My cellmate Angie (43) moved out of our room this morning to the work release dorm, and I'll miss her terribly. Good Catholic Angie, from the Bootheel, wife and mother of 3 young boys, embezzled from the car dealership for which she worked. I've never in my too-long incarceration seen an inmate suffer so for her sins. Her guilt for shattering the trust of her family and employers is immense. Even so she possesses a dry sense of intellectual humor and a sweetness that I just adore. This morning as she packed to leave, I gave her the special candy Easter egg that I'd bought for her. I didn't mean to open the floodgates, but that offering was the final straw. She wept in my arms for all the reasons women weep. Angie has just over a year to serve before she can run home into the waiting arms of her loyal husband and rambunctious sons. I have no doubt that she'll rebuild a great life with them.
The MO Senate has been all over the TV news trying to cut the state budget. Hello! You can let me go and save a bundle! In fact, I can give them a list.
At theatre class yesterday afternoon, a twit who has been here only a matter of months and just chatters inanely all the time whined to no one in particular, "I was supposed to leave July 5th—but now it's July 6th—a whole 24 hours more!" Big dramatic sigh. I caught the eyes of a young black life-with-no-parole gal across the table, so I turned to the twit and schooled her, "You might watch what you say in here since you're at a table with lifers." Each word I pronounced distinctly and slowly to allow the message to sink in. I turned back to Lawanda, who smiled at me with her big brown eyes. I have no problem informing short-timer twits of the facts of life.
Yesterday about 6 gals were cuffed and taken to the hole for stealing out of the canteen. This was organized crime. The canteen workers was shoving the loot out of the back and the warehouse workers were in charge of transporting and distributing—under the unblinking eyes of dozens of security cameras. But honestly the canteen and warehouse supervisors are to blame. They hired known thieves. If you play with snakes and get bit, whose fault is it? I guess the mob had quite a hussle going on and was selling Kools for $2! Free enterprise, the prison way.
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