2023 has certainly been off to a wonderful start for me. I began the New Year with asking for forgiveness and being mindful of the many miracles in my life. While I was saddened to see the passing of the retired pope, Benedict XVI, he wrote a last testament of his life as a leader of the Catholic Church. Interestingly, his reflection focused on seeking forgiveness for his insufficiencies, which I found humbling and profound. Whether Providential graces, miracles, karma, or just good luck (my faith guides me towards Divine interventions), the past week has also been superb. While the long holiday weekends are quite monotonous with limited activities, my mom and sister visited on Sunday, which turned out to be a beautiful day after some wintery weather. The visiting area has vending machines with many junk food, pop, and juice options for everyone to have some extra calories and trans fats. Visitations are the only time that I am permitted to have these items, since they are not available in our little store. My sister and mom purchased a pack of Nutter Butter cookies, which was just as delightful and the visit itself was lovely! It was really a nice highlight of my week.
Besides the visit, I received pictures from Drew, June, and my mom. Drew shared last pictures of Hanky and the shrine adorned with the many flowers that were received, along with pictures of all the other furbabies. June shared the most adorable picture booklet of our nieces dancing and celebrating the holiday with their favorite uncle, Drewbie, and other family pictures from last year. These memories and the ones that I can see being made bring me so much joy. My mom sent me a calendar consisting of the paintings by my dad – all aligned with themes of each month. The calendar fits perfectly on the little built-in desk in my bunk area.
Some really positive things happened throughout this past week for me. Over the last two weeks, I was double-bunked with a really great guy who normally would have had that space to himself. My invasion of his space ended when I was offered my own space! I have one of the largest areas that over looks some hills and the river that flows through the campus. To wake up with the scenario these past few morning has been a blessing, and a great start to the day!
Also….drum rolls …. I received my tennis shoes AND the radio/tv receiver too! I FINALLY RECEIVED THESE LONG AWAITED ITEMS! I was and still am quite ecstatic. I can listen to NPR on the radio, watch TV if I want, and can finally go to the gym in my own shoes (and they ended up being $20 cheaper than the advertised price, which is about 40% off). I am really grateful to everyone who made the ability to obtain these items, which are a real luxury after the past two months of having just essentials. In particular, I am very grateful to the June and Jimmy for the ability to purchase the radio and the shoes…AND a special thanks to a friend (Matt) for really helping me purchase items for toiletries AND the supplies needed to start crocheting – everyone has been way too generous!
For my classes this week, the finance class that teaches a lot of short cuts mostly focused on the stock market and some solid predictors for buying and selling! I had my second classes in crochet and leather work, which were quite rudimentary to their respective content areas. I am learning “chaining” and single stitching in crochet, while applying many of these stitching techniques to leather working (actually not sure if there is a specialized name for this type of craft). Thus, classes went really well and help to break up the monotony of each day.
My electrician job also helps. I have really been enjoying the job and jumping feet first into this field. We had just finished reworking all of the empty dorms (actually 4 of them) in preparation for expanding the population here at Camp Morgantown! I believe there are about 500 of us now, but many guys are still waiting for some credits from a federal law to activate, which has been glitching. The projection of growth here has been to double within the next 6 months, which is quite a bit. I hope that the general store will be ready for this growth…but everything does move quite slowly here. The job has been a great experience, and I work with some great guys and have a very good supervisor (corrections officer). I will elaborate more about this job in another upcoming post.
On Martin Luther King Jr Day, the kitchen served a special meal, which consisted of baked tilapia, buttery corn bread, ‘dem collard greens, and a huge slice of banana cake topped with a cinnamon frosting (the best cake here that I’ve had!). We only receive cake on holidays. Following dinner, I was able to play about an hour of BINGO. Even though I did not win this time, the time flew by and was a great day to relax.
I am sorry that my creativity in the weekly posts has been lacking this past week, but it was especially busy and I had limited minutes on the computer. I wish everyone a happy, safe, and good week!