Prison Stories Well, I left work at two thirty in the afternoon on Friday to pick up Brenda. I have no idea why the woman that she rode with to Minneapolis could not take her home, but it doesn't matter. Not only did I get to see Brenda earlier than planned, I also got to leave work early. So I have no reason to complain. Friday night started off with a trip to the laundromat combined with some impromptu grocery shopping. Then we went to bed early. Yes, we are very romantic. Saturday included a trip to her mom's house, a trip to the bookstore, a visit to her aunt's house and a night of pizza and movies. The trip to the bookstore was primarily for me. I mentioned my new fascination with Karen Blixen, the woman who wrote Out of Africa, the other day and I had to get a copy of the book for myself. Not only did I get a copy of that book, but another book that she had written and a biography on her as well. Brenda couldn't decide on any books that she wanted, but then she really doesn't consider herself much of a reader anyway. So now I have four new books to read when I find the time. What will probably happen is that I will start to read one and then abandon it for another one. Shawshank Redemption was one of the movies that we watched. Yes, I know that it came out years ago, but I never saw it until last night. People had recommended it to me, so I was hoping that I would like it and I did. The Tim Robbins charcacter had what I like to think as a Eastern philosophy of thought. He had a sense of calmness and patience that is not found very often in the Western world where everything is so accelerated. Everything has to happen at once. No one has time to wait anymore. He had the ability to remove himself from his surroudings and in some ways rise above it. Some people might find the Robbins character to be implausible, but it still appeals to me. Then again its only fiction. Maybe I prefer a parable over a more straightforward story. All of this is coming from someone who loves the film Lawrence of Arabia. I never have gotten around to reading his autobiography. Greatness really is a matter of how a person sees things. Yes, I admit that it has many of the same conventions that most prison movies have in them. Andy was the new prisnoer that other prisoners come to repsect and follow. None of this is new. Most of it has been done before. Other examples would include Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape and even Bad Boys to some extent. A prison is a prison after all. The setting can only be so different. I don't think that this takes anything away from the movie. For me its still a movie about believing in oneself. Very few people seem to be capable in doing so. Strength for many people comes from an outside source be it religion or something more tangible. This morning Brenda had to go into work at six. I decided to get up when she got up. Why would I do this she asked. She said that she would sleep in today if she had the chance. Well, I am a morning person and I see this as my time and I am not going to waste it by sleeping. I got some computer time in this morning and cleaned my house up a little. I have the afternoon to mail out some resumes and pay some bills. I promised myself that I was not going to let work upset me. I know that I will keep looking for another job and more than likely I will print out some of the resumes and letters at work in the coming weeks. I guess I like the fact that I can look for a job on my current employer's time. It may seem childish, but I don't care. Besides I am certain that I am not the only person who has done this kind of thing before. Where I used to work, my coworker ran his business from where we worked. The only reason he had the job was for benefits, because it was too expensive to pay for them under his own business. Every day he would be calling his staff from what was his other job. I worked with a woman who was in prison for a year. She was in because she had tried to help her then boyfriend escape from a minimum security prison. Emotions can make people do some really dumb things. For fun she would call her self an ex-con. She was a good looking woman, but not too bright. Brenda brought back this expensive day planner from her week long training. I never quite understood the meaning behind those things. Yes, time management is an important skill, but this is coming from someone who doesn't even own a watch.  
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