Kelly,
I forgot to ask--How's Mini? Is he feeling better? I know how totally attached I became to the two dogs that I raised/trained over 2 years. I cried when we parted, and the thought of Barclay or Dewey being ill hurts my feelings.
Though recently, I haven't cried. Or laughed or felt real emotion. I feel flatlined. I was sure that I must be the most boring person alive, but I seem to entertain others who come in contact with me. I suspect it has more to do with my cynicism and blunt comments or admissions. I am also extremely irritable. Loud or repetitive noises grate on my nerves. Two women spend 2 hours yelling a conversation though a wall vent and made me consider the pros and cons of suicide.
"Excuse me. Excuse me!" I have a public service announcement. while I am well aware that boredom in isolation is like a grizzly bear that will devour you if you sit still too long, and that having conversations with other human being is one way to stave off the beast, it is also an effective means of annoying the shit out of your neighbors. Please be kind and learn how to sign. Thank you."
We have little windows in our doors for the guards to look in on us and we use the sign language alphabet to communicate across the hall to the few people we can see. At least the decent people do. The assholes yell.
You asked what I wear in prison. General population's uniforms are khaki shirts and pants, white shoes. During recreation or the dorm, they are permitted to wear grey sweats, white t-shirts, black shorts. In SHO we wear bright red scrub uniforms, but in our sell we can wear sweats or pajamas. We have a porter who washes our clothes for us. After our shower, we put our laundry in our mesh bag and the guard collect it to be washed and returned. They are always losing my little bootie socks the most. My ass must be really fat because it never eats my panties. I can buy underwear, bras, socks, sweats from commissary or request state-issued underwear, which are all low-quality, don't fit correctly, and either itch or come unraveled after two washes.
I can't believe that you don't know how to drive. That is so weird to me. In Indiana, teenagers dream of turning 16 1/2 so they can drive. Our public transportation system is spotty and not well-funded. Even poor people have cars; a couple of them might be on concrete blocks or have holes rusting through the floor boards but cars are essential here. But we have lots of driveways, parking lots, and open roads. When in Chicago, I took the L-train and buses everywhere. Up there, like in NY, you can do that. People have no idea how much money they spend on their driving. The money you save by not having a car, you pay in ridiculous rent. A $350 per month car payment plus $100/wk in gas, plus plates, tags, insurance, tires, oil changes, car washes, maintenance, and parking at downtown events comes out to probably $900 a month. A one-bedroom apartment in a middle-class neighborhood is only $600/month. A two-bedroom house, $850/month.
Have you accepted a full time job offer?
How are things between you and Bruno?
Lately I've been obsessively creating my future farm. A small market organic farm on 5 acres. I have all sorts of ideas, have done modest research, have visual aides and have created 5 designs so far. The on I am working on now takes up 9 sheets of paper, all drawn to a 1"-10" scale, including a greenhouse, caretaker cottage, chicken coop, barn, bed and breakfast cabin, my residence, and dozens of garden plots, from as little as 20 sq. ft. up to over 4000 sq. ft. each, an arbor, an orchard, and rain ponds to recycle grey water. I have picked out a 1000 sq. ft. sample garden, calculated how many of each plant I can grow, the seed needed, the yield per plant, germination rates, season extensions, on and on... It's sad because I sleep between 16 and 20 hours per day and can't bring myself to do the things I need to do, yet I spend most of those hours awake creating a farm. It's like I am coping with the present by completely avoiding it and living in the future. I avoid mulling over the past because it depresses me even more.
I reread the LIVE that was your friend Frank's email about his exotic vacation. It was telling my father that sometime in like 20 years, I would like to travel around and collect neat stuff and sell it in a store. It could be stuff from my travels like fair-trade embroidered jeans by Guatamalan women or something I really like from Trader Joes like all-natural personal lubricant. It could be my own hand-made gourd birdhouses or wildflower seed-embedded stationary, or local artisan wares. A Korean War Zippo lighter or fresh-baked blackberry cobbler. An Indian sari next to a hand-made quilt. I thought about calling the store Non-Sequitor, but maybe it should be called NEAT STUFF. The store where neat people shop. Anyway---I'm always dreaming.
I hope you are well.
Sarah
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Letters from the Inside, Sarah Pender, #78
Swelly Kelly!
I TOLD you Bruno like you the first time that you said he had IM'd you at midnight about a movie/book. No good-looking, wealthy man does that without a tingle in his heart or his pants. The good news is that you are still hot and exotic to good looking, wealthy men. The bad news, they are liars and cheaters. What a bummer. However, the very fact that Bruno admitted while sober that he has a crazy crush on you means that you are the center of this thoughts at least an hour out of every day. That has got to feel good. A nice diversion from Amir.
You are such a lucky person Kelly. You win lots of stuff, get exactly what you need when you need it. Plus, you are a great writer who refuses to accept her genius and it's a real shame because you could be happy and successful writing if you could get over your self-criticsm. Congratulations on willing $1600!!! I can't even win on scratch-off lotto tickets.
I do realize that being depressed gives me a reason to view the darker side of life and not feel guilty about it. My usual optimism gets smothered by all of the dark clouds hanging, over my head. So I was finally able to write a good Die! for your blog. :-) So, when you don't have something to post, here's a guest blog. Hope you like it.
I've been up for a total of ninety minutes and I am already tired and want to go back to bed, despite the fact that I have slept 18 of the last 24 hours. I feel pathetic. At least I am grateful that I can sleep.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sarah
I TOLD you Bruno like you the first time that you said he had IM'd you at midnight about a movie/book. No good-looking, wealthy man does that without a tingle in his heart or his pants. The good news is that you are still hot and exotic to good looking, wealthy men. The bad news, they are liars and cheaters. What a bummer. However, the very fact that Bruno admitted while sober that he has a crazy crush on you means that you are the center of this thoughts at least an hour out of every day. That has got to feel good. A nice diversion from Amir.
You are such a lucky person Kelly. You win lots of stuff, get exactly what you need when you need it. Plus, you are a great writer who refuses to accept her genius and it's a real shame because you could be happy and successful writing if you could get over your self-criticsm. Congratulations on willing $1600!!! I can't even win on scratch-off lotto tickets.
I do realize that being depressed gives me a reason to view the darker side of life and not feel guilty about it. My usual optimism gets smothered by all of the dark clouds hanging, over my head. So I was finally able to write a good Die! for your blog. :-) So, when you don't have something to post, here's a guest blog. Hope you like it.
