Double "Hump" Day

I forgot to mention that on Monday evening I received two notifications from the Medical Department. The first notification was regarding my blood test results. A little over a week ago I had blood taken because the doctor was concerned my vitamin levels may have been deficient due to my vegetarian diet. They came back negative (which is good) for any vitamin deficiencies and any other abnormalities. According to the notification I am not required for any follow-up procedures. I am not sure if this clears me medically for fire camp or if I still need the echocardiogram and stress test. I sent a note to the doctor inquiring about my status. Hopefully, I will hear something in a week. By the way my upper chest slight pain is gone and has been this way since I started taking the multi-vitamin, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Also, being consistent with running and working out harder has also helped alleviate this slight pain. I am happy to report my upper chest is pain free. Maybe it was a vitamin deficiency or getting a more consistent workout schedule. Whatever the case I do feel great.

The second notification from the Medical Department or more precisely the doctor who examined me over a week ago, granted me a special meal request honoring my vegetarian diet. The notification stated, “due to a chronic medical condition, the inmate is to have the alternative entrée”, which sounds rather dire because I am not aware of any medical condition (maybe a psychological condition is more like it!) especially a chronic one but the doctor had to write it this way due to the standard protocol. I was surprised to receive this because I thought the doctor and I agreed to abandon the idea. It appears the doctor found a way to make this request work.

When I entered the dining hall for breakfast and dinner I must present this notification to the C/O on duty. I had my doubts that this little notification wouldn’t cause a problem. I figured the C/O would be somewhat lost and I would have some explaining to do. Before I go any further I have been making do with my peculiar eating habits over the past four months without any special meals. When I was in the County Jail I did ask for a special meal and the doctor laughed at me, from that point forward I decided to take things into my own hands. I have done fairly well trading my food but sometimes especially at dinner the food is not enough. With this “Alternative entrée” request I will receive no meat or eggs and according to the doctor a second helping of rice or beans depending on the meal. The rice I can deal with because it typically is long grain steamed rice; however, the beans are usually baked and my taste buds are not accustomed to them. Once I present this notice I have nothing to trade but I do have the opportunity to get more food. An interesting side light - the dorm mate who I have been trading my food with told me a few days ago he didn’t want to take any more of my food because he was getting too fat. He said he would still give me the vegetables at dinner and the hot cereal at breakfast but I was free to trade with anyone else. As most of you know I am a creature of habit and once I find something is working I stick with it. When I was at the County Jail I traded with “cellie” and most times I got his breakfast anyway because he usually slept in. At the Reception Center I traded with my Bunkie until he got transferred. Also working in the kitchen at the Reception Center helped me fill up on the hot cereal. Incidentally, when my Bunkie was transferred my trading of dinner food just about halted. Now I have again found one person I can trade with which has worked out somewhat fine.

For some reason I was hesitant to present this notice at breakfast even though the main entrée was cream beef. Usually the cream beef and the biscuit are placed together on the tray which ruins the biscuit for me. However, yesterday the cream beef was in a separate compartment on the tray safely away from the biscuit. Once I saw this I knew I could trade away the cream beef (to my dorm mate who is still trading with me even though he has requested not to, apparently if the food is in front of him he will eat it) for more oatmeal and still eat the biscuit. I passed on presenting the notice. However, dinner was another story because the main entrée was a beef chapula (not sure what this actually is but many of my dorm mates were looking forward to it) along with steamed rice. Typically the beef dish is served on top of the rice again rendering two items useless for me. This was the case last night so I decided to present the notice to the C/O. When I gave the C/O the notice she instantly made a face as to not understand. I give my 10 second explanation and she figured out that I was a vegetarian. She called the kitchen supervisor over and showed her the notice. The supervisor knew just what to do and presented me with a tray without the beef chapula. However; there was only a single serving of rice much to my dismay. She told me to hold on a second and then presented me with two tubes of peanut butter and two tubes of strawberry jam. This was actually better than the second helping of rice because it provided me with lunch since I only receive peanut butter and jelly twice a week with the rest of the week being some type of lunchmeat product. It is very strange how receiving the peanut butter and jam on top of my tray actually excited me. Yes, if I really think about this it is very sad but I prefer to look at the bright side which is having more food to eat even if it is at a later point. I did not present the notice at breakfast because the meal was the closet vegetarian breakfast which is served, pancakes, peanut butter and oatmeal with a banana. Maybe I should have because exiting the dining hall everyday I am given a sack lunch and today was another one of those lunchmeat days. I did trade away the lunch for more peanut butter so everything worked out fine. I am sure some point on my “tour” of the California Prison System I will grow weary of peanut butter but for now I have eaten it 98% of the time over the past four months.

