Birthday Greetings

(with an intro and closing by Jackie)

Ani's last post was written while he was in segregation. He got out in early November, after about 50 days and was in GP or "general population" for about 6 weeks. I noticed that he seemed to be taking some time in adjusting to the stresses of adapting to a new cellmate and to the demands of his neighbors on his tier. He was just talking about being ready to send a new post to his blog.

Then, on December 16th, when he was coming back to his cell from a meal, he was given something folded up in a wad of toilet paper by the tier tender (a tier tender is an inmate job), and told to deliver it to another inmate when he went up to the library the next morning. He put it in his pocket and before he could decide what to do about it he was stopped by a guard, asked what he had in his pocket, and his cell was searched. Once again, they found a few items of contraband in his cell (although not in his personal property), and when he handed over what he had just put in his pocket, it turned out to be 3 pills in a salt packet. The pills were clonidine, a prescription medication used to treat high blood pressure. (I looked it up.) He was whisked back to "the hole" and has been in solitary confinement since then, waiting for his "ticket" to be heard. Since tickets are only heard on Fridays, and the next two Fridays will be holidays, it looks like he won't have his ticket heard until January 7. That means he will have served 3 weeks before his sentence even starts, since the sentence doesn't start until the day it is given at the hearing.

So, unfortunately, Ani was in segregation for his birthday on December 24, and for Christmas. He wrote me a letter on his birthday, and I thought I would share parts of it with whomever might be reading...

"12-24-2010

"Hey! It's my birthday! I can't imagine a day coming where I won't be absof*inglutely thrilled by my birthday. Can't imagine it. I do hope that a day comes where life will be better, but for now this is pretty good... I woke up and my mind went immediately to my conduct report. I was unhappy because it was written in such a way as to appear that I named names. But then I saw a fruit fly while I was brushing my teeth. I've, for mysterious reason unknown to even myself, always like fruit flys. So I asked it a question and if by way of the universe answering it flew up and landed very close to my mirror on the wall. I was looking at myself and I knew that I was going to be alright....

"I do look forward to book day - new books to read. So I was eagerly anticipating the moment when I heard the book cart trundling down the hallway. He stops at my door, opens my trap and gives me three books. What the hell?! They ain't the books I ordered, in fact the CO gave me my neighbors book order. The CO looks on the cart and no books! I'm...unhappy. But the CO (an all around decent fellow) says, "fill another order out" and he'll go fill it and bring them on the med cart. Wow. And he does it! Ha! And I got my first three choices - which never happens! Joyz! So I got a cooool b-day gift from the universe. Thank you universe. So I have two big fat James Michener novels, Texas and Hawaii as well as the fourth book in the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel, The Plains of Passage. So that's 3317 pages to read in a week if you're interested. Right now Hawaii is first up. The book begins with a king getting brained and anytime a book begins with royalty getting their brains beat out - well, that's an okay book to me!

"...do you want to know what my favorite word in the whole world is? It's not love, or peace, or money (but them's all cool). It's not toys (dear to my hearts), or even Jackie (but its nearly neck and neck!). My favorite word in the whole wide world is: ...wait for it... FLUEGELHORN! That word just makes me chuckle/snort/giggle and fills me with the urge to dance (sucker!) and shout it at the top of my lungs.

FLUEGELHORN

"Yes, I'm being silly but for the first time in a week I feel like me again. Sure, I made a bad choice but I can recover. My reputation might take a hit but I think I'll be okay. ... I'll just disappear into the belly of this concrete beast for a few months...and then I'll be burped up like a bit of undigested pot roast, ready for my next adventure!"

(end of Ani's letter) It never ceases to amaze me how he can let things like this slide off his back and come up grinning. Sure, he's been dealing with set-backs and losses all of his life so I suppose he has developed a knack of some kind that most of the rest of us simply don't have. And, if you don't really have any plans or expectations, you don't get bent out of shape when they are foiled. I can't decide if his way of looking at life is something to be sorry for or wish I had!

We've no pictures this year like last Christmas. Please feel free to share your own with us!!

Season's Greetings and Best Wishes to all Readers,

Jackie