I've been up for a total of ninety minutes and I am already tired and want to go back to bed, despite the fact that I have slept 18 of the last 24 hours. I feel pathetic. At least I am grateful that I can sleep.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sarah
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Letters from the Insider, Sarah Pender, #77
Hi Kelly,
YAY! Great couch! I got your blogs tonight and while it sucks giant donkey dick that you lost our on the Craigslist deal, you now have an almost perfect, super cozy, expensive ass, surrogate date to share your Saturday nights with unitl you find the next object of your affections... And I'm glad you found that couch story onilne. :-)
I was thinking about those perfect pieces of clothing that we find and then wear out and lament over their lost perfection when we are forced to replace them... perhaps like your Flex hoarding, you might consider buying a second favorite coat or pants or perfect little black dress and matching perfect shoes. How can you walk in those things?! I thought about when I get out, I'll do the month-long search for the perfect jeans and buy up 3 or 5 pairs to last me a while. I would even go so far as to buy one a size smaller and one a size larger so I always have them available. I don't wear jeans very often so when I do I'd like them to be just right. I'd spend a lot of time looking for a perfect pinstripe suit and a perfect leather coat.
I see all of your neuroses make NYC perfect for you to live and feel free to be yourself. Being surrounded by peope who are left of center creates an atmosphere of self-expression.
It's been raining all day. This doesn't happen very often. Indiana is famous for its ever-changing weather. Even on rainy days it passes, but not today. It makes me want to be under the covers even more than the usual. I had some energy yesterday, enough to stay a wake and create a drawing for a benefit auction in NYC promoting awareness and raising $ for prison issues, particularly opposing isolation units. I was asked to creat a piece after the curator saw my drawing in a zine I write for--Tenacious. The auction is the first week of Dec. I'm hoping to get a link to an online posting of the event.
Now that we've collected the hands, I have to start working on the exhibit and documentation. After that, I'm considering designing a t-shirt to get a few dozen made to sell online--that idea is still in development.
I have several hands that were sent to me here that I need to send to Mom, and then I"m going to see if she will go buy a new color ink cartridge and a ream of paper and print them all out for me. Then again, maybe it would be cheaper to have Kinkos print them out. We will see. I'm excited. One guy wrote me tonight from Belgium and said that he did a painting and then contacted the prison to see if I would be able to receive it. They said no, so he sent it to the PO box for Mom. I've been proud of her for keeping up with things. She doesn't like technology.
Oh man, check this raunchy shit out: yYou know that the whole premise for me being kept in solitary is that I"m a "threat to the safety and security of the faculty" right? When when I first started asking why I was being help longer than others, it was because I escaped and was an escape risk for their faculty, which was going through changes. THen, as one year metled into almost two years, and all the other escape risks were out and about, their reason for keeping me was because I "manipulated an officer into helping me out" and tha tI was a manipulator and their staff was not ready for me to be released. As if I put a gun to Spliter's head and made him fuck me... Anyway, this faculty has been losing male officers recently---3 officers in the past 3 months have been fired for misconduct with prisoners. The two women that were most recently involved were both getting fucked by the officer, and he was sending one woman money and trafficking pills for the othe rone, yet strangely, they are not being punished and held in the SHU for beinga threat to safety because of their "manipulation" of officers. In fact, none of the women involved were labelled threats, whiel I agree that they shouldn't be, beacue there's such a huge imbalance of power between an offers and prisoner that sex is almost always an exploitation of that power. The whole point is that these four/ five women are treated as victims and I'm treated as a threat. They chose food, money and pills... I chose a ride out the back door. The actionms are all the same. So now, there is absolutely no valid excuse for them to keep me in SHU. They are unfuckingbelievable.
And you think the Universe hates you.
I have become semi-addicted to butterscotch candy. It must be the season. It's rich flavor reminds me of Thanksgiving. Toffee is my favorite flavor for morning coffee in the fall. And pumpkin spice. YUM. I think it woudl be fun to spend the weekend making holiday candy with friends. Peanut brittle, toffee, turtles, cinnamon discs, chocolate covered pretzels, yogurt raisins... and then make little gift boxes to give out to neighbors, friends, co-workers, homeless people. Take some to a food pantry. Brighten people's day a bit. Have you don't any of those cooking classes lately?
Why do women outnumber men so drastically in NYC?
Oh, and I was thinking about Amir's problem with monogamy. In Islamic countries where Sharia law is used as a foundation for its public laws, polygamy is legal. So it is literally in his blood to be a polygamist and collect women. You're fighting thousands of years of genetic programming to spread his seed around and thousands of years of social programming to treat women as commodities.
Ok, I'm pooped.
It's still raining.
Guess it doesn't matter since I can't go outside anyway.
Day 1048 in SHU sucks.
Take care, Sarah
YAY! Great couch! I got your blogs tonight and while it sucks giant donkey dick that you lost our on the Craigslist deal, you now have an almost perfect, super cozy, expensive ass, surrogate date to share your Saturday nights with unitl you find the next object of your affections... And I'm glad you found that couch story onilne. :-)
I was thinking about those perfect pieces of clothing that we find and then wear out and lament over their lost perfection when we are forced to replace them... perhaps like your Flex hoarding, you might consider buying a second favorite coat or pants or perfect little black dress and matching perfect shoes. How can you walk in those things?! I thought about when I get out, I'll do the month-long search for the perfect jeans and buy up 3 or 5 pairs to last me a while. I would even go so far as to buy one a size smaller and one a size larger so I always have them available. I don't wear jeans very often so when I do I'd like them to be just right. I'd spend a lot of time looking for a perfect pinstripe suit and a perfect leather coat.
I see all of your neuroses make NYC perfect for you to live and feel free to be yourself. Being surrounded by peope who are left of center creates an atmosphere of self-expression.
It's been raining all day. This doesn't happen very often. Indiana is famous for its ever-changing weather. Even on rainy days it passes, but not today. It makes me want to be under the covers even more than the usual. I had some energy yesterday, enough to stay a wake and create a drawing for a benefit auction in NYC promoting awareness and raising $ for prison issues, particularly opposing isolation units. I was asked to creat a piece after the curator saw my drawing in a zine I write for--Tenacious. The auction is the first week of Dec. I'm hoping to get a link to an online posting of the event.
Now that we've collected the hands, I have to start working on the exhibit and documentation. After that, I'm considering designing a t-shirt to get a few dozen made to sell online--that idea is still in development.
