12/21/2014
My new neighbor will not stop singing Foreigner. He's 31, so he didn't grow up with them, but he walks around repeatedly singing, "Urgent" and "Jukebox Hero", and others. Not only does he constantly sing the songs, but he will also attempt to engage you in conversation extolling the virtues of that middling band.
He's driving me crazy.
There has been a shake up in here. A "shake up" is when the guards come into an inmates area and searches through all his stuff, tearing the place apart. Sometimes these are random, sometimes it is specific. Sometimes it is one person, sometimes it is the whole cell area. Sarge, the closest person to a friend in here to me, was abruptly taken away and accused of extorting soups from people. Yes, I'm serious. It's a serious jail offense. it was not true, but he'd gotten into a confrontation with a guy and the charge was the retaliation. In one day, 6 people were taken out and replaced with young kids from "24". "24" is where people go when they get into trouble. So, that's awesome.
The malaise if pervasive. Christmas is approaching and none of us have gotten our shopping done yet! Damn, it's depressing. We all have our way of dealing with the creeping despair.
There are the sleepers. These men have the amazing ability to sleep through anything. There is a guy in here who has not gotten up for over a month and a half. I really have no evidence that he is still living. He might have died weeks ago, chances are, he would smell the same. I wish I could sleep that way. I wouldn't get up until they called my name to release me. I would shave months of growth off my face, layers of funk would scrub off in the shower, and I would find my wife married to someone else. But time would have passed quickly.
Then, there are the gamblers. They pass the time by gambling soups on everything. They bet soups on poker, of course. I add that, just so that I can add that while they bet on hands. They will begin arguing over who has the better hand, and bet soups on that. I always ask, "Isn't that what the betting is for, who has the better hand?" But it isn't just poker. They gamble on spades, football, basketball, what meal is coming, who is facing more time, who farted, dominoes, who a particular actress is, (always actresses, never actors), and anything else where there might be two sides to one story.
There are the guys who workout. I'm certainly no Adonis, but I can't understand how people can workout constantly and still have big bellies.
There are guys who spend all their time on the phone, guys who eat constantly, guys who draw, and guys who read. I'm a reader. My nose is buried in a book every waking moment. I will not engage in any activity that will allow my mind to wander. I used to go to "rec", (they let us into a 40' x 50', semi-enclosed space, twice a week), I would read and walk laps. I stopped going when they prohibited us from bringing books and walking laps, it lets your mind rest. Must not do that! No free time for the brain, that's dangerous. I go through a lot of books. I have been promised the Houston Chronicle, which has the added benefit of sudoku and crossword puzzles, hasn't happened yet.
What we all have in common is a yearning to forget where we are, what day it is, what our families are doing and how much longer we must sit. I wish there was a magic potion I could buy on commissary, that would free me from thinking about these questions or the answers; especially the answers. I wish I could just not be me for today.
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