Today I am Thankful

Despite the highs and lows on the path of my life, today I am especially thankful for my family and friends. I know that I am truly fortunate and I also want to thank the readers of my blog. As I sit around the table today enjoying time with my family, my heart goes out to those still serving time at my former residence.

There are over 400 inmates at the USDB who are enjoying a double portion of meat today. Regardless of their confining offense, it is difficult to go through the holidays in the DB. For the readers who supports military inmates, thank you and know that the smallest note or card means the world to the guy waiting for mail to be passed out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Still plugging along

It continues to amaze me that time can pass by so quickly on the outside. At the USDB, time would drag on and I remember not hearing back from family and friends for months at a time. Sometimes it would be very frustrating to the person with unlimited time to sit and think.

As I look at the blog, I realize that I have not posted for coming up on two months. I the past two months I have worked quite a bit of overtime, traveled a little with the state to see family and friends, and grown comfortable with a routine of living outside the prison. I have been out for over three months and it seems like I was at the USDB both recently and an eternity ago.

I will be traveling to see my son at the beginning of next month and cannot wait. It has been far too long.

Food is good, I mean really extremely good.

I think I have shared with you over the years that the inmates at the USDB are provided with ample food to eat. This point can be proven by looking at the large number of obese inmates at my previous place of residence. On my To-Do List, I had many food based activities that I wanted to accomplish.

I have to tell you that the number one thing that overwhelmed me about eating since my release is just how delicious and flavorful food can taste. There have been times that just eating regular meals at someones home when I have almost teared up with joy over eating good tasting food. It may sound silly, but years of unlimited quantities of bland to decent food have heightened my sense of taste.

One of the hardest things initially was knowing what I want to eat. So many choices.

It’s 11:05, what are you doing?

I was driving down the road today and looked at the clock and it happened to be 11:05 in the morning. This is the time that the USDB conducts their scheduled count of all inmates. So many  people that I have shared the past years with are stuck in their respective cells possibly being told to stand up and touch their badge or harassed in some other way.

I chuckle and count myself lucky to be enjoying the scenery passing by my car window.

Creeping up on 60 days of freedom.

The past two months have been a whirl wind. One forgets how fast paced the world moves  on the outside. I have started working a decent job and it has been keeping me fairly busy. I am definitely underemployed/overqualified for this position, but I have not been able thus far to find an organization that will look past my felonious record and realize the incredible value that hiring me could present. I continue to search.

I have spoken to my son via phone and FaceTime and will probably have to wait another month or two before I can see him. He is doing well and it is great to be able to talk or even to just text him at will. I went back home and visited my father and sister. They are much the same as I remember leaving them, with the obvious absence of my mother. Then there is the daunting task of reconnecting with family and friends. I have quite a few and I have had to space the catching up out over a long period of time. It is very draining having the same conversations over and over again.

So many funny little quirks to the readjustment process. I will her those with you as time in future posts.

The grass really is greener…

Hello, this is my first post that did not go through USDB mailroom screening, snail mail and my good friend TSCI. After some reacquainting, I have regained my computer literacy and gained access to this site. I want thank our loyal followers for reading my posts and listening to my rants, venting and other posts. I hope that this blog has (and continues to be) entertaining and maybe even educational.

I apologize for the lack of posts recently, but the past few months have been a roller coaster ride, particularly the last three weeks. I am doing well and trying to readjust to the speed of the world outside the walls of the USDB. It is hard to even explain how surreal this experience has been. For now, I will tell you that I am doing well and enjoying reconnecting with family and friends. I promise to keep the content coming in the near future.

Thanks again for all your support during the past 39 months!

Is Prison Good for Anyone?

I’ve thought about this question for a while now and even spoken to some other inmates about it. I think it’s interesting that I’ve learned to live with people in here with little or no regard for what their offenses were. I feel like on the outside, such information about a neighbor would be vital – you would WANT to know. Here, it’s universally recognized that ignorance is better.

I think there are inmates who’ve done and continue to be capable of doing terrible things; they should be punished. Is this particular type of punishment GOOD for them? I don’t know. But I think the world is probably a little safer with some of these people off the streets. I also believe that there are many people in this place who were over-prosecuted or simply made a bad choice at the wrong time. The difference between these two types of inmates is that the former laments getting caught, the latter laments their action. Prison is probably a good place for the former; I don’t know if it’s a great place for the latter.

For the over-prosecuted/bad decision-makers, I don’t know if prison does them any GOOD. Does it punish them more than they could punish themselves? Does it help them … help them with what? Help them by assuring them they’ve paid the price for the crime they’re convicted of? It’s hard to say. Then again, they’re convicted, as I am, of doing something against the law. Is prison supposed to be good/reformative for the inmate, or is the inmate’s incarceration supposed to be good for their victims/society? I can understand how people would think the threat of prison and the example imprisoned offenders set for others can be good for a well-ordered society. But I think that balance should constantly be re-evaluated. Is it? I don’t know.