I have several hands that were sent to me here that I need to send to Mom, and then I"m going to see if she will go buy a new color ink cartridge and a ream of paper and print them all out for me. Then again, maybe it would be cheaper to have Kinkos print them out. We will see. I'm excited. One guy wrote me tonight from Belgium and said that he did a painting and then contacted the prison to see if I would be able to receive it. They said no, so he sent it to the PO box for Mom. I've been proud of her for keeping up with things. She doesn't like technology.
Oh man, check this raunchy shit out: yYou know that the whole premise for me being kept in solitary is that I"m a "threat to the safety and security of the faculty" right? When when I first started asking why I was being help longer than others, it was because I escaped and was an escape risk for their faculty, which was going through changes. THen, as one year metled into almost two years, and all the other escape risks were out and about, their reason for keeping me was because I "manipulated an officer into helping me out" and tha tI was a manipulator and their staff was not ready for me to be released. As if I put a gun to Spliter's head and made him fuck me... Anyway, this faculty has been losing male officers recently---3 officers in the past 3 months have been fired for misconduct with prisoners. The two women that were most recently involved were both getting fucked by the officer, and he was sending one woman money and trafficking pills for the othe rone, yet strangely, they are not being punished and held in the SHU for beinga threat to safety because of their "manipulation" of officers. In fact, none of the women involved were labelled threats, whiel I agree that they shouldn't be, beacue there's such a huge imbalance of power between an offers and prisoner that sex is almost always an exploitation of that power. The whole point is that these four/ five women are treated as victims and I'm treated as a threat. They chose food, money and pills... I chose a ride out the back door. The actionms are all the same. So now, there is absolutely no valid excuse for them to keep me in SHU. They are unfuckingbelievable.
And you think the Universe hates you.
I have become semi-addicted to butterscotch candy. It must be the season. It's rich flavor reminds me of Thanksgiving. Toffee is my favorite flavor for morning coffee in the fall. And pumpkin spice. YUM. I think it woudl be fun to spend the weekend making holiday candy with friends. Peanut brittle, toffee, turtles, cinnamon discs, chocolate covered pretzels, yogurt raisins... and then make little gift boxes to give out to neighbors, friends, co-workers, homeless people. Take some to a food pantry. Brighten people's day a bit. Have you don't any of those cooking classes lately?
Why do women outnumber men so drastically in NYC?
Oh, and I was thinking about Amir's problem with monogamy. In Islamic countries where Sharia law is used as a foundation for its public laws, polygamy is legal. So it is literally in his blood to be a polygamist and collect women. You're fighting thousands of years of genetic programming to spread his seed around and thousands of years of social programming to treat women as commodities.
Ok, I'm pooped.
It's still raining.
Guess it doesn't matter since I can't go outside anyway.
Day 1048 in SHU sucks.
Take care, Sarah
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Letters from the Inside, Sarah Pender, #76
Kelly,
I think the search for the perfect couch was on This American Life. I bet you could go to their website and keyword search for the episode and its follow-up. The show is produced by WBEZ in Chicago with Ira Glass as its host.
Amir just wants to be loved. He needs a whole lot of love and by having multiple partners, he hedges his bets so he'll never be alone. It's in his Persian blood---generations of men with five wives. If he moved to Utah and became a polygamist Mormon, he could have 20 or 30 wives openly.
I'm not sure why the commissioner got fired, but I think it had to do with how he handled several riots/violent incidents in that state system. I finally got the first set of questions answered (25 pages of answers) and 175 pages of supporting documents sent out. I doubt that it will go to trial. The evidence is pretty clear that they are violating my rights and making me mentally ill. I have been struggling with another bout of depression this past 6 weeks, and it only gets worse. I lay in bed for hours, sometimes 14-16 hours a day and can't get out. When I do, I easily tire and get right back in. I have no motivation to do the things that I want or need to do. I hate it. I hate it. I feel like a bum. I've only been up for three hours and I'm nearly propping open my eyelids with toothpicks just to write this. I crawled into bed yesterday at 4:30 and didn't get up until 10:30 am today. What's worse is that I only sleep 1/2 the time. The rest I spend daydreaming about my future free life. The sad part is that I have to get out of bed to get things done in order to go home, yet I'm glued to the bed dreaming of home.
Are all of your clothes black, white and red? What if you change your last name so when people Google you that old stuff wouldn't show up? Your employer would know, but wouldn't have to divulge it to customers. Or are you so well known that it would be useless to change your name.
Maybe you should move to Los Angeles.
The UN Reporto n Torture and Abuse said that all members of the UN should stop the use of solitary confinement or at least severely limit its use to 15 days or less because of the long-lasting mental effects. Great! i'll be in therapy until I'm 50. These people are clueless about what it is like to be locked in a room for months without end. They must be. How can you do this to another human being?
I vote you sell the video to TruTV. People should be responsible for their actions in public. She has the right to feel and think whatever she wants about other people, but by openly saying these racist comments to someone on a bus and treating her tenants badly because of their color, she only gets away with it because she has no consequences. If she loses her job and is humiliated, she did it to herself. You aren't doctoring her words or reporting them out of context. she needs to be responsible for being hateful. Selling it to TruTV is doing the world a favor. Racism persists when we cover it up and let it keep happening.
I like reading your blogs.
My flower story is too long to rewrite by hand, but if it wins and gets published, I'll get an extra copy to you. I'm tired. Back under the covers I go...
Sarah
I think the search for the perfect couch was on This American Life. I bet you could go to their website and keyword search for the episode and its follow-up. The show is produced by WBEZ in Chicago with Ira Glass as its host.
Amir just wants to be loved. He needs a whole lot of love and by having multiple partners, he hedges his bets so he'll never be alone. It's in his Persian blood---generations of men with five wives. If he moved to Utah and became a polygamist Mormon, he could have 20 or 30 wives openly.
I'm not sure why the commissioner got fired, but I think it had to do with how he handled several riots/violent incidents in that state system. I finally got the first set of questions answered (25 pages of answers) and 175 pages of supporting documents sent out. I doubt that it will go to trial. The evidence is pretty clear that they are violating my rights and making me mentally ill. I have been struggling with another bout of depression this past 6 weeks, and it only gets worse. I lay in bed for hours, sometimes 14-16 hours a day and can't get out. When I do, I easily tire and get right back in. I have no motivation to do the things that I want or need to do. I hate it. I hate it. I feel like a bum. I've only been up for three hours and I'm nearly propping open my eyelids with toothpicks just to write this. I crawled into bed yesterday at 4:30 and didn't get up until 10:30 am today. What's worse is that I only sleep 1/2 the time. The rest I spend daydreaming about my future free life. The sad part is that I have to get out of bed to get things done in order to go home, yet I'm glued to the bed dreaming of home.
