(I know I already posted just now, but figured I was in the mood to write, so I would get Part II in here.)
So. Sunday morning I got up plenty of early to get my oatmeal and coffee and Starbucks, and then make the hour and a half drive to the prison so I would get there by 0830. Which I did. I sat there in the parking lot thinking that I would have to wait until 0900 to go in, but about 0840 this girl pulled up in the parking lot, got out of her car and went into the building. When she didn't come out, I decided I would go in too, and to my surprise, there were quite a few people in there already, waiting on the other side of the first security point. I did the paperwork (you have to do it everytime you go) and put my stuff in a locker and then went through the scanner.
Once in there, we were all sitting around, waiting for a turn to be drug tested. Oh what fun. So there was this woman and her daughter and the daughter's baby who was maybe a month old, if that much, and the woman came up positive on the test. They did it again and she came up negative, so they let her go back to wating with us. But the daughter came up positive twice, and they made her leave. The mom was saying how she knew her daughter didn't do drugs, and that she herself had been clean 18 years and had even done 6 years in prison herself. And that now they would probably be watching her closely in there with her son. Gee, ya think?
I had my turn, and the guy swabs my hands, arms, front of my pant legs, and the tops of my shoes, and of course I am negative. I had used my government ID and he asked me where I worked and when I told him he said he had been a Marine too, as an MP.
We finally get to go in about 0940, and one by one the guys come out, and I was telling Beau about it. He told me that actually drugs are a pretty big thing in there, that people bring them in to the prisoners all the time and that the prisoners turn around and sell them for big money. Wow. Now to give the drugs to the inmate can't be done just by handing it to him. What they do is go to the vending machine area and they buy chips or soda, open it up there and slip the drugs in it and then come back to the inmate and give them whatever it is they bought. The inmate then swallows it and well, it comes out the other end later. Yuck.
Well about 1:00, I had to use the ladies room and when I came out, there were all these cops and guards in the main room, surrounding guess who.....the woman and her son. Apparently she DID have the drugs with her and slipped them to him, but got caught. You would have thought after coming up positive she would have thought "Gee, maybe I better not do this" but I guess not. However, Beau says that more than likely she will walk away from there with nothing happening to her and the charges will go to the son since he is already an inmate. And that he would immediately be taken to a room with nothing in it except a bucket. Wow. The things one learns without even trying.
The rest of the visit went without anymore excitement, and it was really hard to leave him there again, especially since I know I won't get to see him for a few months probably. But when I do go back, I'm hoping I get to bring his little sisters and Sean Michael with me, because I know he would love to see them and they, him. (Plus it might make them all think twice before ever breaking any laws. lol)
I drove home that day, and really kept my eyes open for any deer. My GPS wanted to take me the way I came, through those back roads but no way was I gonna do that. Part of the way through I called Janie and we talked quite a while and she could hear the smart alecky things the GPS was saying, and she could have sworn it was listening to our conversation. (It really wasn't Janie. lol) I managed to get home safely about 0130, without splattering any deer on the road.
It was a long drive but worth it, and I do look forward to going back to see him. I just wish I didn't have to leave him there.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
A Month Of Christmas Music.....Crud.........
I know this makes me in the vast minority, but boy do I hate Christmas music. And I know lots and lots and lots of people love it and can listen to it over and over and over again. Not me.....it literally makes me cringe to hear it.
A few years ago when I worked at the hospital on Camp Lejeune, the Command Suite decided it would be a great idea to play nothing but Christmas CDs for the month of December so they asked people to bring in their CDs. Well turns out not too many people must have brought them in, because they only had about 5 or 6 CDs, and they played them and nothing but them for that whole month. To make matters worse, my desk happened to be under one of the speakers, and the music was a bit on the loud side.
I went and asked if they could just turn off the music in the room we were in (I wasn't the only one who was tired of hearing them) but they said no. So I asked could they at least turn it down. Nope, can't do that either. I went to the Command Suite, but lo and behold, there was NO music in there. No sirree bob, they didn't have to listen to it day in and day out. No wonder they didn't care.
