Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

Yesterday afternoon when the yard opened, I had two things I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to call my wife and pick up the books that were sent to me on Monday. In the outside world, these tasks are very easy, but in here they are indeed chores. I was finally able to make that call and went through the bail bond company to save my wife some money for the cost of the call. I tried her at home but there wasn’t any answer, then I tried her on her cell, which went to voice mail. I really wanted to talk to someone so I tried my mother’s house but there was no answer. Afterward I tried to call her cell phone and once again it went to voice mail. I decided to call my wife’s cell phone again and leave a message. Amazingly, my wife answered and I did get to speak with her. I was also able to speak with both my daughter and son briefly, and it is always great hearing their voices. My poor son has such bad allergies and I could hear it in his voice. My wife has taken him to the doctor’s and he gave him allergy medication and eye drops. He’s having such a horrible time with this season’s allergies. In the brief time I spoke with him, I felt so bad listening to his very nasally voice. I certainly hope allergy season is over soon!

My wife is still dealing with the same financial issues that she has been dealing with over the last two months and she is no closer to resolution on any of the matters. She has been trying to obtain some money in my 401K, but my former employer (yes, the same one I stole from) is giving her a very hard time. At the conclusion of my case, the prosecuting attorney withdrew any rights to this money which meant it would go to my wife. However, accessing these funds has been very difficult and my wife can certainly use the money. Hopefully, she will have a positive resolution soon so she won’t have to resort to legal measures. She is also still dealing with getting the car registered in NJ, but the state tax issue remains unresolved. My wife even received assistance from a local assembly person in NJ. She was on the telephone for two hours regarding this issue and she still has no resolution on this as well. I can feel my wife’s frustration as I share it with her. Unfortunately, I can’t help her from here and I am truly powerless to these situations. I was interested if my wife had a chance to call the Captain regarding my transfer to fire camp, but after hearing her problems, my transfer to fire camp became insignificant.

The telephone call was over and I went to the R&R area where I needed to pick up the books. Unfortunately, I missed the pick-up by just a few minutes which I thought might happen. I headed back to the dorm after doing my exercising and only had a half of sandwich for lunch so I could be hungry for dinner. Pizza was back on the menu and was being served last night. I made my usual deal with my neighbors obtaining their pizza for 3 soups each. Also, my neighbor on the other side made me an offer of trading his pizza to me for only one soup. The reason why his price was cheaper than my other neighbors was I could obtain his pizza in the dining hall as he is a member of a race I can trade food with in the dining hall whereas as my neighbors are members of a different race where I cannot exchange food with in the dining hall. This means this means they have to bring the pizza back to the dorm and they’re making an exchange is acceptable. Got that? In summary, I had pizza, pizza, pizza!

I received two pieces of mail – one from a dear friend and one inter-prison mail also referred to as “jail-mail”. This piece of mail was very important because it was a request I sent to the Captain regarding my transfer to fire camp. I sent this over two weeks and this was his response. This was the Captain that the “old coach” was supposedly in communications with. I wanted to know which fire camp I was earmarked for and how long it would take. Please remember the old coach told me over two weeks ago I was earmarked for a fire camp and I should be departing “very soon.” Well, the information I received yesterday seemed to contradict the old coach. According to the captain I have not been earmarked for any fire camp and I am 40th on the list. This was extremely bad news and it also contradicted the information I received 1-½ weeks ago from the relief CO who called regarding my status on the fire camp placement list. At this time I was number 30 and as of yesterday I was number 40! If I am indeed number 40 on the list, I will be here at least another 8 weeks which takes me into July. Also, the fact that I am NOT earmarked for a fire camp means I can end up at any one of the 19 fire camps in the system.

I had no idea what was going on after I read this piece of “jail-mail”. It certainly wasn’t good from my perspective and I needed to do something. The only thing I could do is write the old coach a note asking for his assistance in clearing up these issues. I have nowhere else to turn and I do believe in the old coach because he is a man of his word. I didn’t believe he was lying to me about speaking with the Captain and there had to be a mix-up somewhere. I wrote a letter to the coach explaining the situation and asked for his assistance. This is my only hope in finding out what was indeed going on. I realized if I put this in the mail last night the old coach wouldn’t receive it until Friday but getting access to his office is very difficult so I had to place it in the mailbox. (I am going to skip forward at this point because this story is fairly important to me) I’m not sure who prevented me from placing this in the mailbox but this happened. I was ready to put it in after dinner but something happened on the other yard (a mini-riot between members of the same race – sort of). Dinner was served very late which meant I couldn’t get to the mailbox. I was going to give the letter to one of my dorm mates who goes out for “pill call” later in the day. “Pill call” never came so again I had to hold onto the letter.

The timing of placing this letter in the mailbox is fairly important because the mail is picked up each night at 10:00 pm. Since I couldn’t get it in by then, the old coach wouldn’t receive this letter until Monday. However, as I was going out this morning for “work call”, I noticed that the door to where the old coach is located was open. I quickly slipped it under the door and made my way out to the basketball court. Hence, the new coach did not see me do this.

Somehow, someway things always seem to work out. Had I placed this letter in the mailbox last night, the old coach might have overlooked it for a few days. Now it would be the first thing he saw as he walked into the office. The old coach read my letter and made a special trip to see me in my dorm. He had my letter in his hand and said, “I don’t know what is going on because I spoke with the Captain on two occasions and this does not make sense.” He subsequently asked me for my two fire camp choices and wrote them down. He then said, “Let me see what is going on right now,” and headed directly to the captain’s office.

I was very impressed he came to see me and I do believe he is doing what he said. I haven’t heard back from him yet but I am very optimistic as to my transfer. My mood went from being a bit depressed yesterday to very positive after speaking with the old coach. I feel good and hopefully I will hear from him tomorrow morning!