"Chicken Transaction"

Yesterday evening I was all prepared to go out and take in the night portion of our tier’s yard. I had an 8:45 pm telephone call scheduled in order to speak with my wife. The C/O opened (also known as unlocked) our door. I walked outside, presented my identification card to the C/O, he checked against his list and told me I was ineligible to participate in the evening yard. This has happened once before (incidentally also when I had a telephone call scheduled, I smell a conspiracy, only joking) but that was prior to me completing the classification hearing. I was ineligible to participate in the evening yard because (according to the computer printout) my status is AIU which means I have full privileges but I am unassigned, thus being ineligible for the evening yard. (I guess “full” privileges doesn’t include evening yard!) According to my classification hearing and my counselor I was supposed to be A1A – (full privileges with an assignment) on the next computer printout. I wonder what my actual status really should be.

When the C/O told me to go back into the dormitory I tried to explain to him about how I was told at my classification hearing that my status was A1A. However, the C/O didn’t want to hear any part of it and told me I needed to speak with my counselor to get the situation rectified. I certainly did not argue and went back into the dormitory very disappointed. This is the second time I was rebuffed from going into the yard in the evening and both times I could not make my scheduled telephone call. I so look forward to speaking with my wife and I haven’t spoken to her since Wednesday. Now it will have to wait until at least Tuesday. I need to schedule a telephone call today in order to speak with her. I was able to secure a 3:00 pm time to call her on Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to reach her.

Having the opportunity to make only one 15 minute telephone call is sometimes very frustrating. There are three sign-up periods per day at 11:00 am (morning yard), 1:00 pm (afternoon yard) and 8:00 pm (evening yard). I can only schedule one telephone call per day and some days I have a previous commitment so I can not attend the sign up period which makes me wait for another day. This delays the process at least three days. I hadn’t scheduled any telephone calls up until Saturday morning. I couldn’t make this call so the next telephone call I have is on Tuesday which will mark 7 days since I last spoke with my wife. It makes it very difficult to call anyone other than my wife. Also, when I start the instructor position I cannot attend the morning and afternoon sign up periods so any options are very limited to only the weekend. Presumably I will clear up my status so at least I can sign up in the evenings (albeit every other day). Obviously this telephone call sign up and actually getting to the telephone is a work in progress. However, it certainly beats the alternative of not being able to make a telephone call like it was at the reception center. At the very least I should be able to speak with my wife once a week.

I woke up this Sunday morning knowing I was not going to be able to get outside into the yard in the morning because it was our tier’s turn for afternoon yard. This was fine because yesterday I did a great deal of writing to my wonderful friends and family members. I needed a break from writing and I wanted to finish my book “Deception Point” by Dan Brown. I got 10 pages of reading in when the C/O came in and told me I had a package I needed to pick up. Instantly I was confused because I picked up my package yesterday. I mentioned this to the C/O and he too was perplexed. He made a telephone call to verify the package pick up and I did indeed have an electronics package to pick up. Every inmate is allowed to receive one package per quarter; however, there are exemptions such as special orders from the approved catalogue companies like radios, boom boxes and portable CD players. My mother was kind enough to order me a portable AM/FM CD player and this is what I was picking up. Incidentally I am not sure on the rules for CD’s and books as to whether or not this counted toward my one quarterly package. Sometimes the rules are a little unclear, hopefully, my wife or mother will be able to ascertain the rules on the prison’s website.

I was quite impressed the C/O came to me and when he figured out I truly had a package I was let out of the dormitory right away. I went directly over to the package pick up area and was immediately granted access through the gate. I waited 10 minutes and received my CD player. I went directly back to the dormitory, however, I waited an hour and a half to get back to the dorm because the C/O was nowhere to be found, so much for finishing my book this morning. I sat outside and fortunately it was a beautiful morning. I did speak with an inmate whose job is to keep the outside area of the dorm clean. I have got to stop asking other inmates how much time they have remaining on their sentence. (Actually this is a very common topic between prisoners and it is not an “out of bounds” question.) Every time I ask this question (which has not been a lot) the inmate I am speaking with tells me they have 5 years or more remaining. When I hear this my 20 months remaining seems very small. I have to remember I am on the level 2 yard and inmates here (other then me it seems) have much more time than I expected. The release dates these inmates talk about are in 2011 and beyond. I do consider myself very fortunate to only have the 20 months which will be reduced further when I get to fire camp but I do feel bad for some of these inmates. Don’t get me wrong I have spoken to a few inmates who definitely need to be incarcerated for this period of time and more. However; more often than not I do empathize with the inmates.

I finally received the unlock to get back into the dormitory. Now it was time to get ready to go out for yard in the afternoon. I was ready for a good run this afternoon and like I mentioned earlier the weather was magnificent. I was ready because my new watch (by the way I think it is a woman’s watch because it is very small, in fact it barely fits my wrist and I don’t have very fat wrists, anyway it serves its purpose and I don’t care how it looks, it works very well for me) is equipped with a stopwatch and now I could start timing my runs. Initially I was going to run 8 miles which equals 24 times around the track, but when I finished the 24th lap I was feeling very good so I decided to do an additional 6 laps so I could run 10 miles. I do seem to get a great deal of attention when I am running (why, I am not sure). In fact, many inmates who I don’t know yell out to me as I am going around the track and ask me “How many laps have you done”? When I say 26 or anything over 12 the response seems to be the same, “Damn! I wish I could do that many”. I do get a kick out of this but I keep on running. While I was doing these laps a few inmates attempted to run with me and no one made it more than 2 laps. I do like the fact that the other inmates are trying and I always encourage them; however, when I am in my “zone” (like I was today) I won’t slow down. This might be selfish but this is my workout and when I start the instructor position I will be more than happy to help these inmates but now this is my time especially on the weekends.

