The good news continues!
I was hanging out in my sll with a friend when someone came to tell me a guy was at the dorm door looking for me. I bounced down the stairs to investigate. My friend West was at the door and exclaimed, "Shane's here!"
"Shane?" I knew I should know who's she's talking about.
"Yeah. Shane la-la-layman, loman. From San Saba."
"Oh, really?! No kidding! Where is he?"
West works in the chain room and hands out clothes to the new guys coming in, so he took me over there to see my old friend. Shane is one of the only guys I kept up with when I left San Saba. In fact, my mom got "blacklisted" from his mailing list for sending my letters to him (inmate-to-inmate correspondence is not allowed.) Shane was a huge encourager as a Christian brother over there.
As soon as I saw him I called out his name, walked over and embraced him. We did a quick "How have you been?" and traded a couple stories before I headed back to my dorm. I'm excited to have such a good friend back on a unit with me again. It's just been blessing after blessing lately.
More great news to pass on! Another big shipment of donated books arrived, this one larger than before.
Last week, I sent a thank you letter to the person who sent the first box of 35 books. It's the least I could do after such an awesome gift. Well, today we received another box from Simon and Schuster. We opened it up and found 60 books inside!
Their subjects are all over the place, a huge variety. They even tossed in a few signed copies of a few titles, one of which is "Jarhead" by Andrew Strosser. How crazy is that?! This relationship with Simon and Schuster has been a huge unexpected blessing.
My mom also traded in a bunch of Bible commentaries (of which we have lots already) to get more desirable books from Half Price Bookstore. I didn't count them all, but it was enough to fill up two good-sized boxes. Thank you to her and to my friends in Dallas who provided the currency for bartering.
I had an exciting package come in the mail today! Four graphic novels, on loan from Booksfree.com (a Netflix-for-books service) arrived in two separate envelopes. This service was given to me by my folks as an early birthday gift -
one month early, to be exact. Just like Netflix, you set up a queue of books online. Booksfree uses the queue to send books as they are available and as many as are allowed on your plan.
I don't read books - real books - fast enough right now to make good use of a subscription. Work, rec, and church activities eat my time up faster than Pacman can eat those little balls! However, I love to read comics and can blaze through a graphic novel faster than proper books. Enter Booksfree.
Before I asked to get the Booksfree subscription, my mom scoped out the site, along with some other book rental sites, for titles and writers that I'm interested in. Booksfree happened to have nearly all of the items I asked about. So, it was Booksfree that won out. My mom used my list of titles to start a queue.
At the top of the queue: old school samurai rabbit Usagi Yojimbo. The first three collections of comics arrived today along with a collection of comic stories called "Fables", which is an offshoot of a running series. When I finish with them, I slide the books into the prepaid plastic envelopes that came with them and ship them out. Pretty cool, huh? Then I sit back and wait for the next batch to come in. That's one thing I've become very good at over the past few years - waiting.
I'm excited to catch up on some stories and artists that I've missed either form negligence while I was out or inability since I've been in prison. There's some really good stuff out there.
Yesterday's events were incredible for this inmate and I don't think there was much I could do to alter them. First, a bit of background.
This unit has a dog program called Paws of Hope, where ten dogs are brought from a nearby shelter to stay with inmates for six months. the dogs stay in the cells and the inmates spend their time training and resocializing the dogs. At the end of the six month, the dogs are graduated and have, in the past, had an adopted home to go to, usually to a family of one of the inmates in the program.
Paws of Hope is an awesome method for taking the dogs and giving them a new life while also giving the inmates responsibility for another life and training the dogs, often brightening the inmate's days when he comes home to a canine friend after a day at work.
The dog graduation took place yesterday, attended by the inmates, their respective dogs, and the inmates' families. I was waiting outside the library for my boss to show up (she didn't - she was sick) when an officer asked me to set up the sound equipment for the ceremony. After setting it up, I told them to call me out when they needed to break it down or call me earlier if they needed any help.
Around 3:00 I was called down to turn the volume down. Really? Just turn the knob! Once I turned it down, they started a video montage set to music showcasing each one of the dogs for five minutes, followed by interviews with the inmates. To save you the trouble, I'll do the math: one hour total was spent watching and seemingly endless photos of the same dogs. Can you say embellishment?
The good stuff came after the ceremony. The culinary arts clerks made two cakes for all involved, so I got to eat some yummy food after I put away the sound equipment. After the guests left, I learned that the guys were going to watch a new movie on a small TV, so I offered to put the projector and speakers together for them to watch the movie - a much better use than watching doggie portraits! I didn't expect to stay, but the officer in charge told me to stick around. In addition to a newly released DVD, we got body-shaking sound, a six-foot screen, and pizza made by the culinary arts guys.
