FC5 | 365 Days Handmade

April 23, 2015
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Day 112/365: Just a Number

Today in IDTT (our Interdisciplinary Treatment Team meeting), I gave my case presentation on a new inmate, Mr. D, who recently transferred to our prison and had been assigned to my caseload. He was a 68-year-old African-American man with a release date of 2027, when he would be 80.

After I presented the diagnosis, psychosocial history, and other relevant information to the rest of the team, Mr. D was brought in so that we could review with him the treatment plan and discuss any questions or concerns. He didn’t have a lot that he wanted to say, so his portion of the meeting didn’t take very long. After he left, my colleague Dr. Y turned to me and said, “He’s 68?!” Dr. Y himself was 60 years old. He said, “I wouldn’t have guessed he was 68. He looks so much younger.”

He added, half jokingly, “It’s just not fair! A lot of these guys look really good for their age.” What he didn’t say and what we guessed was that he didn’t think he had aged as well in appearance as those guys.

“Aw, don’t feel bad,” Dr. E, who is Korean-American and around my age, said. “It’s genetics. And people of color just age better. Especially Asians. Look at Dr. V here. She’s fifty-five.”

April 22, 2015
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Day 111/365: New Crocheted Afghan

The thing about working a ten-hour day is that if I leave the office after 6 PM, I seem to have just enough time to drive home, check the mail, change out of my work clothes, wash dishes from the morning’s breakfast and the day’s lunch, get dinner started, go through my email while dinner is cooking, eat dinner, talk to Sean on the phone, prepare tomorrow’s lunch, and compose the day’s blog post before it is already my 9 PM bedtime.

In other news, I started this afghan. It is the same shell stitch as this previous pink and yellow afghan. I’m working with a pound of yarn. Literally. This is Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn in Bubblegum. I’m very curious to see exactly how big an afghan I will be able to produce out of 16 ounces or 454 grams of this stuff, which according to the label is 1020 yards or 932 meters of yarn. I’ll keep you posted.

April 21, 2015
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Day 110/365: Beautiful Day for a Hike

Today was my regular day off from work. I met my friend Roberta for a hike to another one of San Luis Obispo’s peaks. The last location we hiked was Madonna Peak, and I shared this photo that gave you a view of the prison in the distance. Roberta didn’t know the name of this peak that we hiked today, but across the valley, there to the left of the photo, you can see Madonna Peak that we hiked the last time. To the far right of the photo, you can see Highway 1 snaking its way out to Morro Bay. Follow that road and you’ll reach the ocean in about twenty minutes. Or our house with a view of the water. Either way, this is a really nice area to have access to both mountain peaks and the ocean.

It is also a good area to eat a huge fisherman’s platter at a dockside restaurant one day and then take a hike to burn off all those calories the next day.

April 20, 2015
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Day 109/365: Pink and Yellow Striped Socks, Completed

A couple of socks, just hanging out. Enjoying the sea otters off in the distance.

Today I got it in my head that I wanted to eat a large fisherman’s platter for lunch– you know, the meal consisting of deep fried battered fish and shrimp and scallops and calamari and clam strips, with a hefty side of deep fried French fries thrown in for good measure. So this afternoon Sean and I walked down to Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant near the Embarcadero, and I was fully prepared to feast on a meal of a thousand calories… until we sat down and looked at the menu and my better sense kicked in. I still ordered the fisherman’s platter, but asked for the seafood to be grilled and substituted rice pilaf for French fries. I know, boooo. But I also want to live to at least eighty, with relatively unblocked arteries.

After lunch, we walked down the Promenade and admired the sea otters that were gliding and twirling in the bay just several feet away from us. I brought my completed pair of socks and took some photos. I made this pair of socks for a friend, and I purposely started the second sock without matching the color sequence to the first sock. I thought it would add a little more charm if the socks had mismatched stripes. I’m hoping my friend will think so, too.

April 19, 2015
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Day 108/365: Catching Up on Down Time

With the exception of going out to lunch this afternoon with Sean in San Luis Obispo, I didn’t do much of anything today. It was nice to just sit around and decompress. While Sean graded papers, I made some progress on my sock. I turned the heel and started the ribbing for the cuff. I should be done with it tomorrow.

I’m already trying to decide on my next project and whether I will start another pair of socks or start another crocheted afghan.

April 18, 2015
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Day 107/365: Winding it Down

It’s hard to believe that a week ago today, we were in Minneapolis, it was my 100th post, and I met my longtime online friend Alisha for the very first time.

It has been a busy week, jam-packed with all kinds of activities. We traveled a lot and had a bunch of adventures. We returned to California and went back to work. Now it’s the start of my three-day weekend, and I am looking forward to doing absolutely nothing except sitting around the house here in Morro Bay and just knitting or crocheting.

Happy Friday!

April 17, 2015
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Day 106/365: Lifers Support Group Day

I don’t remember if I mentioned this before: Every Thursday afternoon, I facilitate a support group for inmates who are serving life sentences. The participants range in age. The youngest is in his mid-30s, and the oldest is in his late 60s. If I recall correctly, the minimum amount of time served by an inmate in the group has been fifteen years; the longest has been thirty-two years.