By the middle of the month, I was contemplating getting up into the ceiling and ripping out the speaker. And by the end of that December, I was truly about ready to go out of my mind listening to it. Since then I can't stand hearing Christmas music.....and when I heard it in a store last week for the first time, I got out of there. I know I can't avoid it when I am shopping, but it certainly will my shopping excursions much faster. I was also disappointed this morning when I got in my car and was ready to listen to my favorite radio station and what was playing? Yep, Christmas music. I thought ok, maybe they're just playing one. But no....another one played and then another, and I knew it was time to change the station. Dang. there goes my morning commute.
I really don't have anything against Christmas, I do believe in it. But why oh why do we have to hear the music 24/7????
I might need some Prozac this month.......
A few years ago when I worked at the hospital on Camp Lejeune, the Command Suite decided it would be a great idea to play nothing but Christmas CDs for the month of December so they asked people to bring in their CDs. Well turns out not too many people must have brought them in, because they only had about 5 or 6 CDs, and they played them and nothing but them for that whole month. To make matters worse, my desk happened to be under one of the speakers, and the music was a bit on the loud side.
I went and asked if they could just turn off the music in the room we were in (I wasn't the only one who was tired of hearing them) but they said no. So I asked could they at least turn it down. Nope, can't do that either. I went to the Command Suite, but lo and behold, there was NO music in there. No sirree bob, they didn't have to listen to it day in and day out. No wonder they didn't care.
By the middle of the month, I was contemplating getting up into the ceiling and ripping out the speaker. And by the end of that December, I was truly about ready to go out of my mind listening to it. Since then I can't stand hearing Christmas music.....and when I heard it in a store last week for the first time, I got out of there. I know I can't avoid it when I am shopping, but it certainly will my shopping excursions much faster. I was also disappointed this morning when I got in my car and was ready to listen to my favorite radio station and what was playing? Yep, Christmas music. I thought ok, maybe they're just playing one. But no....another one played and then another, and I knew it was time to change the station. Dang. there goes my morning commute.
I really don't have anything against Christmas, I do believe in it. But why oh why do we have to hear the music 24/7????
I might need some Prozac this month.......
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Visiting Beau (Part I)
So, on Veteran's Day weekend, I finally went to go visit Beau in prison. Not your every day kind of visit, but it was good seeing him after all this time (3 years!).
I started out Friday, around noon, and it was a nice, rsunny day, a little windy but not cold or anything. The GPS took me the back way through Virginia up to Charlottesville, and it is really pretty that way, a lot of horse country and leaves still changing, etc. I went that way one other time with Vickie when we went to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and really enjoyed it then also. Now, I don't mind driving it in the daytime, but knew I wasn't on the way back when it was going to be dark, as it is only 1 two-lane road, and probably an even better chance to encounter a deer or two, which I didn't want to do.
Anyway, once I hit 64, it was freeway (and splattered deer....yuck!) all the way into Knoxville, and pretty much all mountains, too. Mountains or not, I did see a couple of Starbucks signs, and I stopped at the one in Wytheville (I had already mapped that on though on my phone through my Starbucks app). See?
After getting my Sb fix, I drove on to Knoxville and arrived at my hotel around 9pm. I stayed at the Sleep Inn, which I won't do again, because my room was not the greatest to say the least. On the bright side, there was a Starbucks within view of the hotel, so all was not lost. :-)
I got up early the next morning, stopped at Starbucks (duh!) and had their oatmeal and my drink, and then I was on my way up to Pine Knot, Ky, which is about 80 miles away. The drive wasn't too bad, all major freeway, more mountains, more splattered deer. (Yikes! Made me paranoid about hitting one.) I got up to Williamsburg, Ky, and then I had to go on a windy, two-lane road further up in the mountains, and then even my GPS got lost there. It was saying things like "Are we there yet?" and "This is no way to treat a trusted confidante.....recalculating" and then it told me to turn left....and the only thing on my left was a big mountain! Geez!
Finally I made it to Pine Knot, and the GPS instructed me turn down a road, so I did, and about a mile in, it informed me I was there. Huh? A trailer on my right is a Federal Penitentiary? Ummmm....I don't think so. I turned around and drove a little and there was a guy in his yard, so I stopped and asked him where it was and he gave me the directions, which put me right there (and believe me, it was a lot different than that trailer! Lots and lots and LOTS of razor-sharp barbed wire surrounding the place.) Yay!