Are all of your clothes black, white and red? What if you change your last name so when people Google you that old stuff wouldn't show up? Your employer would know, but wouldn't have to divulge it to customers. Or are you so well known that it would be useless to change your name.
Maybe you should move to Los Angeles.
The UN Reporto n Torture and Abuse said that all members of the UN should stop the use of solitary confinement or at least severely limit its use to 15 days or less because of the long-lasting mental effects. Great! i'll be in therapy until I'm 50. These people are clueless about what it is like to be locked in a room for months without end. They must be. How can you do this to another human being?
I vote you sell the video to TruTV. People should be responsible for their actions in public. She has the right to feel and think whatever she wants about other people, but by openly saying these racist comments to someone on a bus and treating her tenants badly because of their color, she only gets away with it because she has no consequences. If she loses her job and is humiliated, she did it to herself. You aren't doctoring her words or reporting them out of context. she needs to be responsible for being hateful. Selling it to TruTV is doing the world a favor. Racism persists when we cover it up and let it keep happening.
I like reading your blogs.
My flower story is too long to rewrite by hand, but if it wins and gets published, I'll get an extra copy to you. I'm tired. Back under the covers I go...
Sarah
Friday, October 21, 2011
Letters from the Inside, Sarah Pender, #75
Kelly,
Your letter cheered me. The flashy paper...(holographic?) is colorful and pretty, like megaglitter, and makes me happy. I want to recycle it into something cool. Maybe I will crease and fold it into a a cube and use salvaged tape to close it around a bunch of elbow macaroni and it can be a paperweight!
Hey, that's a good idea.
Yay! Amanda Knox was fired! I'm next!
I always enjoy You Might As Well... and today, I have a LIVE!
The day I escaped happened to be the first day our new Commissioner took office. Following the media circus and official misconduct/sex scandal, the national women hunt, etc. - they found me working an office job in a wealthy Jewish community, living in a quiet neighborhood with my pet fish, sober and crime-free. Instead of in a court of law, he got his revenge by locking me in solitary confinement and causing me to have a psychotic break.
Over 1000 days later, I am still in solitary, which suckis, but the Universe has a great sense of humor. Nine months ago, the Commissioner left Indiana to work for Florida DOC. Six months ago, I filed a civil lawsuit naming him as one of the defendants. And now, guess who just found himself involuntarily unemployed? Karma, ladies and gents. Karma.
I want to get dressed u and be escorted somewhere wonderful by a woman or man in a tuxedo. How fun and romantic! Have you ever thought that being smart and pretty makes it harder to meet men because they are intimidated by you? or if it's just NYC, have you thought of traveling to Maine to get a date? Or NJ? Fly out here to the Midwest and within a week, you'd have a half-dozen marriage proposals. have you and your new friend considered joining a sports club? or taking a co-ed class? Or going to Wall St? Have you been down there to see the Occupy movement? You could make a picket sign protesting the unfair advantage men have in the NYC dating scene. Maybe you could start an affirmative action program.
I don't understand why you can't get a real full-time job just because you were fired six years ago. I mean, you got fired for blogging, right? It's not like you smuggled a hundred kilos of coke across the border or maimed a 92 yr. old man for $6. I have a friend who was in prison for five years for presciption pills and is now an RN and head of a hospice unit in a nursing home. Have you ever considered ghost writing? Or doing PR for art galleries? Or doing a restaurant review blog? With your wit and writing style, you could do something unique. Instead of snooty food reviewers, you have a middle class palate and review everything from hotel lounge bars to KFC to hose places you go to try and meet people to foo foo spots. You could do party reviews. Review those posh events you go to. People would invite you to get a review. You'd become a NYC socialite.
Why can't you cancel your $3K couch and order from IKEA dammit? I heard a story on This American LIfe with Ira Glass on NPR out of Chicago, about a guy who was OBSESSED with finding the perfect couch for years. I think he strained a few relationships because of it. Ater the story aired, he found one and committed to it--he said that is was not the perfect couch. The euphoria was all in the chase. You can listen HERE.
I never tlaked seriously to I Almost Got Away With It. Just doesn't feel right at the moment in my life. It also feels like since it doesn't benefit me or my family, I'd be getting exploited. And since I don't care about fame or negative attn. it's one opportunity that doesn't feel worth it.
When I am released from prison I will likely stay here in Indiana for a while to finish any parole or to help my mom out. She moved here to support me, so I want to return the love. I don't think that I will have a hard time finding work. I've always been lucky and I know people who would hire me for office work, accounting, drafting, or who knows? I want to help her pay off her place early so she'll hae that extra money when I leave. I want to help do some light remodeling like cabinets, better insulation, green technology, and plant her a small garden in a rasied bed so she doesn't have to bend over. (She has a messed up spine.) While I do these things, I'll work on establishing some credit. After 11 years in prison, my history is blank. No good. No bad. I'll also be buying a new life's worth of stuff. I'll explore what activist opportunities are locally available, start attending political functions. See what hte Universe opens up for me.
I'll probably spend solme time inh Washington with my father, visit a few friends in California, and see my sister in FL. I have two friends in NYC I'd go see and would love to challenge you to a game of Scrabble after dinner and booze. My wife, ex-g/f and best friend are all here in Indiana so unless a specific opportunity opens up abroad, I'll probably stay put here for a few years. I also have close friends in Missouri and Tennesee that I'd visit for at least a long weekend. I sure wouldn't mind buying some land in the TN mts and working virtually for a company part time and doing some eco-farming or running a bed and breakfast/commune/co-op somewhere. I dont' know. Whatever opens up for me, really. I'm up for an adventure. If I don't like it I can try something else.
I might get my Master's and get overpaid to work for some local business or get a paralegal degree and work for a law firm. Anything is possible.
After all of the crazy shit you and Amir have been through you are just now getting around to officially breaking up? I mean, I thought you already told him to go to hell months ago.
Your last name should be removed by now from the site. I was on the phone with mom and she looked up where it was when we talked. I think there are over 200 hands and we have two weeks left. I hope for at least 220 hands--twice my sentence. Plus, that will make a nice exhibit.
