From Dragonfly: New Morning Routine

Now that I am working in education every weekday, I have a new morning routine. I awake around 5:50am. I am usually awake even earlier, but I stay in bed, stretching my muscles and joints. I have to be VERY careful doing so, as my bunk mate above me screams if I jiggle the bed. It's hard to do my stretching and not jiggle a little bit. There is no where else in the unit I could do it, and with my morning stiffness, just getting out of bed takes stretching.

Once I am up, I gather my uniform and head to the restroom. I was trying to dress in my room, but my roommates, again, complained that I was waking them, so I compromised and bring it all to the restroom stalls. I shower at night, so my hair looks like a nightmare in the morning. I always wet it down in the sink and do what I can. My hair has been growing wildly. The humidity of Texas is making it even curlier than it was before I was imprisoned, and there is little I can do but hope it doesn't stick out everywhere. I am letting it grow while I am in here, because I would prefer all my hair to be shoulder length when I leave. So, everyday is a bad hair day!

I take all my morning pills, once again frustrating my roommates (I'm not sure how I am not to make any noise in a 70 sq. ft. room. One roommate never complains. She understands that I have a job and must get ready. The other two do not work and just lounge around most of the day. Well, one has a job - cleaning showers 2x/day, but total time doing it is around 2 hours/day. After pills, I grab a plastic chair (we have all our community chairs stacked under a staircase and if we want one, we need to carry it ourself to one of the community area, after, we must return it under the staircase), and I go watch the news for a couple minutes. Once Freckles is ready as well, we go to breakfast - sometimes with others, sometimes just ourselves. It's nice having Freckles have the same schedule as me. And, she gets ready in her room, along with another of her roommates, and no one complains!!!

We only go to breakfast on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Banana days are just too crowded and we will not get to work on time. Breakfast usually consists of a wheat bagel (not toasted) and a morning cereal of all-bran, grits, or oatmeal. Each day is one of those options. I do not enjoy any of the three. I usually get dry toast as an alternative unless they happen to have small pieces of breakfast cake or muffins (rare). I always grab two packages of the skim milk packets as well - it is the only real dairy I receive and I am always craving it. It may not be the best breakfast, but at least I can teach for three hours without feeling hungry. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Freckles and I are starting to eat cinnamon rice cakes with peanut butter and strawberry jam in our unit (all available in commissary). I never realized how much I could enjoy a rice cake, until I put pb&j on it!! I purchased a couple cans of V-8 juice, which we share.

If I get out of breakfast before 7:15am, I make my way to the email lab (because now that I work, access to email is a lot harder). I don't always have time to fully respond to anyone's messages, but just reading things from my friends makes me very happy. If something is important, I (of course) respond. Sometimes, though, based on time, I can't respond until much later in the day or the next day.

By 7:30am, I am walking into the education department. I have to check in with one of the teachers, so they know I am there. So far, only twice, has my teacher been in. She is ill and needs a lot of time off from work. On days she is not in, I teach the entire day and love it! On the two days (so far) she was in, I just spend my time grading and am silent at my work desk (not so much fun). My teacher cannot remember my name, ever, so if she wants me, she screams, "Hey!" and/or snaps her fingers. I feel a bit like she thinks I'm a dog. I definitely prefer the days where I am the teacher! I think she is going to retire in a couple weeks (when she turns 50). She's mentioned it and I am hoping she does whatever is best for her. However, I do hope she will start to treat me with even a little respect. Oh, and she tells entirely inappropriate stories to the students, gets off track, and fails to actually get the students to the day's lessons, sometimes. My thoughts about how we teach adult students are constantly filled. Here, though, I am not a scholar. I am just an inmate.

My students treat me with great respect, though. They always say, "hi," to me and smile. They appreciate my help as they work toward their GED. When the teacher is in the classroom, they look at me with sad eyes. I always say things like, "today, please respect our Teacher," so they know I will not engage in any conversations against her. The students are working hard and two of them are testing this week for their GED, and based on practice tests, they should pass! Hard work pays off!

I stay in my classroom from 7:30am-11:30am. I no longer have to go back to my unit at RECALL at 10:30 due to my job. 10:30-11:30 is the most time I have to grade papers (so I take them back to the unit sometimes with me at night). I get to eat lunch with the education tutors always at 11:30. We do not need to wait in the long line with our unit. This ensures we can be back at work by 12:30pm, so start our afternoon shift.

On Mondays and Fridays, I receive my enbryl shot at 10:30am. The clinic was good to work with me and stop me having to come at 7:45 am (which caused me to be locked in the clinic until the next open move at 8:45 am). Working has certainly added some worth to my stay, as well as a way to be busy half the day. I am SO glad I chose to seek out this employment!!