Or not. When I went in, I was told nope, you have to wait till 11 (it was 10am). Ok, fine. Oh, and you can't wait in the parking lot. So I drive away and find this little cafe and wait there till 11, and I drive back. Nope, gotta wait 10 more minutes. Waited. Nope, there was an "incidence" (i.e a guy got stabbed) so now we have to wait an hour. By this time there are a group of us waiting and we could have had a tailgate party while waiting. Sheesh.
But at about 12:15 they finally let us in, and we had to fill out paperwork, put anything we had with us in a locker, then take off our shoes and go through a scanner. For a minute I thought I was in an airport and was going somewhere, except I didn't have anything with me. They stamped our hands with a flourescent image (I'm going clubbing) and we had to show it under lights a couple of times to guards. The guard took us outside and into the prison yard and then into another building, where our hands were scanned again and then we were seated in specific spots and waited. Twenty minutes later Beau finally came out and he was so happy to see me. (He had been thinking that since half the day had gone by that I hadn't shown up; but while waiting outside I had called Sean Michael to tell him what was going on so that if Beau called, he could tell him I was there.)
Anyway, after all that, it was just so good to see him. His hair was longer than usual and he did kinda have this Charles Manson kinda look going on, but he was still Beau. A very depressed Beau, but still Beau. He told me interesting things about life in prison, like how they have "pets"........like, mice and praying mantises and spiders and the occasional snake. I asked him how they could keep "pets" like that in their cells, and he said they use coffee cans or cups, etc. And apparently praying mantises are the "In" pet to keep there. Who knew, right?
Visitation was only until 3, and those 2 1/2 hours went by pretty quickly, but I promised Beau I would get these by 0830 on Sunday so that I would be able to spend the day with him this time. The hardest part of leaving there was leaving him behind and he looked pretty sad as I was leaving. But at least we had the next day to look forward too.
I drove away from there feeling sad for him and wishing he wasn't in there. Wishing his life had turned out differently, wishing I had made his life different. But I guess wishing is like hindsight, it's 20/20 too.
I started out Friday, around noon, and it was a nice, rsunny day, a little windy but not cold or anything. The GPS took me the back way through Virginia up to Charlottesville, and it is really pretty that way, a lot of horse country and leaves still changing, etc. I went that way one other time with Vickie when we went to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and really enjoyed it then also. Now, I don't mind driving it in the daytime, but knew I wasn't on the way back when it was going to be dark, as it is only 1 two-lane road, and probably an even better chance to encounter a deer or two, which I didn't want to do.
Anyway, once I hit 64, it was freeway (and splattered deer....yuck!) all the way into Knoxville, and pretty much all mountains, too. Mountains or not, I did see a couple of Starbucks signs, and I stopped at the one in Wytheville (I had already mapped that on though on my phone through my Starbucks app). See?
After getting my Sb fix, I drove on to Knoxville and arrived at my hotel around 9pm. I stayed at the Sleep Inn, which I won't do again, because my room was not the greatest to say the least. On the bright side, there was a Starbucks within view of the hotel, so all was not lost. :-)
I got up early the next morning, stopped at Starbucks (duh!) and had their oatmeal and my drink, and then I was on my way up to Pine Knot, Ky, which is about 80 miles away. The drive wasn't too bad, all major freeway, more mountains, more splattered deer. (Yikes! Made me paranoid about hitting one.) I got up to Williamsburg, Ky, and then I had to go on a windy, two-lane road further up in the mountains, and then even my GPS got lost there. It was saying things like "Are we there yet?" and "This is no way to treat a trusted confidante.....recalculating" and then it told me to turn left....and the only thing on my left was a big mountain! Geez!
Finally I made it to Pine Knot, and the GPS instructed me turn down a road, so I did, and about a mile in, it informed me I was there. Huh? A trailer on my right is a Federal Penitentiary? Ummmm....I don't think so. I turned around and drove a little and there was a guy in his yard, so I stopped and asked him where it was and he gave me the directions, which put me right there (and believe me, it was a lot different than that trailer! Lots and lots and LOTS of razor-sharp barbed wire surrounding the place.) Yay!
Or not. When I went in, I was told nope, you have to wait till 11 (it was 10am). Ok, fine. Oh, and you can't wait in the parking lot. So I drive away and find this little cafe and wait there till 11, and I drive back. Nope, gotta wait 10 more minutes. Waited. Nope, there was an "incidence" (i.e a guy got stabbed) so now we have to wait an hour. By this time there are a group of us waiting and we could have had a tailgate party while waiting. Sheesh.