I entered a local (Indiana) annual writing contest this week. It was for poetry, short story (fiction) or essay. I submitted a short story about a daisy named Luben and his growing pains. His best and only friend is a caterpillar named Wooly. The other characters are a lilac bush, a tulip, Mina and Peony in the garden of the Thompsons. Oh and Larry the plastic lawn frog.
I think that i'm going to order some graham crackers and marshmallows and Hershey's to make cold Smores next week. I suppose I could put them in a baggie and stuff them in my bra until the chocolate melts...
Be well!
--Sarah
Your letter cheered me. The flashy paper...(holographic?) is colorful and pretty, like megaglitter, and makes me happy. I want to recycle it into something cool. Maybe I will crease and fold it into a a cube and use salvaged tape to close it around a bunch of elbow macaroni and it can be a paperweight!
Hey, that's a good idea.
Yay! Amanda Knox was fired! I'm next!
I always enjoy You Might As Well... and today, I have a LIVE!
The day I escaped happened to be the first day our new Commissioner took office. Following the media circus and official misconduct/sex scandal, the national women hunt, etc. - they found me working an office job in a wealthy Jewish community, living in a quiet neighborhood with my pet fish, sober and crime-free. Instead of in a court of law, he got his revenge by locking me in solitary confinement and causing me to have a psychotic break.
Over 1000 days later, I am still in solitary, which suckis, but the Universe has a great sense of humor. Nine months ago, the Commissioner left Indiana to work for Florida DOC. Six months ago, I filed a civil lawsuit naming him as one of the defendants. And now, guess who just found himself involuntarily unemployed? Karma, ladies and gents. Karma.
I want to get dressed u and be escorted somewhere wonderful by a woman or man in a tuxedo. How fun and romantic! Have you ever thought that being smart and pretty makes it harder to meet men because they are intimidated by you? or if it's just NYC, have you thought of traveling to Maine to get a date? Or NJ? Fly out here to the Midwest and within a week, you'd have a half-dozen marriage proposals. have you and your new friend considered joining a sports club? or taking a co-ed class? Or going to Wall St? Have you been down there to see the Occupy movement? You could make a picket sign protesting the unfair advantage men have in the NYC dating scene. Maybe you could start an affirmative action program.
I don't understand why you can't get a real full-time job just because you were fired six years ago. I mean, you got fired for blogging, right? It's not like you smuggled a hundred kilos of coke across the border or maimed a 92 yr. old man for $6. I have a friend who was in prison for five years for presciption pills and is now an RN and head of a hospice unit in a nursing home. Have you ever considered ghost writing? Or doing PR for art galleries? Or doing a restaurant review blog? With your wit and writing style, you could do something unique. Instead of snooty food reviewers, you have a middle class palate and review everything from hotel lounge bars to KFC to hose places you go to try and meet people to foo foo spots. You could do party reviews. Review those posh events you go to. People would invite you to get a review. You'd become a NYC socialite.
Why can't you cancel your $3K couch and order from IKEA dammit? I heard a story on This American LIfe with Ira Glass on NPR out of Chicago, about a guy who was OBSESSED with finding the perfect couch for years. I think he strained a few relationships because of it. Ater the story aired, he found one and committed to it--he said that is was not the perfect couch. The euphoria was all in the chase. You can listen HERE.
I never tlaked seriously to I Almost Got Away With It. Just doesn't feel right at the moment in my life. It also feels like since it doesn't benefit me or my family, I'd be getting exploited. And since I don't care about fame or negative attn. it's one opportunity that doesn't feel worth it.
When I am released from prison I will likely stay here in Indiana for a while to finish any parole or to help my mom out. She moved here to support me, so I want to return the love. I don't think that I will have a hard time finding work. I've always been lucky and I know people who would hire me for office work, accounting, drafting, or who knows? I want to help her pay off her place early so she'll hae that extra money when I leave. I want to help do some light remodeling like cabinets, better insulation, green technology, and plant her a small garden in a rasied bed so she doesn't have to bend over. (She has a messed up spine.) While I do these things, I'll work on establishing some credit. After 11 years in prison, my history is blank. No good. No bad. I'll also be buying a new life's worth of stuff. I'll explore what activist opportunities are locally available, start attending political functions. See what hte Universe opens up for me.
I'll probably spend solme time inh Washington with my father, visit a few friends in California, and see my sister in FL. I have two friends in NYC I'd go see and would love to challenge you to a game of Scrabble after dinner and booze. My wife, ex-g/f and best friend are all here in Indiana so unless a specific opportunity opens up abroad, I'll probably stay put here for a few years. I also have close friends in Missouri and Tennesee that I'd visit for at least a long weekend. I sure wouldn't mind buying some land in the TN mts and working virtually for a company part time and doing some eco-farming or running a bed and breakfast/commune/co-op somewhere. I dont' know. Whatever opens up for me, really. I'm up for an adventure. If I don't like it I can try something else.
I might get my Master's and get overpaid to work for some local business or get a paralegal degree and work for a law firm. Anything is possible.
After all of the crazy shit you and Amir have been through you are just now getting around to officially breaking up? I mean, I thought you already told him to go to hell months ago.
Your last name should be removed by now from the site. I was on the phone with mom and she looked up where it was when we talked. I think there are over 200 hands and we have two weeks left. I hope for at least 220 hands--twice my sentence. Plus, that will make a nice exhibit.
I entered a local (Indiana) annual writing contest this week. It was for poetry, short story (fiction) or essay. I submitted a short story about a daisy named Luben and his growing pains. His best and only friend is a caterpillar named Wooly. The other characters are a lilac bush, a tulip, Mina and Peony in the garden of the Thompsons. Oh and Larry the plastic lawn frog.
I think that i'm going to order some graham crackers and marshmallows and Hershey's to make cold Smores next week. I suppose I could put them in a baggie and stuff them in my bra until the chocolate melts...
Be well!
--Sarah
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Letters from the Inside, Sarah Pender, #74
Kelly Belly,
If I were free I would do two things for you send you a little box of Jelly Bellies and volunteer myself and a semi-attractive Italian man to haul your new couch up so you could have whatever couch you wanted, delivery option or not.
I think the ones with spindly legs would work better in your apt. aesthetically, but seems like a lot of hassle when the big black bulky one meets off of your needs. Have you thought about saving yourself the hassle and just getting new cushions for the one you already have?
