Two Months To Go!

The days are moving along quickly and really there is nothing much new. I did hit the mother load during mail call as I received seven pieces of mail. This is a combination of the Christmas holiday and the fact that there wasn’t any mail delivery on Monday or Tuesday. Amazingly the seven pieces were from six different sources as my mom was the lone duplicate.

There was an interesting letter from a person I do not know. She is a reporter with the San Jose Mercury News which is located in Northern California. Interestingly enough I know this newspaper quite well because I have read their on-line edition for a number of years. Of course, it has been at least 17 months since I last read from this but I have always been impressed with the content. This particular investigative reporter is doing a story on pathological gambling. A very good friend referred this reporter to me. I have had some experience with investigative reporters over the past three years and one of those experiences didn’t turn out the way I would have liked. On the other hand, I have participated in other pieces which turned out very well and I even made a good friend from one of these. I won’t let the one semi-bad experience prevent me from assisting. This piece will not be about me (thank God); it will be about pathological gambling and if it helps one person then it will be worth it. The reporter would like to interview me in person and I am fairly certain she is aware of my current situation. I responded to the letter and explained the ways to correspond with me and I also included a visiting form. I don’t know if special accommodations are made for reporters so I don’t know where this is all headed nor do I know the time frame. Of course, meeting with me will be much easier in two months from today as I will be released. I am interested to assist so I will see where it goes.

In one of the other pieces of mail was a Christmas card from my wife which contained the card she sent out this year. It was a cute photograph of my son and daughter standing next to the Christmas tree at their grandmother’s house in NJ. My goodness, my daughter gets prettier and prettier with every picture. My son gets bigger and bigger with every picture and after I showed the picture to my roommate, he commented, “Your son is going to kick your ass when you see him next because he keeps getting bigger and bigger!” Yes, I am sure this will be the case, but it was a great picture.

I took the mail back to my room and went through it as I sipped on some tea. As quickly as my cold arrived, it departed that much quicker. Over the course of the evening, the stuffiness and annoying drip disappeared without the aid of medication. I was thankful for it to go away, but there seems to be a great deal of germs floating around here. Also, the weather has been crazy on Christmas Eve Day. I ran in shorts and a tee shirt and now the temperature seemed to have dropped 30 degrees into the 30’s.

Breakfast was uneventful and the rumor circulating the camp was all the in campers would be drug tested today. This rumor caused me to “hold it” for as long as I could and as rumors go – this one was unfounded. I do find the rumors quite comical and I have no issue with drug testing everyday. The rest of the day was the usual filled with writing and reading. Yes, another typical day.