This morning started off pretty nice. It seemed a bit warmer in the unit than yesterday afternoon and we went to early yard from 8-9AM and it was warmer than in the unit and sunny. After walking and talking a bit I decided to do my (now) daily taiji. The yard CO was standing at the door talking to our floor CO, Jackman, and after about 10 minutes he turned and told me to stop. I guess I should have known that a single CO probably won’t care but get 2 together, especially when one is as much of a tight ass as Jackman, and they have to show how tough on us they are. Now I can’t do taiji when this CO is our yard CO, which has only happened once in the past month. But if Jackman as the source of the objection then there will be more issues because he’s our floor CO quite regularly. So do I just try and avoid doing it in front of those CO’s or do I try and petition to get permission and more than likely get told no and then not be able to do taiji anywhere? I guess I knew this would happen eventually, it just takes one dick of a CO to cause the problem and I was bound to come across one dick sooner or later.
-break-
The day got better. When we went to gym at 6PM I did taiji and no CO stopped me, though several inmates (jokingly) told me I wasn’t supposed to do that. *chuckle*
I had to make rice and summer sausage tonight because there was pizza for dinner. Luckily, I had planned ahead and brought some butter back from breakfast, and hid it in my half empty peanut butter jar. *wink* Then at dinner I shook some salt into my napkin and Mike (Colorado, who’s getting married on Thursday) looked at me like I was crazy until I explained it was a covert method of getting salt to my cell for my rice. After I left he did the exact same thing. LOL Oh, our cell got inspected this afternoon even with the concealed butter (which the CO never found) we got “nothing taken” on our form and an excellent for sanitation. The CO even searched my locker and his only comment was what kind of crazy guy eats only 1/2 a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup at a time. Hahaha
And during the first shift, while the porters (basically janitors) were buffing the floor outside our cell, I asked the CO, Jackman, if we could get a chance to use the buffer on the floor in our cell…and he let us. We have a somewhat shinier floor now. Honestly, I could not care less about the ratings on our cell inspections. I’m going to have to live here for the next 1/2 year or more so I want it to be good and clean. Hey, I even used some of my Hair Food, basically petroleum jelly and oils, to lubricate the hinges on my locker door so it doesn’t squeek anymore. I’m going to be here a while so I’m settling in. *smile*
During dayroom this evening I started a conversation with this older white guy with a shaved head, glasses and a goatee that kind of looks like the Aryan, White Supremacist type, but I don’t think he is. *chuckle* His name is James Oliver and he played pinochle with Jeff all the time but he seemed to not want to have any interactions with me before. I got the impression he didn’t like the weird guy who did taiji on the yard. I wanted to talk to him though because he had been to NSP, and as it turns out to Tecumseh too, and I wanted to know their general layout. He had been telling Jeff what to expect the morning Jeff left for NSP. Given that he seemed averse to chatting with me in the past I decided to lead with something I knew he wanted. I told him Jeff mentioned he (James) wanted to read The Revenant and that since Jeff left before I could finish it, I was getting a copy sent in. Would he like to borrow it once it comes? (Yes mother, I am asking for the book partially for this precise purpose but I also really want to finish the story. LOL) James’s face immediately lit up and, yes, he was very interested. He’s quite a reader. To the “right” kind of inmate the “right” kind of book is worth it’s weight in gold…because, of course, we can’t spend gold in here. Hahaha Anyway, that got Jame to sit at the table and we briefly discussed the book and the movie then I asked about NSP. A half hour later he had drawn a map of both NSP and Tecumseh for me. *big smile* Aside from being in the middle of nowhere, Tecumseh sounds like a nicer facility mostly because it’s newer. I’d still prefer NSP because it’s more likely people would visit me there than an hour away in Tecumseh. I’ll include the sketches he made.
(insert maps)
The other good news is that mom’s Special Visit was approved. Well, it looks like it was denied at first but then approved. I’m guessing there was some debate over whether the “once a month” rule (that does’t really exist) meant a calendar month, April to May, or a 30 day period after the last visit. Maybe because this weekend is Mother’s Day they cut me some slack. Ha, right!
I also read an article/interview in the April issue of The Atlantic on Obama’s foreign policy with a focus on Syria. It was quite interesting and revealing and has given me new admiration for President Obama. It went to great lengths to explain his restraint in using military force and his attempts to “pivot” our focus from the (lost cause of the) Middle East to the future in Asia. I wrote to suggest mom and dad read it and share it with Justin. Dennis, my cellie who is retired Air Force, is reading it now and is constantly muttering “he should have bombed them” and such. I can’t believe he’s reading the same article and still holding views. Views that would potentially lead to his son, who’s in the air force too, being deployed to Syria and maybe killed. It’s strange how entrenched and impervious to reason so many people’s beliefs are. *sigh*
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