Today marks two years of my being incarcerated. By no means have those years been easy, but I owe a lot to family and friends for making my time here more comfortable with letters, visits, commissary, books and prayers.
I've also done as much as I can to make this time productive by reading, taking college classes and researching schools for when I get out.
I spent five months in county jail before boarding a bus in chains to be herded like cattle at an intake facility. I moved from cage to cage for twelve hours answering surveys, getting my head shaved, showering ina crowd, receiving clothes, and finally going to a dorm. I stayed at the intake facility for about two weeks as the system took blood, did physical and psychological testing and interviewed me.
Next I went to a unit in east Texas where I was in the "hoe squad", doing the farmwork outside. I liked the hoe squad because we worked outside and with our hands, even if we didn't really have a purpose for working most of the time. That unit is where I started my heavy reading. I ended up finishing 60 books in 2008, far more than I could have ever read outside or even imagined reading in one year.
In March of last year I arrived at my current unit. I moved around to four different dorms in my first four months - one because of a fight, one because the dorm became a kitchen workers' dorm, and one move for a job change to my current job on the shower crew. Here I could play soccer and run every day and in August I started college classes, which has been the best use of my time so far. I should receive my associates of arts degree this summer.
Now I look forward to possibly seeing parole this fall. I have extreme gratitude for everyone who has written letters on my behalf to the parole board. I'm hopeful for a positive answer and release this winter. Until then, I stay in the Word and continue to try to impact the guys around me for the better. Thank y'all for your support and prayers for me and my family!
* Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side. ~The Talmud
Over the past month I have been going out for work early. Before the shower crew can go into the dorms, someone has to prepare all the mop buckets. Lately that person has been me. I work in cell block, which only has two showers to clean because the guys housed back there have certain times they're allowed to shower. I always finish quickly so I;\'ve been filling the buckets to pull my share of the job.
Some nights I have to go clean a second dorm because we're shorthanded at the moment. Tonight was such a night. I went into the second dorm an scrubbed, rinsed, and wiped everything in about 45 minutes. AS I was coming out of the second dorm, the boss for the night told me to go clean the dorm across the hall. I told him that I had already cleaned two and had even come out early. He said it wouldn't hurt me to do another.
"There are sixteen workers on shower crew. Many of them are screwing around in the dorms instead of working. There's no reason I should have to pick up their slack as often as I do," I replied.
"Just get in there. You'll be OK."
I went ahead and cleaned the third dorm. I did it quickly and might have left a few spots behind. I just wanted to gett home early enough to get some good sleep before class tomorrow morning. Even after cleaning three dorms - more than I've ever done in the whole time I've been on this job - I was the first person finished and back to the dorm. How did that happen?!
My first set of exams for this term ended today.
The first one, a Brit Lit exam over Beowulf and old English, was yesterday. I honestly believe the test I took in high school over the same material was harder, much harder. I don't remember doing any "matching" sections in the high school class, and the chronological ordering of the story that had to be sorted in high school was quotes from the text, not an outline of the plot. I haven't gotten my grade yet but I feel pretty good about it.
The Trig test was more challenging, but I feel pretty good about it, too. There 
were a couple problems that gave me trouble, but I was able to figure out my math - I'm not very careful with numbers and often get ahead of myself when working problems. I've learned to double- and triple-check myself so I don't turn in bad work. Now I get to wait through spring break - no vacation here, though - until I receive my grades.
Yesterday's World Religions class was challenging for me. We covered Christianity. Now that wouldn't be a problem except that the professor brought up some controversial stuff. He very strongly hinted that the New Testament is mostly false and that Jesus was a fraud.
The toughest thing to accept was his remarks about the Dead Sea Scrolls. He said that there is evidence against much of the New Testament teachings, but that evidence has been suppressed by the Catholic Church until a rogue translator recently released his findings. I haven't heard anything about that until yesterday and it's hard to accept because I can't research it at all for myself - no library or internet access. It could be true, but I can't just take it as fact just because I heard it in class. Everything else that was brought up I could defend decently. I like the challenging atmosphere - it keeps me thinking - but I wish I was in a proper academic facility with real research tools.
"The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots." -
I Corinthians 1:18-19 (The Message)
Today marks two years of my being incarcerated. By no means have those years been easy, but I owe a lot to family and friends for making my time here more comfortable with letters, visits, commissary, books and prayers. I've also done as much as I can to make this time productive by reading, taking college classes and researching schools for when I get out.
