I need an alarm clock!

Today I missed my Trig class completely. I woke up with a tap on my bunk from Tavo, the guy in the bunk next to me.

" Hey. It's 9:20, man. We missed class." Very matter-of-fact.

"I don't think they are going to call us out now," I said, "so I'm gonna go back to sleep."

"We won't get cases?"

"We shouldn't. They didn't even try to wake us up. I don't see how it could be our fault for missing class." I rolled over and drifted off.

This is the second day total that I've missed (two half-days last week) due to oversleeping. I can't afford to miss this much school in a college course, even if it is a review so far. I have a test Thursday that I felt good about, but now I'm not so sure. Hopefully, someone picked up a review/practice test for me.

Trig class + new dorm = challenges!

I missed half my Trigonometry class on Tuesday because of the move and today I missed another half of class due to sleep. I had asked the two guys who bunk on either side of me and have school at the same time to wake me up when classes are called out. My class started at 8:30 AM.

I woke up at 9:00, looked to my sides and saw both guys were gone. They left me behind. I asked Rabbit, who was awake and writing, if they had tried to waken me or if a guard called me for class. Nope. At this point I figured that class was canceled because the guards usually call out all the bunk numbers for whoever goes to class. I rolled over and drifted off again.

In about five minutes I was wakened by Rabbit and a guard at the door yelling for me to get up and out to class. I guess I did have class after all. I hurried to get dressed and out the door. I made it just before count started, which would have delayed me even further.

This new dorm is wreaking havoc on my sleep. I've only had four or five hours of sleep per day since arriving here, often waking up to loud banging on the walls. I think the noise drowned out the call for school this morning, which is not good. I can't afford to miss much class, even if I am comfortable in class. I hope we get moved back south soon.

On the move - again!

Terrible events have transpired today. The Q1 crew of shower workers was moved to a new dorm that is three times as big and ten times as loud. This is the dorm that we would hear beating on the wall and rapping from our old dorm, Q1.

I was called out of my trigonometry class for reasons unknown to me until I got to my dorm. Everyone inside was busy packing their stuff to move. We all were miffed by the move. We lost our small quiet dorm with better treatment from guards because we were small and quiet.

I tried to present our complaints to one of the lieutenants tonight at work. I made the point that most of us that were moved have classes, so we need a quiet environment for study and for our strange sleep schedules. Also, we have probably the worst job on the unit and are the only job without perks- laundry gets clothes, kitchen gets food, maintenance gets commissary runs for ice cream. The lieutenant said he tried to keep us all on the south wing where we had been but higher ups gave the thumbs down. There was nothing he could do from here.

When I got back to the new dorm I drafted a request to the major, asking him to consider moving us back to the south wing and gave him a few valid arguments - at least we, the shower crew, think they're valid. Then all the guys that moved copied the letter in their own words. I'm hoping that the mob of requests will be heard. This dorm is not a good fit. The new season of The Office reruns started tonight, but basketball games were watched instead. In our old dorm, this would havebeen an outrage, but here it's life as usual.

To see opportunities

I talked with Will during Brit Lit today about his plans for getting out. He doesn't have any place to stay, so I'll be praying for something to come his way and looking for ways to encourage and help him out.

Late tonight Opie and I talked about video games and our lives before incarceration. It was fun to reminisce about the fun we had and hear about our different backgrounds. At one point he said he is trying to improve himself inside. What an opening! I told him that the thing that has helped me most has been my faith and relationship with Christ. I said that I believe God has a plan for him and loves him.

I really want to see the guys around me succeed in here, but especially when they get out. I continue to look for opportunities to encourage them towards healthy and productive activities, knowing all the time that God is at work. I hope they come to see the world of opportunities like me (sounds conceited, I know) instead of a set of roadblocks not worth the bother.

Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper (excerpt)

What you love determines what you feel shame about.
If love for men to make much of you,
you will feel shame when they don't.
If you love for men to make much of Christ,
then you will feel shame when He is belittled on your account.

Whenever something is of tremendous value to you,
and you cherish its beauty or power or uniqueness,
you want to draw others' attention to it
and awaken in them the same joy.

That is what it means to magnify Christ -
to show the magnitude of His value

Lockdown

Well, rumors have been circulating for a few weeks and it happened today. All Texas prisons are required to have a lockdown and shakedown of the unit every six months. If the warden of this unit went the full six months between lockdowns, the date would disrupt the college classes so he bumped it up to our "spring break" instead.

Lockdown actually began last night, but there wasn't any way to tell until this morning when everyone received johnny sacks for breakfast. We were roused at about 8:00 and told to pack our stuff and be ready to take it down to the gym to be searched. I was one of the first ones to have their property searched and one of the last to return to the dorm. The guard wanted to check out every postcard and picture I had. The only things I had confiscated from me were cards drawn for Power Grid and a spinner that was used for die rolls in games.

This lockdown has been different than any other I've been through. For one, the guards really seem to be hurrying through it - except the one who searched my property. Also, the TV's have been allowed to stay on the whole time and the dayrooms have been open. Every other lockdown has had TV's off at least until the dorm has been shaken down, usually until the whole unit is finished. At least I got to catch The Office reruns I hadn't seen yet.

Rumor has it that this lockdown is only for three days, which means we will be back to normal on Friday night. The printed schedule we received says we will get visitation this weekend regardless. What a great end to a strange spring break.

The Joys of Shower Crew

Last night was a long one. We were not called out for work until after midnight because it took them (the guards) too long to clear their count of inmates for the unit. No one was missing; the guards were just moving slowly.

Once we finally got out to work, I was able to finish my assigned dorm in about fifteen minutes, less than my usual time. When I left the dorm to check in and go home, the boss for the night told me I needed to clean another dorm. Alright. I was ready to get back to my dorm, make some food, and maybe play a game of Power Grid if anyone else was in the mood. Not yet, though.

It took about an hour to clean the next dorm: scrub the showers, wipe them down, scrub and rinse the floor, wipe the sinks. Again, I left the dorm and checked in to go back to my dorm. Nope. There's another dorm that needs to be cleaned, but "you have to wait here until I finish this count."


At 2:30 count was cleared and I went to clean the third dorm of the night, a record for me. Luckily, I had help and we knocked it out quickly. Finally, I can go back to my dorm to clean up and eat. I hope they get some more workers for shower crew because all that scrubbing is gross and tiring. I wish they would let us go back to our old schedule of one wing per night instead of doing the entire unit. All this on my "spring break", too.