Well it didn't take me too long to find something to write about now did it? So much can happen in just a few short days, and I was just very excited to start out on my own with a clean slate. Since this is the beginning and I'm sure I will eventually pick up new followers, you can see all of my original posts at Breaking Free where I started this journey 17 months ago.This new blog will focus mostly on the daily grind on the outside. I'm pretty much done talking about my stay in prison, although I'm sure I will include little bits and pieces as I remember them. So, without further adieu, here it is....
Almost every Sunday since my release I've been doing my community service at the Goodwill Outlet store in St. Paul. I get to sort through all the crap before it's wheeled out to the sales floor in giant blue tubs we call boats. I get to see all the good stuff first, and today I got three shirts and a pair of good jeans for a total of $5. Sorry, back to the story. Every once in a while as we're ripping through bags and sorting things we will grab a bag that contains garbage, it's actually fairly common. Today was no exception, and I picked up a small white grocery bag and tore into it and the most horrific, disgusting, vile thing I have ever seen jumped out of the bag and just barely scraped itself along my bottom lip. It was a maxi-pad, covered in stale, black blood. The smell hit me first followed shortly after by a swarm of something that wasn't fruit flies, but something in my opinion even more sinister. As I dropped the bag and backed away, I got the feeling that the bugs wanted to be out of that situation just as much as I did. The smell was simply the worst thing that has ever gone into my nose, and I have snorted much cocaine and meth through these nostrils. It reminded me of nothing, but if I had to guess I would say it's quite possible that bears could easily track its smell from miles away and even they might be disgusted once they got closer. I had work gloves on but I put on some vinyl gloves just to be safe as I picked up the cleverly disguised bag of horrors.Happy Halloween! Giving back to the community is part of I.S.R. (Intense Supervised Release(sort of like parole on steroids)). I feel I'm owed something for having to deal with that particular situation, then the supervisor came by and gave me a Tootsie Roll, and everything was better. Enough about that.
Yesterday I got to hang out with an old friend. I think it had been at least 15 years since I had seen him, and it turns out we were both released from our respective prisons on the same day. We reminisced about how we used to be, and we laughed a lot about the things we had done as teenagers. We were terrible. And we both have the same ideas about going back. We don't want it, and we are willing to follow our rules and directives to make sure we're not at risk.
We went to the Har-Mar Mall,, somewhere between St. Paul and Roseville which used to be a fairly empty, but it turns out the place was pretty busy, and there weren't too many closed stalls. Good news for shoppers.
We talked and shopped and I noticed nothing was awkward between us. It was like we were back in our early teen years only without any break-ins or burglaries (allegedly). We were good friends for years and I would like to keep this friendship going. It helps to have people around me that can identify with my stint in prison, and the struggle of daily life.
There's no word counter that I can find yet so I think that's it for now. I don't know how often I will be posting but I'm going to shoot for every other day and hope I can keep it interesting. Please, please share this and the other blog with your friends, family, and especially with the still suffering addict/alcoholic. They are who I write for, and "they" includes me.
Stay tuned for more, and thank you for taking your time to read this.
I believe these are all from my earlier years of sobriety. 