In my dreams I remained smoke free for a change. I dreamed i was in my hometown and I had an hour to report back to jail. In this dream, jail was also in my hometown, so it was about a 15 minute driveI was in front of a house, presumable mine, but instead of having my family, I had a roommate. His name is Matt, and he's a guy I've known since we were in diapers. He and his girlfriend were standing in the front yard under a big tree having a chat. I said hey to them and walked inside the house, going room to room, not really doing anything. Another friend was in the living room, a guy named Justin. (My wife said Justin e-mailed me yesterday - maybe that's why he's in this dream.) I spoke with Justin a while and looked at the clock. I had eight minutes to get back to jail. I knew I couldn't make it. I grabbed some shoes and went to the kitchen to get some food real quick. In the kitchen I got some snack foods. The food was very specific - a half sleve of fig newtons and three chunky chocolate chip Chips Ahoy! cookies. I found this strange because I almost never eat either one of those. I ran out the door and headed for my car. This presented another problem. The car was my 1983 Toyota Corolla I had from 1990 - 1996. My key ring, however, had the key to my Camry I currently drive. This posed a major problem. As I began to panic, I woke up.
As my eyes opened my mind began to separate dream from reality. The panic subsided. I realized the bath of sunlight hitting me in the eyes. I lept from the bed as the panic returned. I WAS late!! Late for WORK!
Oh wait. It's Sunday.
slowly I returned to my horizontal position, aware of the stiff soreness in my shoulder and neck. Nothinh new. I glanced around to see what everyone else was doing. For the most part, sleeping. There were a few milling around in the day room. Just then the guard walked in and announced, "Church!"
I put on my green scrubs and and orange shoes and headed for church. I usually, like most, sleep through it. Unlike coow time, they don't turn on the lights and YELL it across the room, so noone wakes up for church.
There were 24 inmates and one preacher in church. This jail has a population of 600 men, and 24 came to the milti-denominational service.
We opened with a prayer, then Amazing Grace. than Jesus Loves Me. The sermon was interactive, more like a Sunday school bible study than a sermon. Inmates would off their views and points on the subject, which was positive thinking. Points brought up included examples of Noah and the Ark, and David and Goliath. The preacher said how pessimists say the glass is half empty and optimists say the glass is half full. "And engineers say the glass is twice as big as necessary," I thought, but held my comment to myself with a supressed smile.
After the service, I called home. It was 10:15 by now. My wife was getting ready to go to her parents for the day. I spoke with her and my two month old. I miss them like crazy I REALLY hope I get out of here this week.
Lunch came, and we all filed in line for the trays. While inthis long line, one of the white guys exclaimed,"I tell ya one thing, after lunch we're gonna watch the RACE, not no motherfuckin' basketball!!" He was surprised there was no response. Everyone knew there was no race on network TV today. He just wanted to start some shit, but failed.
During lunch , I spoke with George. He's one of the guys I leave with every morning. George served in Veitnam and is of Hawaiian descent. He's one of the many in here on Child Support charges, so he is ineligible for the DRC program. He'll be here until May 20. Needless to say, he gets tired of us always talking about the DRC program. When I asked him how long he had left, he responded, "Twelve Chicken Dinners," referring to our weekly Sunday night meal, "It sounds a hell of a lot better than 84 days." Some of the inmates have an inrteresting way of showing their optimism.
Well, Ox is backand running his big dumb assed mouth. Through the week I never see him. He's asleep when I leave for work, He's at work when I get back, and I'm asleep when he gets in. It works out nice, considering his "big bad ass" attitude infuriates me. He's like the big bully in the school yard, and I think everyone in this place had a bully like that that pushed them around when they were little, and that's why most can't stand him and talk about him behind his back, but never to his face.
Let's face it, he's a big fuckin' guy.
A cpouple of times yesterday we passed each other in the aisle, which is barely big enough for him to walk down by himself. I continued to walk forward, despite his look that told me to move out of his way. When I didn't, his shoulder hit mine, knocking me slightly off my path. We both kept going. I felt good in some macho-bullshit way, for standing my ground, but what I'd really like to do is kick his big fat ass into realizing he's not invincible, but as optimistic as I am, it's more than likely an out of reach goal.
You're lucky, Ox. I'll spare you an ass-whoopin' this time.
(yeah right)
As far as size goes, I'm probably the third or fourth biggest guy in the dorm. After Ox, there's a white guy who's really cool. He looks a lot like the big guy who played Ogre in the Revenge of the Nerds movies, and also had a short stint about a year ago as "The Sultan" on Day's of our Lives. Yes, I watch Days. Now my secret is out. Anyway, I'll call him Ogre. Then there's a black guy called Cadillac. Cadillac and I are roughly the same size, but he has a bigger gut.
Ogre and I were eating with a gut named LaVergne. He's a tough young white guy who kinda acts as if he had gang ties at one time, but never said anything about it. Anyway, Ox, is on the list of people to clean up on Sunday. While sitting at the lunch table, Ogre and I rolled our eyes as Ox made demands that he wasn't cleaning up a DAMN thing. The WEEKENDERS were going to do it.
Onweekends, any empty beds are filled with "weekenders", which are generally those with DUI first offence having to serve 48 hours. They are more easily noticed due to their bright orange jumpsuits and the "Deer in headlights" look in their eyes. (As you know, the rest of us wear hunter green "scrubs".) This weekend we have two. Both are young white guys, about 20 - 21, clean cut collegiate types and look like this is their first time in jail. They looked scared shitless when Ox called them out.
this however, isn't just Ox being an asshole. Weekenders ALWAYS get this treatment, even long before Ox appeared. The guards assign extra "bullshit work" for them, like cleaning the window screens or shit like that. We tell them cleanup is their job, too, and the guards allow it. Noemal Mon - Fri cleanup people, like me, usually work part of the day, so they don't have to do cleanup after EVERY meal. This way those who clean on the weekend get the same privelege. If I cleaned on a weekend, I'd pass the buck too.
Mmmmmm. Sunday night chicken dinner. Always yummy. Since we were good little inmates, they're letting us watch a movie. Last night was Ricochet. Tonight it's The Negotiator. I think I'll go watch movies now. Besides, I've got 15 pages to try and load tomorrow. I tend to write a lot on the weekends. Go figure...
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