Movin On Up in Federal Prison!
July 8, 2015
No - not to a deee-luxe apartment in the sky (I am really dating myself - apologies to my younger readers!) but actually, a pay raise! Let me put this in context first. When I worked on the outside, I was generally fortunate to be paid pretty well. My husband Ken would always say, "you make more in an hour than I do in a month and I work twice as hard!" Of course, that wasn't really true - except for the part that he did work harder than me! 🙂
So it was a very humbling experience to come to Taft Federal Prison Camp and be "offered" a job for 8 cents an hour! Talk about role reversals! Now Ken makes more in an hour than I do in a year! Well, not quite but you get the idea! But I decided early on that, whatever job I got, I would do the best I could.
My job mainly consists of tying up trash bags of leftover food and taking them out to the dumpster and mopping floors. Not the most glamorous job in the world and maybe just a tiny bit mind numbing. But I do the best job I can regardless of what the job is. And I guess the "powers that be" noticed as I got a raise and now make 29 cents an hour! I know it seems kind of ridiculous to be excited about this but small things can make you happy. More importantly though, I was thanked for doing a good job and for being reliable. And that is always appreciated - whether you are in prison or not.
Until recently, I have almost always been the main "breadwinner" in our relationship. And it is very humbling to have to rely on someone else in order to shop at the commissary and make phone calls. To his great credit, Kenny never makes me feel guilty about that but I still feel guilty anyway. So while the raise is barely a drop in the bucket, I feel good about making a little bit more of a contribution to the costs of my stay here.
The other good thing about having a job that takes a fair amount of time and requires actual physical labor is that - along with my daily workouts and 3 miles of walking - it makes me tired. For the first time in a very long time. I sleep almost through the entire night. Go figure! The one downside is that I sweat (I'm a sweater and I don't mean the kind Mr. Rogers wore). Most days, I work three shifts - lunch, a mid-afternoon shift and dinner. And I can't take a shower and change clothes after every shift since I don't have enough clothes! So I just sweat and bear it - part of my new normal I guess.
As always, thanks for listening! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
David
