Table of "Normal"

Sunday seems to be the fastest day of the week. I didn’t do much in the afternoon yesterday other than write; however, the day flew by. After writing, I listened to the radio in order to obtain updates on the men’s U.S. Golf Open. It sounded like an exciting finish as Tiger Woods fell short on the final hole. The rest of the day I just relaxed with my friend. We do spend a great deal of time with one another, but we have not gotten on each other’s nerves. We do have a good relationship, and I would have never imagined 11 months ago that I would be sharing a room with a friend. This journey continues to amaze me in a positive manner.

After dinner, I had all evening to myself since I completed my writing earlier. Sunday nights are the nights to sign up for telephone calls during the week. I don’t necessarily need to sign up for these calls because the best time to call my wife is on Saturday in the early afternoon. This provides me with the opportunity to go through the bail bonds company which eliminates the expense for my wife. I do like to sign up during the week just in case something comes up and I do need to get in touch with her. Also, I can schedule my weekly telephone call to my mother. I think I am going to change this to every two weeks because the telephone calls are much too expensive to call every week. The telephone signup occurs at 7:00 p.m., and I had a scheduled call to my mother 30 minutes later. After the telephone signup, I stayed outside.

Before I go any further, I need to add some background. Ever since I arrived here, I noticed four inmates sitting at a table each night talking, and on some occasions, they play scrabble. These four inmates are what I would characterize as “normal”. This is not prison normal but everyday, out-in-the-real-world normal, meaning these four inmates don’t look like they belong in prison. One of the inmates is on my crew, and he is an ultra-normal inmate. I found it fascinating that these four would sit and talk every night. I looked at this table and thought to myself I could actually fit in, which is very unusual. I am not one to crash an ongoing conversation, so I watched from afar. Also, most nights I am in my room writing. Last night I was outside and had a question for the member on my crew who was at this table. I approached him and asked the question. The next thing I realized I was part of the table of “normal” for the rest of the evening. I had to take 30 minutes to call my mother but returned to the table afterwards. By the way, 30 minutes is still not enough time as we ran out of time. I had a wonderful conversation with my mom, and I laughed all during the conversation.

I did return to the table and stayed around talking to these “normal” inmates until 10:00 p.m., which is the time we are required to be in our rooms. This was a great way to spend an evening. One of the guys was so similar to me it was almost scary. We attended the same University (University of Maryland). He was two years ahead of me, and he has also has peculiar eating habits (not as peculiar as mine but very close). He is also an exercise addict, and I see him outside every morning either jogging or walking. We talked, and I found out he, too, maintains a journal (not a blog) and has throughout his journey. He received more time on his sentence because he went to trial and lost. He will be here until September of next year. He is a very normal person and certainly doesn’t belong in prison. I don’t know the specifics of his case, but it does appear he was indicted for something he did not do. This is where our similarities end because I most certainly committed the crime and have no one to blame but myself.

I have always wondered how people come to terms with being in a prison even though they did not commit the crime. I had a hard time being in prison, and I know I committed the crime. Here was a person who I believe (normally I do not believe an inmate when they tell me they are innocent or were framed, but this inmate I do believe is guilty by association, nothing more) did not commit the crime for which he is currently serving a sentence. This is powerlessness, and we talked about how our lives are out of our hands while in prison. I accept this fact, and so does he. I had a fascinating conversation with this person, and now anytime I am outside during the evening, I am welcome at the table of “normal”. By the way, other than speaking with this inmate, I did participate in the group discussions, which ranged from making fun of other inmates to discussing why women who win the Academy Award for best actress seem to have their careers stopped. I am not willing to categorize the table of normal as a think tank, but it was one of the best group discussions (outside of my friends from GA) I have had in a very long time. At least, I know normal people do exist here at fire camp.

This was the latest I have stayed out since I arrive here almost a month ago. I came inside, and my friend was already in bed. Normally, I am in my bed as well at this time. This was a good change of pace, and it gave my friend some alone time. I quickly went to sleep after coming into the room.

My neighbors across the way were once again on the early-morning exercise plane because it was Monday. They did get up and go work out, and my friend and I have been joking with them about exercising only once a week. I did see two of the “normal” inmates outside running this morning. I am certainly not unique as other inmates share my outside-the-norm-for-prison qualities.

