Sunday 4/7
Should be a good day overall Lord willing! I have a couple family members, my girl friends oldest son and his wife, so should be a great morning. Be nice to see them and catchup, as I’m sure having 4 kids and all that goes with will have lots to talk about:) Funnt thing happened for them checking in! They wore their sweats and couldnt get in, so they had to go to Walmart, buy clothes and come back frist thing:)
Tomorrow is my final restitution hearing. Should be interesting to listen in. Apparently they sent out 1800 forms to get filled out so investors could claim what they invested and what they recovered, only 500 responded, and only 400 filled out what their recovery was. No surprise there. Will see what final amount was, but my sentence was based on $250mm, and I expect the final number to be 5-20% of that. I sure hope there’s a way to appeal on the sentence, guess I’ll find out eventually.
Overall a good Sunday, really enjoyed my visit today. Amazing how quickly 4.5 hours go just sitting and talking and catching up. Between waiting to get in and out of the visitors room with 2 strip searches, makes it almost a 6 hour event, which is great as weekends are so slow and boring here. Unfortunately we had 20 mph+winds and with the temps was just too cold to go out at 6 and workout. But this week should be much better!
Monday 4/8
Big day today for the eclipse. We should be able to see whatever it will be right from our window in our luxurious suite here at Lompoc:) This week should be fairly busy as I focus on:
1) restitution court hearing Monday/today
2) final legal review and mailing(never an easy process)
3) layout curriculum for the class I’ll be teaching on Preparing for a Successful Release
4)following up on my doctors letter and driving that thru the process here
Trying not to be too negative or angry, but is hard in here sometimes. Funny how the little things can really piss me off. Had my court hearing at 9:30, and because this location doesn’t have a process do deal with this(regardless that’s its BOP policy), have to schedule weeks ahead and do in our Unit’s counselors office/little lobby. Silly me , I show up at 9:20 and knock but no answer, again at 9:25. so at 9:30 I ask the unit guard downstairs to see if the counselor is on property and available. He responds to her he’s tied up and busy. So I sit there, go on the PC to email folks I can’t make it, and he shows up at 9:45, all huffy. “hey Jesenik, don’t you know the universe doesn’t revolve around you? Of course he could have apologized as I followed protocol and he didn’t, but guess that’s not policy to apologize:) Naturally, half way thru the hearing he wanted to leave so I had to drop off. Alot of good my constitutional rights and BOP policies do……!
Rest of day was in library starting on the class curriculum, lockdown, dinner, back to library for Spanish class we are doing. Really enjoyed it, starting with numbers, dates, times and building from there. The goal is not to be fluent as much as comprehension and speak on various topics- weather, travel, food all the basics. Stay tuned:)
Coming back from Spanish, was all excited to see second half Of NCAA Championship basketball game, U CONN v. Purdue. Wouldn’t you know, something happened somewhere and we had a lockdown for 40 minutes and missed the last 20 minutes of the game, can’t make this up!
Tuesday 4/9
Another attempt at commissary today:) Finishing end chapters of Purpose Driven life, really enjoy them. Next time thru, I’m reading last chapters first and working my way thru the book backwards as I think it will give a different perspective. I will do book reports along the way on each section as well.
Day went pretty much as it should. Commissary was good, and best part starting next Monday we go back for double $$, $180, and go to every 2 weeks which will save going thru this process every week plus we get more stuff and can manage from there. Small steps… Only inconvenience was phones and computers were out till 11 as they were doing something to Internet.
Hearing the Yard water project is about done, maybe opening up the Yard during the day next Tuesday Really hard to not be outside when its 76!
