Open the Can of Worms!

I have now established a new routine for the weekend day (which was yesterday) that I have afternoon yard. I start out the day just like any other day by going to breakfast and returning back to the dorm. Since I must stay inside the dorm all morning I try to make the best of my time. Yesterday I finished up my writing for the week which took a little over an hour. At this point I had all morning to myself. A few of my dorm mates were in the television area watching the new movie. I have stated in the past I don’t care much to watch TV let alone a movie which changes every week. The name of this week’s movie was “Pulse” and I had never heard of it and had no idea what it was about. I passed on watching it. As a side note there is one member of my dorm who always looks forward to the new “state” movie which airs on Fridays and Mondays. The movie which airs on Friday will be shown until Sunday. While the movie aired on Sundays runs all the way until Friday. Each Friday and Sunday morning this dorm mate is the first one in the television area waiting for the movie to air. It doesn’t matter what the movie is, he is always there. This is the highlight of his week which in and of itself is very sad. Oddly this dorm mate does not watch much television but he is ready for the first run of the new movies.

I have been going fairly strong with exercising over this past week for a number of reasons. Exercising does allow me to relieve any stress and with my hopeful transfer to fire camp and new “Coach” there have been a few stresses this week. I am not sure but it has been a while since I took an entire day off from exercising. I need to be careful not to over do it or injure myself. I have mentioned my hip a few times and there is a slight twinge but as I exercise any semblance of pain disappears. It does help immensely to pass the time very quickly and yes, the morning went by very fast. I finished in time for a quick clothes washing section and hung the clothes over the post on my bunk as the clotheslines are still not permitted. Then I had a PB&J sandwich for a very light lunch as I still had more exercising in the afternoon.

The yard opened yesterday afternoon and my earlier exercising opened up more time for me in the yard. I was able to participate in the telephone sign up selection. Once again my ID card was pulled very quickly and I was able to get a desirable time. However, there is one telephone which I try to stay away from since it works terribly. I can hear fine on this telephone but the person I am speaking with can barely hear me so I have to scream. This telephone has been like this for several months yet it has not been fixed. The sign up selection is done at random and so is the assignment of the telephone. The bad telephone is #5 and as I sign up the clerk was putting me into this slot. This has happened before and usually I mention to the inmate if I could please have another telephone and they change to another telephone. Yesterday, the clerk must have been in a bad mood because he did not even acknowledge me as he wrote my name down in the #5 slot even though I must have said, “Please can I have another telephone” at least 4 times. Unfortunately, I have telephone #5 tomorrow at 3:30 pm and this telephone is extremely frustrating because I cannot be heard. Also, placing the call through the Bail Bonds Company makes the audio of the call lower and having a conversation on phone #5 is very difficult. Maybe the telephone has been fixed although I doubt it very much. I have no choice so I will give it a try tomorrow.

Dinner time was fast approaching and again the menu was favorable for me with rice and black eyed peas along with cornbread. I most certainly attended dinner in the dining hall and had huge portions of each along with 2 slices of corn bread. Needless to say I was extremely full from this dinner and finished eating for the day. I made my way back to the dorm and spent the rest of the evening listening to the radio all night long. I was able to listen to the audio broadcast of “60 minutes” and interestingly enough one of the stories was about Dennis Kozlowski the incarcerated CEO of Tyco Industries. This man is currently serving a prison sentence of 8 to 25 years for basically stealing 100’s of millions of dollars from the company. I am not exactly up on all of his charges on the case but from what I heard his charges could not have come at a worse time because the Enron and WorldCom scandals were happening as well. Unlike the executives indicted in the Enron scandal, Mr. Kozlowski is in a New York State prison where as the Enron Executives are in a Federal Prison. In terms of “doing time” for a white collar criminal the Federal system is the way to go but Mr. Kozlowski’s charges was a New York State matter. The interview was conduced inside the New York State Prison. It wasn’t an earth-shattering interview as he is appealing his case and said very little. However, he did mention something about sleeping in prison and how he keeps waking up every hour and wondering is it is all a dream. I felt this same way in my first 30 days while I was in the County Jail. Soon after leaving the County Jail I realized this is my temporary reality and not a dream. I still wake up several times each evening but I no longer expect to wake up next to my wife and see my children come into the room. All of this has been temporarily suspended for the next year. I don’t nearly have the time Mr. Kozlowski has but I completely understand his emotional state. I do know that as long as I stay in recovery and remain positive each and everyday I will wake up with my wife next to me and see my children come into the room very soon.

The PFT Plus class went by very fast which was good because I needed to see the old “Coach”. I went in to see if he had spoken to the Captain on Friday. Unfortunately he hadn’t as the Captain was not in. I am at a loss as to what to do from here. I really don’t want to pressure the "Coach” as he can really assist in my transfer but I want to know if he is going to do that. In my heart I believe he will help me but my brain is telling me something else. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any further information and now I just wait. I really have to believe the old “Coach” will help me and my departure to fire camp will come sooner as opposed to later. He is a decent person and unless I am completely misjudging him, his intentions are genuine.