Since today is inspection day, my friend cleaned our room yet again. We may have an Oscar/Felix relationship, but the roles of Oscar and Felix keep switching! My friend has the room all cleaned by the time I finished showering. We went to breakfast after my friend mopped the floor. After eating, I returned to the room and made my sandwich being very careful to not get any crumbs on the clean floor. I was booted, suited, and ready for work as I made my way outside. I filled up my CamelBak and waited for the work call.

The work call came, and I lined up by the fire bus. The C/O checked us out, and just like that, my workweek was underway. I got on the fire bus and found out we were headed back to the same spot where we spent most of last week, which was Diamond Valley Lake. We were armed with plenty of weed trimmers as we were going to finish up on the exterior lake area we started last week. Today, I came to grips with these projects. I broke it down very simply. It is what it is, and there are only four actual hours of work. By the time we arrived and had our tools, it was 10:00 a.m. This gave us two hours of work until lunch. Lunch is an hour from noon to 1:00 p.m. We work from 1:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., taking a 15-minute break. At 3:15 p.m., we are done for the day.

Today passed by surprisingly quickly. Breaking the day down into segments helped me a great deal. I was armed with a rake, which was the right tool for the job. This made a world of difference from last week when I was using the pitchfork. I started the day out working by myself at a slow but steady pace. I did catch up with my crew members and worked in tandem with them in the afternoon. I purposely tried to not look at my watch until the halfway point of each segment. I was able to do this, and by me keeping moving, both the morning and afternoon passed by very quickly. We were done for the day before I even realized it. Monday really wasn’t so bad, and it certainly beat the rock fiasco of Friday.


We drove back to camp and were checked in slightly early because the C/O’s on duty are very secure in their positions and adhere to common sense along with having a low-key approach. It is fascination watching the different personalities of all the C/O’s and how they approach their jobs. This can be broken down even further as they are paired together. Sundays and Mondays are very relaxing days as these C/O’s run a very well-managed program. The rest of the week gets a little dicey as certain personalities add edginess to the program. The edginess is felt all throughout the camp. I do prefer the calm way in which Sundays and Mondays are managed.

At this point, my afternoon routine kicked in. On Monday, the results of the inspection are posted on the camp bulletin board. Unfortunately, my friend/roommate had an infraction which was very unusual because he cleaned the room very well. This infraction had nothing to do with the cleanliness. My friend forgot to lock his locker which is required on inspection day. Our dorm area had six infractions, including my friend’s, which was second best among the six dorms. This means we will be the second dorm to go to “store” this week. My friend’s infraction did not deter our dorm from going first because the first-place dorm had 2 less infractions than ours. Of course, my friend received some good active kidding from our neighbors for not locking his locker. He took the joking very well.

After dinner, I returned to my room, and instead of starting my writing, I read a local newspaper. There were two articles on prisons that were very interesting. There seems to be some discrepancy as to when the federal judge will issue his decision regarding the overcrowding problem. The article I read today mentioned this decision would be forthcoming on June 27, while every other article I have read mentions June 19 (tomorrow) as the date for the decision. I don’t know which is the right date, but I do know only time will tell. I was also waiting for mail call to be announced so I headed outside. I was able to stop by the “table of normal” for an extended stay as the mail call was 30 minutes behind schedule. I did participate in a few conversations that were good, but I really wanted my mail. Finally, the mail call arrived, and I received two pieces. One letter was from my mom along with photographs of my nephew’s eighth grade graduation and one envelope from my wife filled with Father’s Day cards from my children and wife. My wife also sent photographs of my son’s kindergarten graduation. My goodness, he is now going into first grade, and my daughter is going into fourth grade. The time does go by fast, and I can’t wait to share this time with them. There was one photograph in particular which caught my eye. It was a photograph of my wife and son. They both looked great as usual, but my wife looked amazing! She has always been a beautiful lady, and now it appears she is getting even more beautiful. God, I miss her, but it won’t be long until I actually see her beautiful face. Everything I received from my family was amazing, and my heart was filled with warmth. I love them so much and miss them so much.