Wednesday 4/10
Beautiful day and off to a normal start- dealing with some legal restitution issues this morning, and beginning to build a memo on the curriculum for the class. After lunch to the library where Derek and I reviewed my 18 pages of emails for any final thoughts before sending off. My attorneys sent me a copy of a prior appeal she did a couple years ago involving bank wire fraud case that she successfully got overturned, was really educational. I saw how she took the selected various court rulings that she thought were wrong, and explained why. Helped me understand in my case HOW they go about it. At some point they will have to narrow down the list of injustices:)
Skipped dinner to get outside at 5-6 workout. Despite being a good day, the fog rolled and in and was much cooler than i hoped. Had intended to stay out 2.5 hours to workout, but just got one hour-bummer. One of the 10 guys in our cell area found out he was packing out(transferring) to a camp named Atwater up by Fresno/Modesto. He was bummed as he was hoping to go next door, but when he changed his address from Lake Tahoe to Carmel, that triggered it, getting him closer to home. He’s been a prison friend, someone my age(actually 6 months older:)) so we can power walk together and help each other out prison wise, so now down to 9 people….. Talk about being a minority!
Starting to get into my curriculum development, course outline and class schedule, kind of fun not being so legal! Will get done this week so I can submit next Monday.
Thursday 4/11
No fog today, hallelujah! Finally emailed off my first legal summary to the team, will do one a day for the next 5 days. Really just need to synthesize my thoughts on theme and wrong rulings I think about in case helpful for the legal team.
This last 10 days really focused on trying to connect on the phone with friends I haven’t spoken to since Jan 4th. Been great to catchup and connect, everyone is so supportive and offering to help and come see me eventually.
Really a complete productive day, and great weather as well. I was thinking about how well the day went on my 4th lap around the track around 5:45 pm, just enjoying finally having a warm evening, sunshine, and no wind. And then boom! 15 minutes later the guard is calling me over the Yard’s speaker system. I was at far end, think 7-9 acres so didn’t hear what he wanted. But when he called again I was nearby on weights so heard him and walked over. He was all uptight, pissed I hadn’t responded sooner, and told me to hurry up and get inside , I was going to solitary. Well you can imagine what goes through your mind after 3 miles on the track, doing weights, and then solitary for 40 days. Thankfully he was only being a jerk, as it was just a UA for drugs. But that ruined the second half of my workout that’s for sure!
Friday 4/12
Been a productive day for sure. Finalized curriculum proposal for Monday delivery, started 4 blog posts that will be weekly going forward. Best of all, attorneys sent a new court ruling from 9th Circuit Appeals Court overturning a wire fraud case with very favorable statements for us.
On a sadder note, Derek suggested I meet a guy in the library who is here for wire fraud. Maybe 69 years old? Anyways, on $14mm, got 30 years somehow. Out of Phoenix. Could have pled for 3 years but didn’t think he did anything wrong… crazy. Anyways, not much he could teach me that might help but a nice guy.
Had a fun call with my son and granddaughter tonight. Mom is in Cabo for a bachelorette party and well deserved rest before baby #2 in June. They were in golf cart on way to pick up dinner- little Sum Sum was so cute- just getting to age to say I love you 10x in a row:)
Day ended up cold and windy, so spent 6-10 in my cell reading, with a couple breaks for email and 15 minutes of TV. Reading 2 good military books at once- Baldacci thriller -Saving Faith, and Relentless Strike, a true novel of our military beginning in 1980 as background, but really about 9/11 and thereafter and the War on Terror. A bit methodical, but very enlightening!
Saturday 4/13
Looking forward to having my daughter and her boyfriend visiting today! I feel bad for them, its a schlep leaving Orange County at 6 pm, driving thru LA in Friday night traffic, dropping the dog at his parents in the Valley, and then coming here to spend the night so they can be here first thing. Guess I’m pretty blessed!
Speaking of blessings, woke up this morning and felt like being grateful in my prayers first thing. I’m usually pretty good about that, as I know it pleases Him, but haven’t for awhile. I was surprised what a long list it was! I won’t list here as too long, but I find its so frustrating to deal with injustice every day, a lot of things BOP doesn’t do per their policy, and really there is no good way to deal with it, so it kind of builds up. Honestly, I realize there are many things they do pretty well given 2000 inmates here, and at least half will return someday. But its just common sense if you point out something to a lieutenant or Warden or any superior to address, the people underneath just get angry and then hold it against you. And given so many of the BOP decisions on time off or transfer locations are human judgement based, not per policy, its a tough call sometimes. Will definitely be writing more in my blog eventually- like anything, policies and procedures not monitored or enforced are just print on a page.
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