I’ve noticed that often inmates distinguish between “good guys” and “nice guys.” The “good guys” have questionable convictions, or it is understood that they made a bad choice that doesn’t belie the type of person they really are. The “nice guys” are friendly and might help you out in any way they can, but they have a serious disorder.

There are also some people in here who recognize that they have, or had, a problem. They’re open about the crimes they’ve committed, sometimes too open because most people don’t want to hear about other inmates’ crimes.

Some people here should be separated from society – prison is probably good for these guys. They form their own community here, they’re taken care of. Some of these inmates are the “nice guys” who just haven’t been able to overcome their disorders. But this group also includes people with anger/control issues, people who manipulate others, who bully smaller, vulnerable inmates, who antagonize others for their own entertainment. These are the people who make me feel uncomfortable – I can only imagine how the guards, particularly the female guards who are often the subject of their attention, feel.

 

Getting Short

I asked Russ during our last visit to think about a few things he wanted to do once he got out. Here’s the list he came up with: 

1. I need to see my son, visit with my father, and somehow thank the friends who’ve stood by me throughout this whole ordeal. I don’t know about the mechanics of these things, but I’m aching to do them … I’ll have to figure out HOW as soon as I get my feet under me and get a feel for what this new chapter is going to be like.

2. I want to wake up on day one of freedom and go for a 5 to 10 mile run – maybe get lost. I want to just go out in whatever direction the wind takes me and get lost in the sunlight, the breeze and do something I love.

3. Also on day one, I want to eat my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. I’m going to eat a basket of their rye bread with butter, drink a gallon of their passion fruit iced tea, and order more food than I will be able to finish, including cheese cake, of course.

4. Speaking of food, I also want to go to a mall and sit in the food court. I’ll gorge myself on some decadent fast food … Chick-Fil-A, maybe? But really I want to just watch the people go by.

5. While I’m still focused on food: I want to go to a huge grocery store and fill up a cart. I can only imagine the random assortment of food I’ll walk out with. I want to stock up on all the things I’ve gone without over the past three years: fresh fruits, dark chocolate, juicy steak … and a whole bunch of other stuff that I won’t know until I see it.

6. Since it’ll be August when I get out, I want to find a nice outdoor pool and dive in. I want to swim!

7. I really need to check my email. Somewhere among the hundreds of thousands of emails I’ve missed, there are probably messages from good people I’ve lost touch with.

8. There are practical things that are also on my list: buy a car, turn my cell phone back on (hopefully), and get started at my new job. I’m excited for these things because they mean I’ll be transitioning back to normalcy.

9. I also need to make up for some lost cultural experiences. I want to bar-b-q with friends, download all sorts of new music to my iPod, and reactivate my Netflix account.

10. If I can pry myself away from Netflix, I’d also like to buy a guitar. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in here, it’s that you’ve always gotta be bettering yourself in some way – teaching yourself something. You’ve gotta make a habit out of finding new hobbies. I think because life is so busy people forget how important it is to find new hobbies and get passionate about them for a while.

11. Along that vein, I’ve been thinking about ways I can volunteer. I’ve spent my whole life (minus the past three years) in a service-oriented profession. I think it’ll make my transition from the military and from prison a lot easier if I can create some continuity with my previous life by volunteering at Habitat for Humanity or something similar.

12. I’ve also been thinking I’d like to set a reachable goal for myself – who knows if I’ll be good at this new job I’ve got, if I’ll have a good relationship with my parole officer, if I’ll be able to manage this transition well. But I WILL be able to summit Pike’s Peak. I think I’ll need that sense of accomplishment  – so that’s definitely on my list.

13. Speaking of which, I’ll need to convince my parole officer that I’m not a dirtbag – that I won’t be a problem for him over the next few years.

And so many other things. So so so many other things. But that’s all for now.

Boob Toob

Russ told me during a visit that NCIS is by far the most popular TV show in the common areas. Not something you might have thought considering some of them were put in prison by NCIS-led investigations. Seems ironic, no?

Russ’s own favorite show right now? Fargo, on FX. I have to say, I agree. Fargo is awesome.

He also said a lot of inmates like Tosh.0, so I asked him if they’d enjoyed the bit Tosh did on making toilet hooch (see it here: Cooking in the Clink). He said he couldn’t remember, but, speaking of which … Someone recently got busted for making hooch! (Russ didn’t know if he was using Tosh’s toilet technique.) Apparently the dude was found out when his garbage bag full of ready-to-chug “pruno grigio” busted in transit from his cell to someone else’s. The smell of alcohol filled the hallway and guards came and caught him. He spent something like three weeks in the SHU (special housing unit) a.k.a. solitary.

Whatcha Cookin’

It’s funny the things you miss in here. Lately I’ve been dreaming about buying a car (my subconscious is getting way too far ahead of me, there). But I’ve been daydreaming/fantasizing about going to the grocery store. I cannot wait to go buy some food and cook a nice meal for myself.

I also want to reopen my Netflix account and catch up on some shows I’ve missed. I want to go for a jog with my iPod and get lost in the experience.

Simple pleasures. Don’t ever take them for granted.