Today's event was set into motion nearly a year ago when the assistant warden approved many card games to enter the unit. My friend, West, immediately had many cards sent to him for the most popular trading card game out there - Magic: The Gathering. This game prepared the way for Pokemon and Yu-GI-Oh! to come years later, but still outperforms in sales and strategy.
I learned the game from West and got some cards of my own. I didn't have many cards to start with, but was able to trade a couple of my good cards for unopened ransom packs of new cards which, of course, opened new opportunities for trading, hence, the name "trading card game." Each of the cards has a different purpose or action in the game and trades happen so people can get cards that are more powerful or better match their other cards.
Several of us organized a tournament for Magic: The Gathering when we saw how many people had picked it up. With the cards I had I developed an idea for a deck that would play in a very different kind of way from most. Instead of attacking and killing the other players with my cards, I would empty the cards out of their decks so they couldn't play. I had a little help form other guys who lent me some cards to use but I was ready to compete.
In the tournament I struggled at first before advancing into the knockout round with big wins. I won the knockout games all the way to the final today. My opponent told me he just wanted is picture taken so he could send it home. He won the first of these games when I had a terrible draw of my hand. The second game I won easily - no contest. The third game was very close. He won one turn before woudl have emptied his deck, which would have been a win for me.
My peaceful deck almost won the tournament but, bigger than that, we completed the first tournament for a card game at this unit. That's plenty big in itself.
I got a very good sign of imminent release today: my blood was drawn. This is usually done 90 days before release, which could mean that my day is coming up soon. Needless to say, my excitement is running high.
This morning I was called out of work in the library to the infirmary a few doors away. Sitting in the sparse waiting room (no magazines, cushy chairs or gross posters on the wall here) I spotted a friend who got the same parole answer as me at the same time I did. While we were chatting about what we are looking forward to upon release, my name was called. We call this "being sucked by the vampires" because we often come out with several holes and a transformed attitude.
In the infirmary I sat on a chair and laid out my right arm to be tied off with a rubber tourniquet. The nurse, a young blonde that everyone has warned me about, asked polite questions about my plans for release. As I answered, looking away, I felt the prick in the bend of my elbow.
"Uh oh, you rolled," she said.
After a few moments of feeling a weird sensation in my arm, I looked down and saw the needle twirling in my arm making circles as she tried to find my rolled vein.
"You know, that is petty uncomfortable," I told her.
"Yeah... okay, let's try the other one," she replied. "You have great veins, they just roll."
ON my left arm the nurse missed again, blaming another rolling vein. This is what I'd been warned about. Little did I know I would be assaulted for my blood so Texas Department of Corrections can run tests for AIDS and Hep C. The nurse decided to call in a substitute who drew blood on her first poke. I did not foresee the necessity of performing as a pincushion but, if it means going home, I will ride a flaming motorcycle while juggling monkeys blowing bubbles.
My friend, Lelan, started a unit newsletter a few months ago to share events that happen in the unit and give some positive messages. It was a great idea and fairly well-executed. He asks inmates to contribute ideas for articles, quotes, recipes and news items so it stays well-rounded, too.
Around Christmas Lelan asked me to write the feature. Somehow my words came out remarkable similar to his draft for the Thanksgiving newsletter, even using the exact same in places. We had a good laugh about how our brains operated n the same frequency.
This month Lelan asked me to put together the whole newsletter from material he had gathered. I've been helping with his work in the ACA office because he's been swamped and I haven't been working in the library much n ow that I have two able coworkers. (Dawson's departure allowed for the addition of a Hispanic guy named Ant.) Now, instead of doing tedious paperwork, I'm able to exercise my creativity.
Lelan does the newsletters with MS Publisher, which is like the Ford Taurus of publication design. It lasted forever and gets the job done, but the result is inelegant even after struggling against the program itself. I had hoped that my little bit of design savvy could help make the result look a bit more professional. No such luck. As they say, a mechanic is only as good as his tools.
The material I was given wasn't quite enough to fill two pages, so I came up with what I thought would be a nifty little column: a monthly "list of five", with a random selection of five related things and a short fact about each one. To fit this month's theme of keeping promises, I made a the first list the Five Languages of Love, followed by examples of each, such as writing an encouraging note for the language of kind words.
In an exam
ple of how silly prison can be, my list of five as shot down by Lelan's boss because anything I put as an example for the physical language would be "encouraging inmates to touch each other." Really" The inmates who touch each other in loving ways are going to touch each other regardless of what our newsletter says (that may be the first acknowledgement of homosexuality in prison for this blog, a reality that has been around me since my first unit 3 1/2 years ago.) The column is not meant for inmates to use on each other, but for their families at home. This is supposed to be a unit for reintegration.
Instead, I put together a quick list of five offbeat books with a quirky summary for each. Even with my effort, the design didn't end up very aesthetically pleasing. However, it is complete.
