Journal Entry: Robert Jesenik-09/20/2024-Journal #38

Journal Entry

Saturday, September 14

Spent 9-1 with my loving girlfriend/partner these past 7 + years. She just decided yesterday to come up so it was a nice surprise and start to the weekend!

Afternoon was spent watching my Oregon Ducks put the beat on the Oregon State Beavers. I do feel sorry for Beav fans the way things worked out with the Pac-12, that’s for sure. First time I was able to see them on TV, and looked like a Top 10 team in the second half once they figured out how to stop the run!

Skipped dinner and hit the track for an hour which was prefect after sitting all day. A nice cloudy warm evening, no wind which was a nice change. More college football the rest of the evening until 8 when I started a new book a dear friend sent me, Facing the Mountain, by the same author of Boys and the Boat. I’ve always known about Pearl Harbor and the Japanese camps that followed, but not much detail. The author does a good job researching and then making it into a novel that’s interesting and readable with lots of true life stories, emotions and experiences.

Sunday, September 15

Back to work- Library 8-10:30, cut short as we were sent packing at 10:30 so decided to skip lunch and go out to the Yard for a good workout 11-12:30. Surprisingly warm and humid given how cool our Unit is. Afternoon and evening were football and typing on the book, back and forth, with a great nap in there somewhere!

Monday, September 16

Always interesting to see as at 7:30 we get the go outside call, but not today. So was a normal day typing, reading, writing.

Ever since Derek left, one of the guys he mentored from another Unit hasn’t been himself. I see him at the track daily, we usually chat briefly and sometimes walk a couple laps together. He’s been inside 13 years now, raised inner city LA in the foster care system, and somehow still has a good relationship with his foster mom. He seems to desperately not go back to that life, even as far as not dating black women anymore, and certainly feels the black inmates inside his unit are just a continuation of that life, so he’s extra lonely. Actually seems kind of depressed. I was speaking to him Sunday, wondering what I could do to help, and it occurred to me our A Better Tomorrow book might be inspirational and inspiring, especially when combined with Michael Santos’s workbooks. So I asked him, given his connection with Derek, if he’d be willing to be our first guinea pig and read the book and do exercises/workbooks and give us feedback? He loved the idea, got a big smile on his face, he really is our target for the book and program. So once I finish typing Section I this week, he can start. Maybe this is why God has me here, who knows?

Tomorrow the Yard is closed all day/evening so decided to get another workout in 6-7:30 as there won’t be any tomorrow. always feels good at the end of the day!

Tuesday, September 17

Of course a day with no Yard and no library and I have to wake up at 5:30 just to make it an even longer day:) Going to be pretty much a computer, take a break, computer day, but with everyone stuck inside the unit will be that much harder access wise that’s for sure.

Last week my newspaper stopped coming on Wednesday for some reason. Good news is today I got 3 Wall Streets and 3 USA Todays last evening, so had plenty to catchup on.

At least I got a lot typed. Finished first 8 chapters of Section I of the book, two more sections to go.

Starting a separate appeal to get my medical treatment, by getting my attorney’s involved. After 3 BP-9s rejected, I can only hope this works. A successful appeal negates all this anyways!

After a month of cancelled Spanish class due to the constant closure of the Library, we agreed to do a restart. So I grabbed all the nouns I could find in the first 3 chapters of the book and organized them by male/female and categories like place, food, house, something, person etc. so we have a tool like a flashcard to to memorize from. Hopefully this will help!

Wednesday, September 18th

Its my daughters birthday, so Happy Happy Birthday!! Thankfully back to normal schedule outside at least, so had a good 9-10 workout. Education closed at 9 am so stuck in Unit all afternoon, but got another workout 6-7:30.

Spoke with a guy in the Yard this evening in the Yard, CEO business owner type, who I chat with from time to time. He shared with me his appeal update which was somewhat encouraging time schedule wise. He filed in June, the government responded 60 days later in August, and he already has oral arguments October 31. That’s 5 months. Usually they rule 30-60 days thereafter. Sure hope mine is that quick! He also gave some interesting stats from his appeal attorney. Of 100 appeals filed, some 65 are rejected off the top for various reasons. Of the remaining 35, 25 are a quick no based on law. So basically 10 are seriously addressed. I wonder how many of those are successful, 10-20%, or 1-2?

Great mail today, as I got a week ago’s Thursdays mail, pics from my girlfriend/partner, Canadian Treaty Transfer paperwork, and one Wall Street Journal. Of course nothing for today:)

My attorneys responded to three recent emails of mine. Looks like the timeline is slipping till Mid November as the appeal Court wants the appeal on my restitution included as one appeal.

Thursday/Friday, September 19/20th

Kind of been in a funk last couple days so combining 2 days into one writeup. It doesn’t take much to start getting negative mindset if you start looking for things , little or big for that matter. When there’s a bunch of things, like library closed when you’re trying to finish something, or giving us a brown bag paper sack for breakfast the next morning, at dinner the night before, as kitchen will be closed all the next day for staff retreat. Only to make you get dressed up, go to breakfast at 6:30 am anyways to get 2 sandwiches for lunch and 2 more sandwiches for dinner, instead of all 3 at one time, things just get annoying. It really just comes down to communication, or lack thereof. Apparently each BOP location has their own style of communication and this is ours. To me its so contradictory to try and “program” and “rehab” inmates life skills, and then constantly make them wait for library or shop moves, and then later find out they’re closed anyway. Why not post a schedule on the bulletin board on our PC’s so inmates plan their day, like the real world? I get the argument about dealing with adversity, but most of these guy’s have had plenty of that before getting here, including their judicial process! Funny when they enforce little petty rules like having your ID in your hand when walking down the hallway(like someone would really sneak in here?) that’s called building discipline for the real world:) But this other stuff not so much….

Add to this stuff a lack of connectivity to the real world and not hearing from folks and it can get depressing that’s for sure. Everyone is getting on with their lives but us in here. Guess that’s why they call it prison. Just got to fight thru it is all you can do.

Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my family and friends soon! BJ