I don't even have words for the Amir story. It's just WOW! Remember when you asked about what people would suggest you do to "burn the fucking house down" in order to get rid of Amir? I think you figured it out. Not that you intended her to extort him, but you get your intended painful infliction of woes unto him and it does seem to have kept you from poisoning yourself further with Amirion. I'm sure the withdrawal sucks and you, like so many of us, want a hand to hold and cute emails in your box, but at least you have swank parties and art museums. I'm lonely, live in a bathroom, and am collecting cobwebs.
Great party photos, by the way.
Yay! For the tree that survived 911! We love trees. The waterfall memorial is pretty. Water is life. We don't value either one enough.
Sometimes I am able to catch cooking shows on the public TV channel and there's one called America's Test Kitchen where they make wonderful stuff and explain why each thing works the way it does (food gastronomy or whatever) and they made a souffle that looked fabulous. I am hungry.
NO STABBING THE SOUFFLE!!
You will miss Reidtard when he's gone. Admit it. Just a little You need a Scrabble partner who doesn't cheat and a boyfriend who doesn't cheat and a girl fried who isn't a cunt. Maybe that's the next Big Three.
I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER SHAKES! I also want to perfect a peanut butter pie recipe for my friend so when he opens his restaurant, he will sell Pender's Peanut Butter Pie. Not PB Cream Pie. That's lighter. This is so rich and heavy, it's like eating a slice of Newt Gringrich. Only without the bad aftertaste.
Just exactly what kind of fun do you have at a creepy party with drunk douchebags? Rent a Netflix, make some yummy Amaretto/chocolate/PB ice cream drink, and curl up on your new couch with MINI. Maybe you should take a vacation to Maine. Don't they have nice men in Maine? Or there's lots of good ol' monogamous country boys lost out here in the cornfield of the Midwest. I'm just saying.
All of the interviews for Snapped went really well. We talked a lot about the events that lead up to the crimes, which included a lot about my relationship to men in my life. I went into the ordeal just wanting to be transparent, so I answered openly and honestly. It was freeing because I recalled how I felt about Rick without feeling like I had to villify him because of what he later did. To them and to me. At the time, I was face-busted fallen in love, but I realize that I, like many women, fell in love with an image of who I thought he was, of who I wanted him to be.
He had been captain of the football team in high school and had a scholarship to play at NY Syracuse. He'd been a wrestling champion and had aspirations of going professional. He had great manners with my parents, could be sensitive and sweet, put the toilet seat down, and allowed himself to cry in front of me twice. He laughed a lot of was good to his mom and sister. I already had us in a 2 bedroom ranch home in the suburbs with a fenced yard and dog and cookouts with neighbors and family over at holidays.
In my mind if I just loved him enough nagged him a little a gave him all he wanted, he'd want those things too. And it was working, I thought.
Hey! George Wright escaped from prison 40 years ago after a murder conviction and was found in Algeria this week. Just heard it NPR.
Anyway, so being able to speak openly made it issues to talk about why I made the choices I did around his crimes. The sound man later told my mother that I was one of the most personable, straightforward, and believable people he's ever seen interviewed. And for the first time, he believes someone was wrongfully convicted. It also helps that when they interviewed my co-defendant, the producer told me that he openly admitted that he was the person who shot the victims, that I had nothing to do with it, that I never once manipulated him in our relationship and the only things I asked for him to do was to stop selling drugs, get a real job and settle down with me.
My mom, sister Jeni, Jamie her husband, Larry, Kim, Pam and Bridgette all interviewed on my behalf and everyone said it went very well. The producer and crew were impressed with how much they loved and supported me. After all of the interviews, I was last. The producer said she left the prison and immediately called her editor and said, "I've got the story of your dreams."
It's supposed to air in January.
I got your letter late---there are no Kelly shout-outs. Maybe next interview. You are so funny.
I need to lose some weight so I am thinking about getting dehydrated vegetables for snacks. They sell the kind you boil to put in soups or whatever, but I like to eat them one by one with my front teeth. I used to use sunflower kernals but at 500 calories a bag, it sucked. I am over this anxiety that makes me want to chew. I gnaw my lip and my cuticles. It's ridiculous. It's this ROOM.
But I am not even whining. I just am happy that we are getting more awareness out there about my case. Once I find a lab that runs this software and can prove that I was convicted on false evidence, I'll get my convictions overturned and no jury would convict me on the real evidence. I'll finally get what I deserve and go home. Remember the anagram? PARDONS HER. That's right. The judge will do what amounts to a pardon. December 2013. The Universe told me so.
That's a reason to LIVE for sure!
Love songs make me thing of the days of my youth. What I wouldn't give to be 20 again, waking up to David gently humping my thigh at 2am. Or even 18 again in the all-girl dormitory at Purdue. I'd sure like ti all back to do over. I picture myself working a mile underground in a big particle accelerator, not writing hundreds of letters each year, stuck in a bathroom, eating bad food, plagued by mental illness, and under a sentence for crimes I didn't commit. WTF? This better do some real, serious good in the world to be worth all this bullshit. I want to make a positive difference to rival NLK Jr or something. I want a large cheese and pineapple pizza, too. And garlic butter for the pizza bones. I want a deep tub full of hot,milky water. I want a pet fish. A whole tank of them. And a job I love. And an MP3 player full of music I like. Iw ant to walk barefoot in the grass and feed the ducks. I want to smell apple wood burn in the fireplace. I want to plant mums by the front porch and make a wreath for the door. I want to eat fried biscuits and apple butter. I want someone I love to fix me biscuits and gravy Saturday morning and rub my feet. I want to experience the Third Entity again.
Take care,
Sarah
If I were free I would do two things for you send you a little box of Jelly Bellies and volunteer myself and a semi-attractive Italian man to haul your new couch up so you could have whatever couch you wanted, delivery option or not.
I think the ones with spindly legs would work better in your apt. aesthetically, but seems like a lot of hassle when the big black bulky one meets off of your needs. Have you thought about saving yourself the hassle and just getting new cushions for the one you already have?
I don't even have words for the Amir story. It's just WOW! Remember when you asked about what people would suggest you do to "burn the fucking house down" in order to get rid of Amir? I think you figured it out. Not that you intended her to extort him, but you get your intended painful infliction of woes unto him and it does seem to have kept you from poisoning yourself further with Amirion. I'm sure the withdrawal sucks and you, like so many of us, want a hand to hold and cute emails in your box, but at least you have swank parties and art museums. I'm lonely, live in a bathroom, and am collecting cobwebs.
Great party photos, by the way.
Yay! For the tree that survived 911! We love trees. The waterfall memorial is pretty. Water is life. We don't value either one enough.
