Grrrr! The email kiosks have been down for 5 days now. *sigh*
I am adjusting pretty well to life in A gallery. It is nice to have more people to chat with as we can have contact with the guys in B gallery too. I also am getting along with my cellie very well. We are both very positive, up-beat guys so we reinforce each other’s attitude. He is 13 years older than I am but we have a lot of generational touchstones in common. For instance, just today we were talking about what was on TV tonight and he mentioned Svenghouly, a horror show host, and I brought up a childhood memory of a local horror show host from the 70s who went by Dr. something but I couldn’t remember the name. He immediately replied with Dr. Sanquinairy and I was like “yes, that’s him.” The other day we were talking about movies we liked and I mentioned The Lion In Winter and he not only had seen it, he remembered it starred Peter O’Toole. We even share almost identical social and political views so we don’t have to avoid those topics in order to co-habitate in peace. This past weekend we both watched the Ben Kingsly Ghandi from ’82 and commented during it. When Ghandi was talking about every Indian should wear homespun cloth rather than buying British cloth I leaned over my bunk and said Ghandi wanted to Make India Great Again. LOL! Cleetus shooed me away and said not to ruin his opinion of Ghandi. Ha! I’ve even changed my yoga schedule to accommodate his workout routine. He gets up at 5:45 AM every day and does a workout in the cell. Most cellies would want to sleep in till breakfast is served but I get up and do my yoga on my bunk. There isn’t quite enough time for me to do my whole yoga flow so I finish it over count but then I have extra time for reading or writing, like right now. *smile*
Speaking of yoga, I was approached by Joe, the former president of Toastmasters who is on B side, for advice on stretching. I began telling him about my yin yoga workout and another guy expressed an interest so starting next week I will be leading a yoga class over here twice a week. I wonder if there will be more guys interested in participating here than in F gallery.
I went to the big yard last week for the first time since moving to A side and I did the taiji long form. It was a beautiful morning and there weren’t very many guys out at yard so it was very relaxed. It took me 45 minutes. Woohoo! That’s a new record for me and it was so calming. *smile* I was afraid I would feel uncomfortable with all the new people around as I practiced and that it would make me rush but I was totally “in the zone.”
I am getting ready to file a suit against NDCS for their misapplication of 191 good time. See the forum article for the arguments. I am preparing to file pro se, without a lawyer, and I am organizing a few other guys to file as well, as long as they can file for free via in forma paporis. Once we all have filed I will make a motion to join them all into one and then ask to declare a class as there are 1082 other’s who have earned 191 good time at some point and are still in NDCS custody. At that point I won’t be able to continue representing the case as I am not able to represent others because I’m not a lawyer and the court is supposed to find us a lawyer. Therefore, I am reaching out to Amy Miller at the ACLU through a mutual friend to see if they might be interested in taking on the case from the start as it will be a class action suit and will help alleviate the overcrowding crisis to some degree. I hope they are willing to take the case because I am worried that I may make a fatal mistake that dooms the suit because of some procedural issue. I have been spending a lot of time talking with McKenzie, who is working on a paralegal degree, in order to familiarize myself with the proper way to file and all the different motions I will have to make and he has been helping me to hone my arguments as well. I feel fairly prepared but it is difficult to coordinate with the other guys whom I have asked to file since they are all back in F gallery. A lawyer would be able to file one complaint/petition for all of us from the start and would be able to communicate with each of us more easily. I may reach out to other lawyers if the ACLU can’t or won’t take up the case, but private lawyers will probably want paid. *sigh*
Next week on the 23rd is our Toastmasters Club’s annual symposium. As the VP of Public Relations I went through a very long process to get the central office to approve of us inviting all the state senators on the Judiciary committee. We have only heard back from one of them, senator Lathrop, the chair of the committee, and unfortunately he said he couldn’t attend because he’ll be on vacations. I don’t think we’ll see any of the other senators either as they haven’t acknowledged the invitation. John Krejci, a long time NE prison reform activist that I correspond with and who is coming to the symposium, even wrote the senators to encourage them to come. I really wanted to meet the senators on the Judiciary committee face to face and introduce myself. Oh well, at least we’ll have some new Toastmasters volunteers. I am also looking forward to the meeting because we are doing a speech contest with a theme of Tall Tales. I have invented an Arthurian legend involving Arthur, Merlin, and Morgan. Between my speech and my final project for the IPS training, I guess I like playing with classic stories. *smile*
I am also working to finish off my beading project for the art show that Jeri will be sponsoring for us. My artwork is a memorial for Terry Berry who died here a year ago. I’ve done the beaded calla lilies but my beaded vase isn’t working out well so I’ve moved on to a beaded frame for the poem I wrote about him. The last piece will be a rosary with a beaded cross. I know at least one other person is going to finish a piece for the show but that may be it. You’d think that people would have time to work on the art they said they wanted to put in the show but incarcerated people can find things to distract them just as easily as people on the streets. *chuckle*
Boy I wish the vent weren’t blowing right on my bunk. I am sitting with all my sweats on and a beanie to keep my head warm but my hands and neck are still ice cold. *shiver* I also am not looking forward to the first petty write up I get from Gilbert, ruining my perfect record so far. Hopefully I can convince the case manager to put me in for a transfer to OCC before that happens…but case manager De La Cruz hasn’t even responded to the kite I put in the day I got here 2 weeks ago so I’m not too optimistic that she’ll do anything. At least my annual reclassification is in Sept. but I doubt I can go that long without Gilbert searching our room and giving me a write up for extra blankets or something else just as petty. Hopefully I don’t get more than 2 in 1 month or I’ll loose a years worth of 191 good time. *sigh*
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