Commissary day is here after skipping a week due to the lockdown we had.
5:35am I am out of bed, folding my sheets, and organizing my room. I’m washed up, refreshed, dressed in my class A uniform and ready to go. At this moment the only thing on my mind is, “I hope Mr. Rivero is up and getting ready”. As I get to his room, he is putting his uniform shirt on, and already has his coffee shot on the table ready to drink. “Buenos Dias!!!”, I tell him as I step into his room. He doesn’t seem too happy to be awake so early, but that’s okay I will cheer him up on the way to commissary. I pull his wheelchair out of the room and wait right outside the door. Chow is called, he sits in his chair and we are on our way!
As we approach the dining room, a few guys who are standing outside the commissary windows are yelling my name. “Valdes!!!!, Valdes!!!!!, they are calling for you!!!”. “Sorry Mr. Rivero, no breakfast for us today, they are already calling us”, and I turn away from the dining room and head to the commissary windows. After getting my items, we wait a few minutes before they call for Mr. Rivero, grab our things and wheel on out of there back to the unit. “Must be nice to get called first”, someone says to me, and I reply something real simple, “It was all part of God’s plan”.
I don’t get much time in the week to go to the recreation yard anymore due to my commitment in the chapel, so pushing Mr. Rivero in the wheelchair, while he carries two full laundry bags of commissary, is quite a workout. Once back in the unit, we pull up in front of his room, I take both bags off of him, place his in his room, and mine near us on the floor. Mr. Rivero enters his room, I fold and put his wheelchair away, then grab my bag and head to my room. My roommate (Mr. Aquino) is awake and getting dressed, sees me with my bag and says, “…and now where do you expect to put all those things with your locker being as full as it is?”. “You still don’t know who I really am when it comes to organizing things, let me show you how I do this” is what I tell him, and begin unloading the commissary items on my bed and organizing by item, then by size, then I pull out the extra items in my locker and place them back in by expiration date, all with the logo of each item facing me as if it were a supermarket shelf. “I thought I was O.C.D……but you won that one”, my roommate says. It’s almost time for 7:30am work call. I grab a 4oz disposable cup, put a teaspoon of Cafe Bustelo Instant Coffee, and one pack of Equal sweetener, head to the hot water machine, then out of the unit over to the chapel.
To my surprise, Chaplain Estrin came in early to work today, and good thing because I needed someone there to open the chapel so one of the guys from the construction work detail could come by and replace the main door arm that pulls the door closed on its own. As I stand outside the chapel while they are working, Officer Ferguson sees me and approaches me. “Hey do you remember that guy I told you about…” and as he is asking me, I respond, “Levels?”, and he says, “Yea, he finally will be coming in some time to speak about his experiences to the AIC’s”. With a smile on my face I tell him, “Yes sir, I am so happy about it, Chaplain Hostler has really gone above and beyond to contact several volunteers who could visit the prison and speak to all of us about their past experiences and positive changes they have made in their lives. I can’t wait, because I know it will touch many hearts, and it could possible bring some peace and light to a dark place.” Officer Ferguson tells me he is so happy this is getting done, and feels the same way, hoping there could be some positivity in such negativity.
I head back to the unit around 10:30am after the guys finished installing the mechanism on the door, and prepare for lunch. I make sure we have some napkins in Mr. Rivero’s wheelchair pouch, since today is chicken on the bone, and sit with him to wait. Lunch is called at 11:30 and we are on our way!
Dropping off Mr. Rivero at his room after lunch, I fold and put away his chair, tell him goodbye, grab my water, wave Mr. Escudero over, and he heads to the chapel with me. Mr. Escudero is a premium movie-goer in the chapel. He has seen most of the movies, and has seen many more than once. Today he wanted to watch “The Shack” for a second time. What a great movie with such a sad but beautiful message. I put the movie in the television DVD player, change the audio to Spanish, and subtitles in English as he likes so he can boost up his bi-lingual status. I talk to Chaplain Estrin for a few minutes, then sweep around the chapel, clean the restroom, then sit to listen to a bit of 89.7 FM “K-Love” until 2pm that Chaplain Kulungu has asked us to head back to the units.
