Real Pizza

Last night I was up until 10:30 pm which is well past my normal bedtime. I guess I can’t be brief with this blog because in my attempt to be brief yesterday, I ended up writing more than usual which is why I stayed up later than usual. According to my roommate within seconds of my head hitting the pillow, I was snoring. But once again I was awake every 90 minutes.

I ran for 90 minutes which toward the end was very peaceful since there was no one around. I must admit I am still searching for a niche here. I found a routine but not a niche. I had one at Jamestown while I was the PFT Instructor. Heck, I even had one at the reception center when I worked in the kitchen. My niche seems much harder to obtain here because all the work my crew does is foreign to me. Also, add in the fact that most projects are disorganized (at best). I do struggle somewhat during the day. I knew the work would be hard and I guess I didn’t realize how different this would be. During the day, I stay close to my friend and he guides me. He even gets frustrated for lack of organization and the laziness of others along with the mundane tasks we perform. I need to be patient and let things go. The days do go by but oddly with these peculiar projects, the daytime hours seem to drag. On the flipside, the nights go by rather quickly.

Today was the last official day of my work week, but once again my crew is on call this weekend. Today’s grade project was once again in camp at the torn up field where the new septic system is being placed. Unlike yesterday where our assignment was somewhat interesting, today’s assignment was just plain “dumb”. There is an old joke regarding the typical grade project which involves moving piles of rock around a field. Well, today I lived this joke as we moved piles of rock around. This is not a joke. Our task was to move rocks in wheelbarrows around the torn up field. This assignment made no sense whatsoever for many reasons. This project is no where near completion, rocks will be dug up, or the project progresses and some of the rocks could not be picked up by hand since they were too heavy, let alone be placed in a wheelbarrow. The Captain tried to remedy this by manning the front end loader. However, until yesterday when the inmate from another crew manned the loader, the Captain was woefully inexperienced. One of the crew members has operated heavy equipment and volunteered his services. The Captain didn’t allow him to operate the loader even though he was more qualified than the Captain. This made the crew member very angry especially when he saw the Captain operate this very unsafely. There were crew member who were loading rocks into the loader while standing directly in front of it. I wanted no part of this so I walked around with my friend as far away as possible from the front loader. We used the wheelbarrow to pick up the smaller rocks and didn’t work exactly very hard. This was an assignment of “futility” and we weren’t going to kill ourselves by working hard at this task.

After lunch we went back outside and our new task was to pick up trash in the field. I paired with my friend (of course!) and we went around the yard doing our assignment. The Captain was still trying to operate the loader. Only 2 crew members assisted him who were much braver than me. We finished our trash pickup and the Captain called it a day at 2:45 pm when we left to go back to camp.

While I was waiting for dinner, I had some down time and had a personal conversation with my friend. He is currently going through some soul searching. I listened and added some input. I do hope he works things out because he does not belong in a place like this. Over the past 5 years, he has been in and out of prison on 5 separate occasions. I’m hoping this is his last time but he has issues he needs to address. He has 9 months to make some decisions when he gets released. I am here to listen and I will do all I can to help but ultimately it is up to him to make the proper decisions. I have confidence he will make the proper choices and his life will get better. I do want to do more to help my friend, but unfortunately there is little else I can do but to listen.

Our conversation was over and it was on to the dining hall for the meat lover’s pizza. I have been waiting for pizza night since my arrival because I heard they are very good. However, eating a meat lover’s pizza-forever changed my eating habits. On June 1, 1990, I ate a Pizza Hut Meat Lover’s Pizza and the next day I got sick. I was sick for the next 5 days. I was weaning myself off red meat at the time I ate the pizza and when I got sick I realized I didn’t need to eat red meat ever again. I have not eaten one piece of red meat since this time. Seven years later I decided to give up all other meats except for fish and in these past 10 years, my diet has been meat free. I was not about to go off for a meat lover’s pizza. Much to my surprise, the kitchen made one vegetarian pizza just for me. This was set aside and I almost missed it. I didn’t see it when I went through the food service line to pick up the meat lover’s pizza for my friend when I saw the vegetarian pizza complete with bell peppers and onions waiting for me! It was delicious and I was honored the cooks remembered me along with my peculiar diet. In addition to the pizza, spaghetti with marinara sauce was served. I made a pig of myself as I went up for more spaghetti and was excited to have food I could eat without having to trade for it. I was more than stuffed after I ate my dinner. This is the most I have eaten in a very long time, thanks to the very thoughtful cooks.