This morning I woke up very early. My clock said 6:30 but, with the time change and an accidental bump in the night, it was actually 4:30. Since it was so close to breakfast time, I rolled out of bed instead of rolling over. After returning from a less-than-filling pancake meal, I fixed the time on the clock, set my alarm for 7:15 church, and slipped back into dreamland.
"Go, if you're wondering if I want you to, I want you to. So make your move..."
Click. My hand slid over to turn off the 7 AM playing of Weezer's new single on the radio. Ugh. I was so tired and comfortable. I really didn't want to roll out of bed again this early. I lay there with the Weezer song stuck in my head, the chorus on repeat.
Wait a second. Those lyrics were a strange coincidence on a Sunday morning when I didn't want to get out of bed, but I could hear God saying those same words to me this morning and over years past. Weezer has been my favorite band for years, yet I never expected River Cuomo's voice to tell me to decide for Christ.
I oozed out of my sluggishness and got dressed for church (nothing special; just my prison whites. It's especially hard to go to church so early here because I'm so accustomed to not doing much during the day anyway. The service this morning was rich though, and worth getting out of bed for. Isn't it usually that way, when we listen to God calling, even from a rock song?
WHAM!
"Laundry workers, wake up!"
WHAM!
"Eight thirty. Education get ready!"
Both of these loud calls came before 6:20 this morning. The guard doing the yelling and slamming of the door to the dorm has one of the most obnoxious voices and has no respect at all for any of the inmates. Every time the door was slammed and the yell came, I woke up from my dead sleep. Even though she could see three quarters of the dorm sleeping, she would walk to the bunk area to shout. I wasn't the only one to wake up and I'm sure I wasn't the only unhappy one, either.
So far this dorm has been loud enough as it is. Between the raps, beats, and loud gambling, it's tough to get sleep. I've been getting rest in four hour spurts, often with rude awakenings dividing those. I don't know what kind of effect this strange sleep cycle will have on me, but so far, it doesn't feel good. I hope I will get used to this odd schedule. What would be best is for the dorm and guards to be a little quieter and not interrupt our slumber.
More changes in the dorm. The last guy in this dorm associated with the neo-Nazi white supremacist group left to go to segregation. He had amassed an astonishing six disciplinary cases in two days (remember that definition of crash dummy?) It's good that he's out because of his influence on other guys and the heat he brought from the guards.That fifth open bunk - and all the others - didn't stay empty for long. Each was filled when I came back from school. What a surprise to leave a half-empty house and return two hours later to find a party going on! Three of the guys who moved in are very loud, one beats and raps nonstop, and none are on shower crew or in school, which means our schedules are about as dissimilar as they come. I hope a remedy is found and soon. I don't really want my grades to suffer from even less sleep that I get already.