I’ve been running this group for well over a year, and the members have been through a lot with each other. They conducted mock board hearings in which every week one of the participants was the subject of intense and challenging questions posed by the others who role-played commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings. They expected each other to be honest and accountable for their past actions and choices, and they didn’t hesitate to call out somebody if they thought he wasn’t being entirely truthful.

Last week I added a new member to the group, and today was his first day of attendance. Given the cohesiveness that had developed over the past year among the group members, I wasn’t one bit surprised when, upon my introducing the new member to the rest, one of the other inmates immediately demanded, “Who did you kill?”

April 16, 2015
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Day 105/365: First Day Back At Work

Exactly one week ago, I was getting ready for our trip to Minneapolis. It’s hard to believe how much stuff I did in the past seven days. It also seems so amazing to me that we traveled to the Northern Mid-West and back to the Pacific Coast within a week. It took months for the pioneers in covered wagons to cross the same terrain that we did. But actually, when I stop to think about it, that in itself is really even more amazing.

I went back to work at the prison today and it was completely business as usual. Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with any last-minute urgent referrals, emergencies, or difficult patients. I did stay at my office until 6 PM, trying to finish the day’s progress notes and treatment plans and suicide risk evaluations. When it got to be 6:00, I knew I had to pack it up. Even though I cared about getting the job done, I also knew that the emotionally healthy thing to do was to go home and put the day behind me.

That’s another nice thing about taking vacations. It helps to give you perspective on priorities and what really matters in life.

April 15, 2015
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Day 104/365: Last Day of This Mini Vacation

I’ve been thinking a lot about our recent trip to Minneapolis and why I enjoyed it so much. One reason was that I got to spend quality time with Sean, who I only see on my three-day weekends because during the week we live 150 miles apart. (He’s in Ventura while I’m in Morro Bay.) Another reason was that I got to meet and hang out with my longtime online pal Alisha. It was so refreshing to bond with a female friend after all the time that I spend working among male inmates and male staff in a men’s prison.

Sean has said to me several times before: “Working in the prison is changing your view of humanity.” And it’s true. When I’m out in the community, I view the world through the lens of someone who has seen the worst in human nature. When Sean and I were riding on public transit through downtown Minneapolis, I couldn’t help thinking that it would be so easy for someone to jump on the light rail without paying, or deface the clean interior with graffiti, or snatch people’s cell phones out of their hands, or hold a gun to their face and demand their wallet and valuables. These are the things that I know a person is capable of doing to another person, and I expect it to happen.

In Minneapolis, however, I kept noticing little things that showed me that people can still be inherently good. On our first day walking through downtown, Sean and I started to cross the street and a taxi driver made a left-hand turn at the intersection and drove across our path. There was still a lot of room in the crosswalk, so he didn’t exactly cut us off, but he held up a hand and meekly waved in apology. That is something you will never see in Los Angeles.

Another time, I watched a college student running to catch the light rail before it pulled away from the station. She quickly held her rail pass against the electronic detector, but in her hurry, the card didn’t scan and the machine beeped an alert. Rather than keep going and just jumping on the rail, she stopped, turned back, and made sure that her barcode scanned properly, as a conscientious, decent human would do. I was impressed.

Other things about the city impressed me. From the airport to our hotel to downtown, we were easily able to get around by foot and public transportation. If it had snowed heavily, we could have used the skyways to avoid much of the bad weather. I didn’t see any graffiti or gang tagging on buildings or signs. I noticed that there were plenty of trash and recycling receptacles around. Having a chronic dry cough left over from my week with the flu, I was constantly unwrapping cough drops, but I didn’t have to keep the wrappers in my pocket for very long. Pretty much on every block, I could expect to see a receptacle where I could toss my trash. I also noticed that there was almost no litter on the ground, everywhere we went. I’m pretty sure those ubiquitous trash and recycling receptacles had something to do with that. Minneapolis is a city that takes care of its own.

Tomorrow I go back to work at the prison. I’m hoping that there will be no crises or difficult patients to deal with, just so I can slowly ease back into that world and hold onto my renewed faith in humanity for a little while longer.

April 14, 2015
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Day 103/365: The Monday After Minneapolis

Last night there were thunderstorms right before we were scheduled to take off, so we sat in the plane and didn’t roll away from the gate for at least forty-five minutes. I didn’t mind waiting, because I had my knitting and was able to turn the heel of my sock and start the ribbing for the cuff.

We had a fairly comfortable flight with no turbulence. The plane landed at LAX at 11:20 PM Pacific Time, but my body and brain were still two hours ahead with Minneapolis time. After waiting for my bag at baggage claim, we still had to catch the shuttle to long-term parking, pick up our car, and make the drive back to Ventura. We didn’t get home until around 1:30 AM, I think. I’m not sure, because the minute I walked in the door, I went straight to bed.

Today I had 150 miles more to travel to my final destination, our house in Morro Bay. Then I had a handful of errands to run, including going to the accountant to pick up our completed tax paperwork so that we can meet the April 15 deadline.

I meant to take photos of my current sock in progress, but I didn’t have time for that today. So instead, I will share with you pictures of the statues that we looked at yesterday when we were in downtown Minneapolis and in downtown St. Paul. With all the traveling and miles covered since then, I can’t believe that I took these photos just yesterday.