Hey - I have no idea what’s going on with that bill from Sweetwater County either. It says I was booked in their jail from Feb 13, ‘06 to Feb 17, ‘06, which is a pretty neat trick considering I’ve been here since July of ‘05 and in Sherburne for 14 weeks before that. The only thing I could think of is bills from my stay there in ‘99 — I had a wisdom tooth removed and then the socket got infected. Plus I was on 10 mg of Valium, an antibiotic for the tooth, prozac (can’t remember the dose) and I think onr other drug while I was there. I don’t remember when I started faking those, I think it was in like December of ‘99 and went until I got out in March. Anyways, if they wanted to bill me for that stuff, you’d think they would have tried a little sooner than 7 odd years after the fact. So what I did is I wrote to this Lt. Titus and explained that doe to the fact that I’ve been in Federal Custody for the last 2 1/2, that there was no way I would be able to pay it anytime soon. I told him to track down where the mistake was made and to contact me about it. I don’t plan on contacting my counselor about this for 2 reasons. If someone is using my name and was booked into the county jail in February, Lt. Titus should cancel the bill once he checks the fact that I’m in prison. But, if this is a bill that’s been carried over for the last seven years and I should actually pay it, I don’t want the BOP to know about it because they will put a hold on me (like they did for South Dakota) and force me to pay it before I get halfway house. If the bill is accurate, I will decide to pay it or not, and when to do so once I get out and find out what my priorities are. I’m pretty sure that this is not for a fine or anything, so ignoring them for the next few years is not going to have any criminal ramifications, unlike South Dakota. And frankly if you’ve waited 7 years to contact me, you can wait a few more while I figure out where my money needs to go. So until I hear back from Lt. Titus, that’s kind of where I’m sitting. I can always add this to my UNICOR withdrawals if they really want to press the issue, but I’m definitely not eager to.
I’m glad everyone liked their pictures. I simply wish that I would have been able to come up with more original scenes for you and Ryan. Yours is a direct copy of a Christmas card I saw last year and Ryan’s is really close to a direct copy from a regular artist’s work. Kevin’s is the only true original. But if I’ve got time this summer, I’m going to try some original non-caricature pictures. And at least the ones I sent you look nice.
As far as the new job goes, it’s the same hours, same uniform, same factory, same prison, etc. But it’s probably the closest thing to a real job that someone in prison can get. At least I have to think, and do some minor problem solving and my day has a possibility of being somewhat interesting. This is much better than just snip, snip, snip all day long. On the downside, I lost about a hundred bucks this month (Dec. - due to the fact the business gets no overtime, and will lose almost the same in January.) But after that OT is over and I’m better off than I would be on the trim table.
I’m glad you guys got the check I mailed. Opening an account in my name is good because it will give me some bank history, and negligible interest while I’m in without screwing up Kevin’s financial aid or you guys’ stuff. But when I get close to getting out, you’ll have to clear out and close the account because otherwise whatever I have in it will be taken to help pay probation expenses, mandatory counseling, halfway house, and whatever. Generally if you have any money saved from your prison stay, whether it’s on the books here or in somewhere they can reach out there, the Feds will take it. Where as if you’re broke, you can generally get a lot more of that after-prison stuff paid for.
Man, I can’t believe how much you guys got hurt out there. Ryan, with his accidents, muggings, etc. Kevin now with his dive accident - maybe there is something to be said for bars and razor wire - or now that I think of it, maybe that’s just crazy talk. I remember watching the Olympics the last couple of times and how close their heads go to the end of the diving boards. That’s pretty scary. Tell Kevin he better be careful. Is his chest getting better? He’s too thin to be getting banged up like that.
Those pictures of Mira and her new pup were so cute. She’s got that permanently surprised look on her face in all the pictures I’ve seen of her - it’s priceless. Sounds like Ryan and Jen are doing really well together, hopefully that will continue.
