sorrow is for the life choices they made to land them here. I was glad to leave.
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