Friday, 24 July 2009
I’m so grateful for my Friday visits with Carole. If I were a better writer I’d be able to help readers understand why my time with her is so valuable. The joy begins in earnest for me on Wednesdays. As I’m running around the track in the morning, I’m relieved to know that my time with her is coming in only two days. When I wake on Thursdays, I’m eager to resume my writing and get my exercise in, because I know the next morning when I wake, I’ll have only hours to wait before we kiss.
Today I woke at 1:44, and soon after I resumed my work on chapter five. I wrote through page 223 of the manuscript, I then went outside to run five miles, bringing my tally to 1,979 miles over the past 224 days. At 7:00 I reported to pill call for the allergy tablet, then I returned to the unit and prepared for my visit.
I don’t know what it’s going to feel like when I’m released, when visiting won’t come on a weekly schedule. Other prisoners at Taft Camp don’t care so much about visiting, and I can relate to their apprehensions. Earlier in my journey, I went through stages where I’d pass seasons, sometimes as long as a year without visiting. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t have welcomed an embrace from family, but I had a mindset that served me well at the time. I obsessed over the goals I set, the educational credentials I wanted to earn, the projects I deemed necessary and integral to my prospects for success. Since I couldn’t control visiting possibilities, I focused on my work.
Now I’m so much closer to my release that I’m obsessing over the preparations I must make. Carole plays an essential role in my release plans, so I need every minute possible with her. We only have Fridays available to us now, but soon I will be home and have a life to share with her. That inspires me. The thought of such a possibility gets me up early each morning, it keeps me motivated to run without a break.
Friday, 24 July 2009
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