Time for the 4pm count, Mr. Campos is preparing some chicken quesadillas, but Mr. Rivero is also making a chicken noodle bowl. Once the officers were done counting, I grab my first quesadilla, and enjoy it to the fullest. Mr. Campos offers me another quesadilla and it was difficult to say no, so down went number two. Count clears, I call my dad for a short, sweet conversation, then I grab my water bottle, and few things I need for the chapel and head out on the recreation move but there is no one at the chapel and all the lights are off. I head back to the unit, and wait for the call for chow to head back to the chapel in case they stepped away. Today is my day to go to the yard, there is no chaplain available, so I head to the unit, change my shoes to my “rec” shoes, and grab fill my bottle with water to the top and wait for the 6pm move.
It has been so long that I go to the yard. Today I saw faces I have not seen in about a month that I do not go to the yard. As I walk past the weight shack, and past the volleyball sandbox, I see my buddies setting up the pickleball equipment, so I head over and call my place to play in the next game. Time to stretch a little while I referee the game. Someone else by the name of Mr. Guzman shows up and asks to be my partner, I accept, and we wait. Our turn to go. Man I started off real rough, but once I warmed up, it was game on. Pickleball is tricky today with all the wind coming around. Hit the ball to the right so it goes left, and they return the ball to the left so it will go right. Mr. Guzman and I lost that first game, and that is no big deal, because we laughed, and got the blood pumping. The second game I played there was a bit of tension between my next partner and the opposite team, and thankfully we weren’t able to finish the game because the officer called through the PA system saying the yard is closed, so we packed everything up and headed to the yard entrance gate.
From the rec yard back to my unit, it is a long walk around the lake, but with this 76 degree weather, slight winds, and the water fountains in the lake splashing water around, it is truly a peaceful walk back to the unit. Whoever says this prison is horrible, needs to open their eyes and really see how lucky they are and how grateful they should be that they are here in this specific prison and not somewhere truly worse.
I’m back in the unit, I check the callout paper by the officer station to see if anything is scheduled for me tomorrow. Nothing scheduled so I head towards my room, and I see Mr. Rivero sitting in Mr. Campos’ room. “Your bowl of food is in your room, covered by a towel to keep warm; it is not as good as before but it is okay”, Mr. Rivero tells me. “Thank you, don’t worry, I am sure it is great the way it is, if anything I will add some hot sauce to spice it up” I respond. Once in my room, I remove the towel from the bowl, remove the top, then add some roasted salted peanuts, Melinda’s green sauce, mayonnaise, olive oil, and some Adobo seasoning, and mix. I grab my tablet and headphones and head to my chair on the main floor of the glasshouse, next to Mr. Aquino, and change the radio station to television four where they have on Fox News.
After a little “dinner and some news”, I wash out my bowl, grab two ramen noodle packs, and some olive oil in a small bottle, and take it all to Mr. Rivero’s room, to supply him since he uses all these things to cook for us. I head to the phone to call mom, and explain to her a few updates that are happening here in the facility regarding our visit schedule. After waiting 30 minutes, I head back to the phone to call my sister, to see how her Halloween went with her fiancee and puppy. How I pray to be home as soon as possible to be there for my sister and my family. How much I miss being with them. They dressed up like the characters from “The Wizard of Oz”, and the puppy was the wicked witch. I can’t wait to see those pictures when they send them to me. I tried to help walk them through troubleshooting why one of their breakers keep tripping, so I spent the whole fifteen minutes as “tech support” which is part of what I like doing, fixing things.
It’s almost lockdown, so time to shower, and enjoy some television before it’s time to sleep. Tomorrow is Friday thankfully, so I do not work until after lunch. I have a busy morning though helping someone with understanding their First Step Act credits, and getting a job assignment with our counselor.
[Psalm 90:14]
“Fill us with your love every morning. Then we will sing and rejoice all our lives.”
Dear Lord, thank you for this day, and all the positivity that came out of it. Thank you for keeping me cheerful. Father God, please provide me strength that could only come from your love. Guide me to be righteous, holy, and only dependent on your support. Your love is greater than life, it is all I need and it is all I want to live according to your word. Please God take care of us all, and protect us from any wrong that may come our way. Please watch over our families, friends and loved ones. Amen.
Eduardo L Valdes
02499-506
October 31, 2024
21:22
