Monday, October 7, 2013

I had an interesting afternoon at work. Actually, I had a fun day. I laughed at inmates all day long. I have an inmate who comes to my library who is blind. He comes to use the braille typewriter. Today he asked me how good my eyes were. I told him, "Well, I can see you and you're all different colors." He said, "Really, and here I thought I was only black." (He's actually American Indian.) Of course, we all laughed. He then asked me if I could help him with something. So I went over and he showed me something in Braille. I said, "It looks like a piece of paper with a bunch of dots." He was having trouble "reading" one particular area where the dots weren't raised as well. I tried to describe how the dots looked to me. It was difficult because I was using my hands, outlining the dots when really he couldn't even see them. So I asked one of my clerks for a pencil or a pen, and I went from the back of the page to poke the dots up higher. The inmate asked me what I was doing. I explained to him what I was doing and he said, "Can you see from the back?" I said, "Yes, it's like counted cross-stitch." He said, "What's that?" I told him it was a type of embroidery. He didn't understand. I told him to trust me. After I was done, I gave it back to him, and he felt the dots and he said, "Oh, they're zeros." (They were both the same.) I said, "I guess!" He said, "Are they backwards L's? I said, "Yes, exactly!" Yay, we were on the same page! He offered to give me a sheet with all the Braille letters and numbers, and I accepted the offer. Another learning experience for me!!!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything!!  I need to start blogging again.  It's only a few years until I retire, and I could use this as my memoirs. 

A couple weeks ago we had a strip search on the yard. I saw a guy all tatted up except his butt. It was strange looking. If I knew who he was, I'd send him a note telling him he should get his butt tatted so it didn't stick out like a sore thumb. . . or a white butt!

Then yesterday. . . 

Before I'd even locked the door after my session was escorted over, an inmate said, "There will be no torturing of inmates today." I looked at him, and said, "Excuse me!" He laughed and said, "I just thought I'd get the first word in." I said, "You forgot who made the rules in here!!" We all laughed!!! Later I said, "You all know I'm scared of inmates." This same inmate said, "Yeah right, you probably have a torture chamber in your basement." I replied, "I don't have a basement." He laughed and said, "You notice how she said, "I don't have a basement, but didn't deny having a torture chamber." We had a fun session!!! My job can be so entertaining sometimes!!!!