I did have a very good run and felt no twinges in my chest whatsoever which is a good thing. The more I recreate my chest “ailment” the more I am convinced it is a muscle in the upper chest itself not the heart. I am sure I injured the muscle while I was working out in the reception center. I have since cut way back on the push ups and chest workouts and it does seem to be healing. Not related to my chest ailment my speed (for lack of a better term) while I am running has come down considering my past times. Today I averaged 7 minutes and 30 seconds a mile having completed the 10 miles in a little over one hour and 15 minutes. In the past I used to be faster but it is not so bad for an “old guy”!

After finishing the run I did 30 minutes of what is called “step ups”. This is a very simple low impact exercise which is performed on a two foot wall and to perform it you take your right foot “step up” onto the wall, bring your left foot up bring that onto the wall then step down with the right foot followed by stepping down with the left up and then repeating the process. After finishing 15 minutes with the right leg I switched to the left leg for an additional 15 minutes. I did this last week and I could really feel it in my calves and when I can feel sore from an exercise I usually like that exercise. It was a great way to cool down from the 10 mile run.

It is odd because when I am exercising/running I am able to put my mind in a different place. Actually I am able to shut off my mind for the time I am exercising which comes in handy here. I have been exercising regularly for over 16 years and in the last 4 I have gotten serious with training for marathons. The more I think about it the more I know it was not coincidence my evil doing and marathon training occurred at the same time. What is helping me get through this horrible time away from my family actually hurt me get through that bad almost 2 year period of lying, cheating and stealing. As is the case now when I exercise I block everything out which I did during that period. I guess on the upside my exercising kept me from going completely crazy and probably saved my life as it is doing right now along with my recovery.

After exercising for almost two hours it was time to come in and shower. I was not fortunate enough to be one of the first ones in so I had to wait. I was able to wash my new workout attire in the sink and I was a “hit” as I walked around in my briefs otherwise known as “tighty-whiteys”. There are 35 other guys in this dorm and most of them walk around in there boxers and I was not going to change into my boxers before I showered so I had to walk around in my briefs (which is my preferred under garment when I am running, as if anyone cares!!) until I was able to shower. It felt good to exercise in my own clothes and no matter how much I resent the fact that I cannot use a washing machine and dryer I still have to wash my workout wear.

After finally getting into the shower and having shaved for the second consecutive (this has not occurred in over 3 ½ months) day I felt like a new man. I was able to use my new body wash which was a welcomed relief from the bars of soap I have been using. My skin was no longer dry and scaling like it was from the soap bars. Also the scent of aloe almost gave me new life (oh! the little things!). I certainly understood the meaning of “comforts from home” much better than I ever have since it has been almost 4 months without experiencing any of these comforts.

It was almost time for dinner and tonight they were serving barbecue chicken. I was alerted to the fact that one of my dorm mates pays 5 soups for a piece of chicken. When I found this out I went over to this dorm mate and made the deal. The only “kicker” was I had to get the piece of barbecue chicken out of the chow hall and back into the dorm. You may ask, “That doesn’t sound so difficult, what is the problem?” Well, there is a C/O who stands by the exit and inspects all the inmates prior to leaving the chow hall. Inmates are not supposed to take any food out of the chow hall. This is mostly for the fruits which are served at breakfast so the inmates can’t make pruno (which by the way hurts me because most of the time I don’t eat my piece of fruit be it an apple or banana because I am too full but I would like to eat it later as a snack which I cannot unless someone else sneaks one out).

I didn’t want to sneak out anything out for a variety of reasons and another one of the dorm mates understood this. (If an inmate gets caught sneaking food out of the chow hall nothing really happens to them. The C/O just confiscates the food item and the inmate moves on). I am not sure if taking a piece of chicken, apple or banana which is on my tray as part of my breakfast or lunch out of the chow hall constitutes stealing but it is against the rules which I don‘t want to break. With that stated, I made an additional agreement with the dorm mate I normally trade my breakfast and dinner, I would give him my piece of chicken and he would sneak it out in return for two soups. He agreed and was successful so I guess I was an accessory in “rule breaking” but I did give it to my other dorm mate who paid me with the 5 soups. Yes, this is wrong but I will justify it by saying I can get three meals (having given away two of the five soups) by making this transaction and my exposure was practically zero, I am sure on some level this is wrong but I am doing best at improvising.

I was unable to get full at dinner because of the whole “chicken transaction” so I did make one of the soups in my new hot pot. While I was making this soup my accomplice in the “chicken transaction” asked me if he could have one of my prized Hot-n-Spicy Vegetable soups as one of his two soups. Again, I couldn’t say no and gave him one of these along with the chili flour. I wonder if I will ever get to eat one of the Hot-n-Spicy Vegetable soups because I did order 10 but now I am down to 6. I better eat one before I give them all away. The other inmate who traded me for these soups loves the vegetable soups I gave him. I told him I had no more to trade because hey I want to actually taste one before I give them all away.