Sometimes I am able to catch cooking shows on the public TV channel and there's one called America's Test Kitchen where they make wonderful stuff and explain why each thing works the way it does (food gastronomy or whatever) and they made a souffle that looked fabulous. I am hungry.
NO STABBING THE SOUFFLE!!
You will miss Reidtard when he's gone. Admit it. Just a little You need a Scrabble partner who doesn't cheat and a boyfriend who doesn't cheat and a girl fried who isn't a cunt. Maybe that's the next Big Three.
I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER SHAKES! I also want to perfect a peanut butter pie recipe for my friend so when he opens his restaurant, he will sell Pender's Peanut Butter Pie. Not PB Cream Pie. That's lighter. This is so rich and heavy, it's like eating a slice of Newt Gringrich. Only without the bad aftertaste.
Just exactly what kind of fun do you have at a creepy party with drunk douchebags? Rent a Netflix, make some yummy Amaretto/chocolate/PB ice cream drink, and curl up on your new couch with MINI. Maybe you should take a vacation to Maine. Don't they have nice men in Maine? Or there's lots of good ol' monogamous country boys lost out here in the cornfield of the Midwest. I'm just saying.
All of the interviews for Snapped went really well. We talked a lot about the events that lead up to the crimes, which included a lot about my relationship to men in my life. I went into the ordeal just wanting to be transparent, so I answered openly and honestly. It was freeing because I recalled how I felt about Rick without feeling like I had to villify him because of what he later did. To them and to me. At the time, I was face-busted fallen in love, but I realize that I, like many women, fell in love with an image of who I thought he was, of who I wanted him to be.
He had been captain of the football team in high school and had a scholarship to play at NY Syracuse. He'd been a wrestling champion and had aspirations of going professional. He had great manners with my parents, could be sensitive and sweet, put the toilet seat down, and allowed himself to cry in front of me twice. He laughed a lot of was good to his mom and sister. I already had us in a 2 bedroom ranch home in the suburbs with a fenced yard and dog and cookouts with neighbors and family over at holidays.
In my mind if I just loved him enough nagged him a little a gave him all he wanted, he'd want those things too. And it was working, I thought.
Hey! George Wright escaped from prison 40 years ago after a murder conviction and was found in Algeria this week. Just heard it NPR.
Anyway, so being able to speak openly made it issues to talk about why I made the choices I did around his crimes. The sound man later told my mother that I was one of the most personable, straightforward, and believable people he's ever seen interviewed. And for the first time, he believes someone was wrongfully convicted. It also helps that when they interviewed my co-defendant, the producer told me that he openly admitted that he was the person who shot the victims, that I had nothing to do with it, that I never once manipulated him in our relationship and the only things I asked for him to do was to stop selling drugs, get a real job and settle down with me.
My mom, sister Jeni, Jamie her husband, Larry, Kim, Pam and Bridgette all interviewed on my behalf and everyone said it went very well. The producer and crew were impressed with how much they loved and supported me. After all of the interviews, I was last. The producer said she left the prison and immediately called her editor and said, "I've got the story of your dreams."
It's supposed to air in January.
I got your letter late---there are no Kelly shout-outs. Maybe next interview. You are so funny.
I need to lose some weight so I am thinking about getting dehydrated vegetables for snacks. They sell the kind you boil to put in soups or whatever, but I like to eat them one by one with my front teeth. I used to use sunflower kernals but at 500 calories a bag, it sucked. I am over this anxiety that makes me want to chew. I gnaw my lip and my cuticles. It's ridiculous. It's this ROOM.
But I am not even whining. I just am happy that we are getting more awareness out there about my case. Once I find a lab that runs this software and can prove that I was convicted on false evidence, I'll get my convictions overturned and no jury would convict me on the real evidence. I'll finally get what I deserve and go home. Remember the anagram? PARDONS HER. That's right. The judge will do what amounts to a pardon. December 2013. The Universe told me so.
That's a reason to LIVE for sure!
Love songs make me thing of the days of my youth. What I wouldn't give to be 20 again, waking up to David gently humping my thigh at 2am. Or even 18 again in the all-girl dormitory at Purdue. I'd sure like ti all back to do over. I picture myself working a mile underground in a big particle accelerator, not writing hundreds of letters each year, stuck in a bathroom, eating bad food, plagued by mental illness, and under a sentence for crimes I didn't commit. WTF? This better do some real, serious good in the world to be worth all this bullshit. I want to make a positive difference to rival NLK Jr or something. I want a large cheese and pineapple pizza, too. And garlic butter for the pizza bones. I want a deep tub full of hot,milky water. I want a pet fish. A whole tank of them. And a job I love. And an MP3 player full of music I like. Iw ant to walk barefoot in the grass and feed the ducks. I want to smell apple wood burn in the fireplace. I want to plant mums by the front porch and make a wreath for the door. I want to eat fried biscuits and apple butter. I want someone I love to fix me biscuits and gravy Saturday morning and rub my feet. I want to experience the Third Entity again.
Take care,
Sarah
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Letters from the Inside, Sarah Pender, #73
Dear Kel,
I'm listening to the top 30 country songs being counted down and it is a great way to feel better---listening to all the sad songs makes me feel for--for them--and eventually feel better about my own loneliness. I am a little jealous that they even have relationship to wreck in the first place. I still don't know what happened betw. you and Amir after he came back from Iran. In one letter, he came home; in the next, you had blown it, he hated you and it was too raw for you to talk about. And now you say that Amir had to sneak to see you in the rain b/c his family hates you. I never got to hear the story, so I'm not only clueless, but I missed the story. I have no love life, no romance to speak of, and look forward to your Amir stories. Remember, I live in a bathroom, Kelly. Your love life is like cable tv reality shows for free people. I missed the special Amir--coming home episode. Can I get a rerun?
Oh, man. Now it is the song, "Where were you when the world stopped turning?' about Sept. 11th. I remember I was in jail and after the second plane hit...about ten minutes later, the jailers pulled the plug on our tv and we conjured up the beginning of World War III and what would happen if they invaded and started bombing Indianapolis (as if)?
Would they leave us in there to die or be captured or let us free to fend for ourselves? It was wild being left in the dark. After the hurricane and now the beefed up security for terrorist threats, I imagine life has been a little weird for the past two weeks in NYC.