Today marks a double “hump” day. Today is of course a Wednesday which is the “hump” day for the week and it is also the 15th which is the “hump” day for the month. Now that I actually have a Monday through Friday job, Wednesday is truly a hump day for me work wise. I am pleasantly surprised it is already the 15th of November which means this month is half over. Yes, I do understand next week is Thanksgiving and in my opinion the faster I get through this month and next month the better. I certainly don’t want to rush anyone’s holiday season but for me I just want to concentrate getting through these next two months with limited sadness. I will write more on this subject in the coming months.

Again, I was very excited to start my day and get to work. I was awake again at 5:00 am and thankfully there was no fog this morning. I stayed in bed until 5:45 am but decided to get up then. I dressed and went to watch the news. I was hoping to catch the early breakfast so my day would start even earlier. The C/O went by around the early breakfast time - 6:45am - and informed us that there would not be any Physical Fitness Training (PFT) class this morning. I was sitting with two of my dorm mates who are participants in this case when the news was given. There was no explanation (which is standard practice for a notification given by the C/O’s, less is certainly more in their eyes) so the three of us were rather perplexed. There wasn’t an unlock for early breakfast so I went with the rest of my dorm at the regularly scheduled time. I saw a few of the other instructors in the dining hall and they were equally perplexed as to why we didn’t have class this morning. I headed back to the dormitory a little disappointed but at least there was the other training class (which is called PFT Plus) this morning. This class is not the same because it usually only takes 30 minutes and it isn’t as comprehensive as the real PFT class.

A funny thing happened when I was inside the dormitory waiting for the 8:45 am unlock in order to get into the yard for the PFT Plus class. The C/O’s were letting out the participants in the real class. Apparently we were given misinformation and there was going to be a class this morning. I received the unlock and headed towards the basketball court where the class starts. The “Coach” called in sick but there was a substitute “Coach” (or other “Coaches” because there were four gentlemen supervising the class) to help lead the class. I was certainly glad to have the class even though the regular “Coach” was absent. I got into the flow much better today and just like starting any new job as the days pass I will become more comfortable with my tasks. Again, I wasn’t given any direction (which seems to be somewhat of an issue not for me but other instructors because it seems none of the instructors want to tell their fellow instructors what to do – it truly is a prison thing and something I will have to get use to) but I just followed along. We performed a 3-mile power walk at a 13 minute mile pace. This may not seem like much especially since I can run this in half that pace but power walking is very different from running and jogging. My skinny legs can run a long time but they need to get quicker in the power walk. Of course I did keep up and was not winded but it certainly was not easy. I discovered one of my responsibilities which is if one of the inmates fell behind I need to stay with them, encourage them and hopefully get them back to the pack. Most importantly I need to monitor them to ensure they don’t pass out. I walked with one inmate and encouraged him. Thankfully, he completed the power walk without any mishaps.

After the power walk was a series of bar hangs, pull-ups, dips, burpees, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and mountain climbers. After all this was completed, we embarked on a 2 mile jog which lead to a 1 mile power walk. All total we did 6 miles of power walking and jogging. The class closes with a cool down stretching session. My job is to walk around the class and if an inmate is having problems with a particular exercise or stretch I need to show him the proper technique. This is a bit of a fine line because most inmates have a difficult time in being told what to do. I approached each inmate with encouragement and every word I said was positive while I was showing them the proper technique. Each one did indeed seem very receptive and I felt good with my approach. There are some inmates who don’t have enough stamina to complete the required exercises and all I can do is offer them words of encouragement. Today was Day 3 of the 8 Day class. On the 8th day the inmates are given a comprehensive physical fitness examination and thankfully only the “Coach” grades the students as to whether they pass or fail. The Instructors only guide the examination which works out very well in a place like this. The morning flew by and when the class ended it was time for lunch.

I had a quick bite (you guessed it peanut butter and jelly) before returning for the afternoon PFT Plus class. I know this class very well and participated as an instructor. Normally the Wednesday class is very easy; however, due to all the exercise from the morning I was certainly feeling the class more than I have in the past. It gave me a good sweat and the class finished in 30 minutes. When the class was over I wasn’t sure what to do but I knew I needed to do more power walking and jogging. I embarked on my own 3 mile power walk at the same pace as the training class. I must say keeping this pace was a challenge by myself and I do have some training to do. After completing the 3 mile power walk I wanted to run just one mile at my 8 minute mile pace. I did this but I could feel the effect of all the days exercises. I figured it was time to call it a day because after all I did cover over 10 miles between power walking and jogging. Tomorrow the training class adds more miles and it will be interesting to see how my new exercise routine affects my regular running. I suspect I will keep in shape with my new job and best of all I am doing something I enjoy.