As far as Christmas cards, unless you have some with really good humor or something, I’m pretty good to go for next year. I get a lot of them from guys in here once the season’s over. And I’ll probably not mail out as many to the family next year as I did this year. I understand and agree with mailing cards to the people you correspond with throughout the year, but it seems pretty pointless to invest hours of effort into a card for someone that you haven’t talked with in years even when I was on the outside. I guess I’m just not big into corresponding rules and the social etiquette of Christmas cards. I did send one to Alice Rothstein, Joni Barrett, and Cousin Kelly who sent one to me. I got a card back from Joni, but could not decifer anything more than my name and her name (extremely slanted, small lettered felt tip handwriting is not readable in any way, shape or form), but I appreciate the thought and I’m sure she said nice things.
The thing that makes me uncomfortable and has kind of been feeling like I’m backed into a corner is now I have all these new people that I’ve opened lines of communication with who are going to expect letters, cards, etc. and who are going to send me letters and stuff that I’m going to have to respond to lest I let them feel left out. Or I end up feeling like an asshole. While it is great that I’m setting up the beginnings of a network out there - with a network come relationships that bring complexities and the need to interact and requiring work and upkeep and a genuine interest in other people and their lives. All of this makes me extremely uncomfortable. In prison here, I know or am known to probably close to 200-250 people through UNICOR, shooting pool, people in my unit, or drawing. Of all of these people, there are maybe 10 that I know anything more than the barest information about and actually small talk with. Out of these 10, while I enjoy shooting the bull with them occasionally, I never seek them out to do it, and generally unless the conversation is extremely superficial and mostly teasing back and forth, I have a very difficult time holding up my end. That’s why the book Dave sent me is so difficult for me to adapt to - it keeps stressing a genuine interest in people. I’ve often been told that I’m a great listener and that people feel like they can tell me anything, but that’s because I have very little interest in what they are saying and even less interest in interrupting them to add my own thoughts or reveal things about myself so they get to just go on and on to what they assume is a captive audience.
Social interaction has always been my biggest problem, due at least in part to whatever form of social anxiety I have, so what do I do when it comes to these new relationships I have? For that matter, what do I do when I get out? In here I can spend all evening sitting with my head phones on drawing, and people tend to leave me alone (one of the reasons I love to draw), but I’m not going to be able to get a job drawing right away on the outside, and whatever job I get is going to come with a whole different form of social etiquette than what we have down in UNICOR. How will I know what to do - how to act?
Then we have the flip side of the coin. I love to get mail, especially form you, Kevin and Ryan. And I sometimes yearn to talk to people or hang out, or simply interact, but that mode can go away or change so quick that a lot of times I’ll be laughing and joking it up, and then simply want to be quiet or left alone. So I’ll kind of shut down, or walk away and people will be left wondering what they did or said or why I pretty much ignore them for two weeks and then go back to being best buds. It happened last night (I know this letter is taking forever to write), I spent a few hours playing euchre with some guys (we do this every weekend night) and after about 2 hours of cracking jokes and laughing it up, I just didn’t want to be there anymore so I got really quiet and withdrawn for the last hour. One of the guys came up and asked what happened and I couldn’t tell, cause I didn’t know. It’s extremely irritating - for them and me. So anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say is if people ask why I haven’t written them for ages or feel like I’m ignoring them, just tell them it’s nothing they’ve done or anything. It’s just that I’m not good at corresponding or talking about myself or jail life, or things I’ve got going on (which is also why a lot of my letters to you probably sound very wooden.)
But enough about that. Once again I have a favor to ask - you’ve been looking forward to this for the last 7 pages, haven’t you! When you a chance, could you find some pictures for me? I need Marilyn Monroe when she’s in that white dress standing over the air grate, and I also need Elvis when he was starting to get over the hill in Vegas with the lamb chops and jump suits and stuff. I’ve got a few caricatures I’m planning to do with celeb look-alike themes. I would really appreciate if you could mail them to me when you get a chance. Also, are Sarah and Dave regular eye doctors like you find at America’s Best or do they do stuff with lasers or eye diseases or stuff like that? I’ve been trying to come up with a theme to caricature them - any ideas? (I’ve for a perfect one thought up if they have anything to do with the lasers or surgery, but other than that, I’m pretty blank.) Thanks for the help.
Anyways, it’s about time to finish this novel. Thanks again for that drawing book, I’ve been reading it and it’s brought a lot of things in focus for me. Hopefully I’ll see you soon!