As I watched the movie, I asked myself if I was in prison. The crazy thing is that I felt the answer was "no".
Our second game of the tournament came today. I took off work to play this afternoon and had to have a friend help out my new coworker. I wasn't able to play at full strength due to a sore ankle from yesterday's game, and then was kicked again today by the rec boss while he patted me down. I told my captain I wouldn't be able to do a lot of running, but could still shoot and pass with my right foot just fine.
THe entire first half we weren't able to get any cohesive action going, but, luckily, the other team didn't have any success, either. Shortly after the second half got underway, I scored on a juke (fake) followed by a shot with my hurt ankle. The ball rebounded of the post and into the net. I rushed to my captain for our planned celebration and he went down on one knee to shine my goal-scoring foot on his other knee.
Unfortunately, our goalie made two gross errors that led to goals. The first one came as he called to one of our defenders that he would get a loose ball. His downfall came on his lack of follow-through, which allowed our opponents to take the ball right in to our goal.
Despite out two losses, I had fun and at least scored a goal. I also came away with an ankle that, as I write, is growing beyond baseball size. I have a feeling "Gimp" will be my name for a few days as I hobble around.
A soccer tournament has been organized for the unit, a first since I've been here. Last week we had a raft in which about seventy guys from my half of the unit went to eight teams. Despite only playing in a few games over the past couple weeks, I was picked up in the first round. The rest of our team looks decent. Hopefully, we'll get the passing done what we will need to win some games. Most guys here prefer to keep the ball to themselves.
We play on a small field with small goals - 4' X 6". We had been using rubber soccer balls, but someone donated two stitched leather balls for the tournament. They are supposed to look like the crazy Jabulani World Cup ball. The yard crew spent a couple days leveling the field and trying to take out the few mounds of grass. Yes, we play in dirt. The corners are still wildly unpredictable when it comes to ball control.
My team started our first game yesterday evening an had to stop early to come in from rec. The remainder of the game was played this afternoon. I definitely liked the cool evening better. Even then, we didn't do too well. FIrst, we struggled to have a full seven-man team to show up and almost had to forfeit. Then, since we hadn't played together before, we misjudged a bunch of passes. One guy just began booting the ball when it came near. The other team had a handball in the box that should have been a penalty kick for us, but went uncalled. We lost 1-0 in the end on a goal where our goalie was far out of place. It's a double elimination tournament, so we have one more shot at a win. With this crazy goalie, I'd be nuts to expect to win the whole thing.
Since I've been the only official worker in the library, I've asked a few friends to help out when they are able. It's not that one person can't keep the library running; it frees me up to do shelf maintenance and add books when I have a second pair of hands. Even then I have stayed busy because my buddies aren't familiar with many of the workings of the library. I enjoy the company, too.
This morning, however, there was a new face waiting outside the library. I got a new coworker. Braswell is a guy in his mid-forties that I recognized from his work int he unit supply office and infrequent stops to pick up a book from the library. The administration moved quite a few guys who had clerk jobs with female bosses, a new six-month policy to prevent relationships from starting. What's funny is that most of the female bosses complained and got their workers back. Did they really expect all these women to just hand over work to an inmate they have no reason to trust?
Luckily, Braswell will be sticking around in the library. He's a quiet guy who has initiative to learn his job and a bit of a brain to go with it. I don't know what I could have asked for a better guy to work with. I'm looking forward to seeing him settle in and glad to have permanent help again.
After a month of wrestling with his local parole office over his address, my coworker finally left this morning to be released tomorrow morning. His steps to his mother's car will be his first outside in nineteen years. Yes, he has been incarcerated during the Gulf War; OJ's "innocence"; Clinton's impeachment hearings; the rise of the Internet; 9/11, Playstations 1, 2 and 3; iMac, iPod, and iPhone.
The world is a much different place then when he left it. I hope he finds a guide who will show him a safe and successful path through his foreign lands.
After the incident in the library last week, Ereman was put in pre-hearing detention(PHD) to keep him out of general population while his disciplinary actions were being figured out. I heard a few times that he would be shipped off the unit, but that sure isn't what happened. In their infinite wisdom, the rank let him out of PHD with a verbal reprimand and moved him to a dorm right next to mine. Not the greatest concern for security around here.
I saw Ereman moving in as I came back to the dorm for my lunch break. Not wanting him to take retribution in any way, I asked a couple guys in my dorm to make sure he didn't come into our dorm for any reason while I was gone. Security is much more lax here than other places I've been, so I needed to put a little of my own in place to make sure nothing happens in the future.