Did you really read James Joyce's Ulysses? I heard that it took him seven years to write that book and it was initially rejected by publishers only to become one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It did not, however, make my "Books that have make history: Books that can change your life" list put out by Great Courses audio lectures. :-) Homer's Iliad made it but not Odyssey. Other books I have read that made the list:
Bhagavad Gita
Book of Exodus
Mark
Job
Inferno (Divine Comedy)
Othello Julius Caesar
Gettysburg Address
What is sad--there are 36 books on the list. Out of the seven I read I can only recall the specifics of four of them. I do want to read Beowufl, 1984, Faust, Walden, and the autobiography of Ghandi.
I'll write mom again about your name. She said there were lots of hands in the box 2 weeks ago but had been overwhelmed with issues at home and then she's been doing stuff for my court case, transcripts, and I believe today she was interviewing with the producer of Snapped! They flew my sister up from FL and got her a rental car so they could do the interview together. My interview is Tuesday. I'm partly nervous, and partly confident. I believe it will ultimately help me. Last Saturday, she was wheezing with an awful chest cold. I worry about her.
Have you ever had a one-night stand via CL?
What does ZOMG stand for?
Are you still creating text/cards/stories out of media for Amir?
You should document them all and public them in a book: LOVE HURTS. LOVE BITS. Loving a Sociopath to Pieces. WordPlay, LOVE IS PUZZLING!!!
I love your premonitions and futuristic anagrams. I still hang onto what I discovered in them. I'll be released legally from prison, healthy and happy in Dec. 2013. The Universe rocks.
How far away are you from Amir on the distant shore now? Is there a chance that you can get the captain to turn the boat around? If you yell, "Swim, Baby, SWIM!" would he come for you?
I sent my query letter into PM Press and today I saw that Ms. Magazine reviewed a book from PM Press. They publish a lot of radical literature, activist stuff, so feminist literature would certainly fit in there. I haven't written anything since I sent in my submission to the PEN American Center's contest for Prisoner Writing two weeks ago. My civil case is moving along; I have the interview this week with Oxygen Networks show, and heavy correspondence with a local TV investigative journalist and setting up an interview there, too. Plus, more hand art projects out to other artist to spread the requests. This week I got one from CAN, ENG, and NJ. This is fun. Oh, I heard on our local NPR station an interview with Ken Honeywell; he had a couple fellow writers started a marketing company and their side project is a literary site that pays authors for their work--a little sarcastic, fun, and snarky (that's YOU!) called punchnels.com It'ts about four years old now. Anyway, I thought you might want to submit something because you have great stories.
Hope you are well and have new Amir stories. I love you two being together like bored housewives love their favorite soap opera couple. And new dates are a close second favorite.
Peace,
Sarah
I'm listening to the top 30 country songs being counted down and it is a great way to feel better---listening to all the sad songs makes me feel for--for them--and eventually feel better about my own loneliness. I am a little jealous that they even have relationship to wreck in the first place. I still don't know what happened betw. you and Amir after he came back from Iran. In one letter, he came home; in the next, you had blown it, he hated you and it was too raw for you to talk about. And now you say that Amir had to sneak to see you in the rain b/c his family hates you. I never got to hear the story, so I'm not only clueless, but I missed the story. I have no love life, no romance to speak of, and look forward to your Amir stories. Remember, I live in a bathroom, Kelly. Your love life is like cable tv reality shows for free people. I missed the special Amir--coming home episode. Can I get a rerun?
Oh, man. Now it is the song, "Where were you when the world stopped turning?' about Sept. 11th. I remember I was in jail and after the second plane hit...about ten minutes later, the jailers pulled the plug on our tv and we conjured up the beginning of World War III and what would happen if they invaded and started bombing Indianapolis (as if)?
Would they leave us in there to die or be captured or let us free to fend for ourselves? It was wild being left in the dark. After the hurricane and now the beefed up security for terrorist threats, I imagine life has been a little weird for the past two weeks in NYC.
Did you really read James Joyce's Ulysses? I heard that it took him seven years to write that book and it was initially rejected by publishers only to become one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It did not, however, make my "Books that have make history: Books that can change your life" list put out by Great Courses audio lectures. :-) Homer's Iliad made it but not Odyssey. Other books I have read that made the list:
Bhagavad Gita
Book of Exodus
Mark
Job
Inferno (Divine Comedy)
Othello Julius Caesar
Gettysburg Address
What is sad--there are 36 books on the list. Out of the seven I read I can only recall the specifics of four of them. I do want to read Beowufl, 1984, Faust, Walden, and the autobiography of Ghandi.
I'll write mom again about your name. She said there were lots of hands in the box 2 weeks ago but had been overwhelmed with issues at home and then she's been doing stuff for my court case, transcripts, and I believe today she was interviewing with the producer of Snapped! They flew my sister up from FL and got her a rental car so they could do the interview together. My interview is Tuesday. I'm partly nervous, and partly confident. I believe it will ultimately help me. Last Saturday, she was wheezing with an awful chest cold. I worry about her.
Have you ever had a one-night stand via CL?
What does ZOMG stand for?
Are you still creating text/cards/stories out of media for Amir?
You should document them all and public them in a book: LOVE HURTS. LOVE BITS. Loving a Sociopath to Pieces. WordPlay, LOVE IS PUZZLING!!!
I love your premonitions and futuristic anagrams. I still hang onto what I discovered in them. I'll be released legally from prison, healthy and happy in Dec. 2013. The Universe rocks.
How far away are you from Amir on the distant shore now? Is there a chance that you can get the captain to turn the boat around? If you yell, "Swim, Baby, SWIM!" would he come for you?
I sent my query letter into PM Press and today I saw that Ms. Magazine reviewed a book from PM Press. They publish a lot of radical literature, activist stuff, so feminist literature would certainly fit in there. I haven't written anything since I sent in my submission to the PEN American Center's contest for Prisoner Writing two weeks ago. My civil case is moving along; I have the interview this week with Oxygen Networks show, and heavy correspondence with a local TV investigative journalist and setting up an interview there, too. Plus, more hand art projects out to other artist to spread the requests. This week I got one from CAN, ENG, and NJ. This is fun. Oh, I heard on our local NPR station an interview with Ken Honeywell; he had a couple fellow writers started a marketing company and their side project is a literary site that pays authors for their work--a little sarcastic, fun, and snarky (that's YOU!) called punchnels.com It'ts about four years old now. Anyway, I thought you might want to submit something because you have great stories.
Hope you are well and have new Amir stories. I love you two being together like bored housewives love their favorite soap opera couple. And new dates are a close second favorite.
Peace,
Sarah
