Thankfully, the past 16 months have quickly passed for me. I am awed by all the positivity, prayers, support, and encouragement that so many of you have shown me throughout these past many months! All of it has made this experience tolerable, so I am very grateful! After these many months, I still receive many questions, which I am happy to answer them. Here are few for a third part of Questions and Answers:
Q: Do you sleep well? (From Chris)
A: For the most part, I sleep really well. At 12:00, 3:00, and 5:00 in the morning, correctional officers walk around with bright LED flashlights to count us during those times to ensure we are all safe and sound 🙂 Sometimes their flashlights wake me up, but typically, I sleep through them. Normally, I have solid sleep, at least as well as could be in a room with 40 other guys! Oddly, no one really snores, which was a concern that it would be difficult to sleep.
Q: Do you have an updated “things to do” list? (From June)
A: This was a great question, since I started keeping several lists when I came here 16 months ago: books to read, movies/shows to watch, TikTok videos and memes to familiarize myself with for reacclimating, places/locations to eventually visit, and AI/technology details that I need to further investigate. The final list
contains pages of just words that I have read in books/newspapers that I find fascinating and will hopefully add to my own limited vocabulary.
Q: How’s the band going? (From Bart)
A: Sheesh, the band has been an ongoing saga, which I will spare the details for a future blog posting 🙂 Overall, the band is still going very well.
Now the next questions are from my sister (Tiffany)…these are mostly profound questions, so I won’t bore you with many details.
Q: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A: Being healthy surrounded by loved ones and fur babies, absent of suffering, destruction, and death.
Q: Has the idea of perfect happiness changed since you’ve been incarcerated?
A: Eh, nope. My appreciation for everyday little things has certainly become more magnified.
Q: What is your greatest fear?
A: Death of loved ones.
Q: What do you consider the most important virtue?
A: Humility – you didn’t ask why 😛
Q: Which is the most overrated virtue?
A: Hmm, I don’t think virtues could be overrated, but I believe chivalry and compassion are the most underrated virtues.
Q: Which words or phrases do you overuse?
A: Currently, it’s “Gappy”. Gappy is a fellow inmate that I work with. He’s a 58-year-old character. Whenever something goes wrong, I just say his name…and things often don’t go according to plan.
Q: What day was the happiest for you?
A: I would imagine parents say the birth of some offspring. I don’t have an exact happy day, but a collection of incredibly happy moments: Horun family dinners, playing with childhood friends, high school/seminary, and working for the Archdiocese of Washington.
Q: Which talent do you wish you had?
A: I wish I could be a talented dancer and not suffer from offbeat feet syndrome.
Q: Which words or phrases do you overuse?
A: Currently, it’s “Gappy”. Gappy is a fellow inmate that I work with. He’s a 58 year old character. Whenever something goes wrong, I just say his name…and things often don’t go according to plan.
Q: What day was the happiest for you?
A: I would imagine parents say the birth of some offspring. I don’t have an exact happy day, but a collection of incredibly happy moments: Horun family dinners, playing with childhood friends, high school/seminary, and working for the Archdiocese of Washington.
Q: Which talent do you wish you had?
A: I wish I could be a talented dancer and not suffer from offbeat feet syndrome.
Thank you for taking the time to continue to follow-up and if you made it this far…I’m sorry to have rambled so much. This past week ended the practice of Day Light Savings Time – so no more fussing with the clocks! I am happy for all the OCD people out there that have to have their clocks all match and know that twice a year the clock changes have caused some distress and preoccupation…I wish you all a wonderful and safe week.
Continue to look for those beautiful little miracles in your daily life 🙂