When I came back from work, OJ said he wanted to talk to me, so I invited him into my cell. He had told me that he was going to talk to Ereman when/if he got out of PHD, and knowing OJ, I thought "talk" meant "lay hands on." When OJ said he had a "talk" with Ereman, I thought, "Oh no."
But OJ really did just use words, making sure Ereman knows that if anything happens to me, he would be found and made responsible. It's crazy having someone go to war for you, especially as a nonviolent person myself. As the day went on, more guys came to me pledging their help if things go sour.
I'm not used to situations like this so I called my dad for some advice. I felt bad that I broke up a good evening with worrisome news, but I was encouraged to keep the human buffer up and pray over the situation. I decided to go a little further and write a letter to Ereman explaining how I saw things, how I wanted to see him mature and that I don't mean any ill will to him.
I don't understand how he got off so easily or got his job back, but I'm going to so what I can to be an example of Christ to him, whether he wants to see love or not.
I had a huge picker-upper today in a form I hardly expected.
As I was walking back to the dorm after work, a friend stopped me to say he just dropped off a big package in the mailroom for me. He works in supply so I asked it it was our library supplies finally coming in.
"I don't know," he said, "but the box had your name on it. It was pretty big, too."
A big box with my name on it? Weird. I wasn't expecting anything to arrive. Time to investigate!
As soon as I stepped into the room I saw the box. The words "Simon and Schuster" rounded the bottom rim. How strange and unexpected - a package for me direct from a publisher. Then it struck me. I wrote a letter to Scribner last week describing out library and asking for donations. Scribner, I had forgotten, is a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster. I didn't even think I would get a reply, much less a box of books the next week.
"You won't be able to get the books until next week," said the mailroom lady. Killjoy, I'm thinking. "But we can open the box now so you can see what you got in." Woohoo!
My buddy, the mailroom clerk, opened the box and we saw hardbacks, paperbacks and a small not on a Simon and Schuster card saying "hope this helps. Enjoy!"
In my letter I said we would accept galley proofs or slightly damaged books, but, as my friend and I sat on the floor shuffling through the books, I saw that they were all final production copies. Most of them are fairly new releases, too. What a blessing!
I really hope to turn over most of this library's inventory and we are well on our way. Since I started asking for donations in February, we have added close to 850 books and this box of books only adds to the total. Our shelves are packed full, but we continue to replace the books no one checks out, dusty and yellowed. I believe education and reading can help guys stay out once they get out, and that better material gives more motivation and better options to the guys.
Thank you, Simon and Schuster and everyone else who has donated books!
Today's events have been months in the making and, unfortunately, they weren't pretty. It all started when my last coworker quit working the library. when Ereman left, he took a Marvel Comics art book with the understanding that he would be bringing it back when he finished the drawing he was working on. For the past month I have been asking him to bring the book back, hearing that someone else was borrowing it, never a name attached.
Early this week a friend told me someone was trying to send out a Marvel book through the mail. When I went to identify it, the spine had our tape and the interior has the same smears. Unfortunately, it had been stripped of all ,marks that identified it with the library. A hold was still put on the book, though.
Today, someone brought in a stack of his books to be donated to the library and said that the one on top belonged to Ereman. I said he would have to bring us our book before he could take his. Even trade (except his is a $6 paperback and ours, the Marvel Comics Encyclopedia, is a $30 coffee table book.) Later, one of Ereman's coworkers in the commissary came to pick up Ereman's book.
I'm sorry he put you in the middle of this but Ereman has one of our books that he needs to bring back before he gets his," I explained. The guy sighed and shook his head before leaving as if to say "What kind of stupidity is this? Over a book?" Yeah, it is fairly petty.A few minutes later Ereman himself showed up for the book I told him the same thing: we need our book first.
"You either give me my book or get yourself in the hall so I can beat your a**, mother-f*****r.," he shouted in the crowded library while holding the door open. It seemed as if he was just trying to make a scene and a fool out of himself.
"Watch how you talk to my worker," came the command from my petite boss. Ereman then launched into a verbal assault on her before turning back to me and demanding his book again upon threat of a beating.
"Just give him the book," my boss sighed, ready to see Ereman leave.
I handed the book to him and watched him leave. Moments later my boss was on the phone calling in the incident. Two sergeants came to get the story form my boss before calling for Ereman to be sent tot the security office and getting my story in the hallway. Shortly afterward, I saw a cart with Ereman's stuff being taken to segregation to meet its owner.
I don't know what the end result will be, but I hope Ereman wakes up to his own short fuse and deals with it in an appropriate manner. A quick temper never leads to good places. I don't think we'll get the Marvel Encyclopedia back, but it is a small price to pay if Ereman is able to change. Please pray that the situation is redeemed according to God's will.