But at about 12:15 they finally let us in, and we had to fill out paperwork, put anything we had with us in a locker, then take off our shoes and go through a scanner. For a minute I thought I was in an airport and was going somewhere, except I didn't have anything with me. They stamped our hands with a flourescent image (I'm going clubbing) and we had to show it under lights a couple of times to guards. The guard took us outside and into the prison yard and then into another building, where our hands were scanned again and then we were seated in specific spots and waited. Twenty minutes later Beau finally came out and he was so happy to see me. (He had been thinking that since half the day had gone by that I hadn't shown up; but while waiting outside I had called Sean Michael to tell him what was going on so that if Beau called, he could tell him I was there.)
Anyway, after all that, it was just so good to see him. His hair was longer than usual and he did kinda have this Charles Manson kinda look going on, but he was still Beau. A very depressed Beau, but still Beau. He told me interesting things about life in prison, like how they have "pets"........like, mice and praying mantises and spiders and the occasional snake. I asked him how they could keep "pets" like that in their cells, and he said they use coffee cans or cups, etc. And apparently praying mantises are the "In" pet to keep there. Who knew, right?
Visitation was only until 3, and those 2 1/2 hours went by pretty quickly, but I promised Beau I would get these by 0830 on Sunday so that I would be able to spend the day with him this time. The hardest part of leaving there was leaving him behind and he looked pretty sad as I was leaving. But at least we had the next day to look forward too.
I drove away from there feeling sad for him and wishing he wasn't in there. Wishing his life had turned out differently, wishing I had made his life different. But I guess wishing is like hindsight, it's 20/20 too.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Color, Color, Color Everywhere
Every time I go outside, I want to grab my camera and take a picture. Why? Because of this:
And this:
And these:
See? Everywhere I look, there is so much color around me....bright golds, burnt oranges, crimsons, leafy greens, crisp browns....it is truly just beautiful. The sun shines through them making them glow, and even on a cloudy yucky day like we had Saturday, the colors stood out even more and were just begging to be photographed (which they would have been....if I had charged the battery on my camera. Grrrrrr. Nothing like trying to take a picture and finding out the camera is dead.....and takes a good few hours to re-charge. So, so much for taking those pics on a rainy day.)
Anyway, out of the 4 seasons, Fall is the prettiest one we have here in Virginia and it just makes me want to get out the camera and snap snap snap. But then I pause and think, okay, so what am I going to do with all these pictures of trees and leaves? Well, wait, we'll put Hector and Sean Michael in front of them and that way I have photos of them in front of all those trees and leaves. Except I have a heck of a lot of pictures of those two, too. Hmmmm.
So I resigned myself to just taking a few on Sunday, some of just the trees and some with Hector and Sean Michael in front of them. And I will just have to enjoy the color on my way home from work (thankfully it's too dark in the morning and I'm too tired to think of taking photos then anyway), and by next week the color show will be done and over, replaced by bare trees and ugly brown leaves that are left behind, and I'm ready to leave the camera behind.
And this:
And these:
See? Everywhere I look, there is so much color around me....bright golds, burnt oranges, crimsons, leafy greens, crisp browns....it is truly just beautiful. The sun shines through them making them glow, and even on a cloudy yucky day like we had Saturday, the colors stood out even more and were just begging to be photographed (which they would have been....if I had charged the battery on my camera. Grrrrrr. Nothing like trying to take a picture and finding out the camera is dead.....and takes a good few hours to re-charge. So, so much for taking those pics on a rainy day.)
Anyway, out of the 4 seasons, Fall is the prettiest one we have here in Virginia and it just makes me want to get out the camera and snap snap snap. But then I pause and think, okay, so what am I going to do with all these pictures of trees and leaves? Well, wait, we'll put Hector and Sean Michael in front of them and that way I have photos of them in front of all those trees and leaves. Except I have a heck of a lot of pictures of those two, too. Hmmmm.
So I resigned myself to just taking a few on Sunday, some of just the trees and some with Hector and Sean Michael in front of them. And I will just have to enjoy the color on my way home from work (thankfully it's too dark in the morning and I'm too tired to think of taking photos then anyway), and by next week the color show will be done and over, replaced by bare trees and ugly brown leaves that are left behind, and I'm ready to leave the camera behind.
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