Happy Easter. Feast or Famine.

On Sunday night I called my parents for the first time in many months.

Our new Governor came through on a campaign promise and as of April 1st, our collect call rates were cut in half. It now costs $1.50 for the initial connection and 8¢ for each minute. We are allowed to stay on the phone for up to 30 minutes, so the overall cost of the call is around $4.00 as opposed to $8.00.

Yeah. Maybe I can get some phone pals? I will be sending a post on that idea.

Well Mom and Dad seemed to be in good spirits from their trip to Florida. I mentioned to them about a special Family Day that the Protestants have on June 2. They thought it sounded like a nice idea and they are planning to come visit me that weekend.

On Monday I received no mail at all, then along comes Tuesday and I received a letter from Mom and Dad, a letter from you, and four NY Times (Fri-Mon), and the monthly Lutheran magazine! Then today (Wednesday) Tuesday's Times arrived.

I am pleased to announce that I have finished the first read of all the papers and I completed the Monday and Tuesday crosswords.

Your letter was great and contained lots of emotional energy (for lack of a better description).

I now have music practice with two other musicians for the Catholic service on Monday and Thursday afternoon. One guy plays bass guitar and the other plays lead. This means I can relax a bit and just work on playing melody without having to store anything.

I am still the lone musician for the Protestant service.

Tomorrow I will have a practice from 3 to 5, and then the Catholic service at 7:00 P.M.

Friday there will be another Catholic service in the afternoon from 1 to 3.

On Saturday I will be in the chapel for the Protestant service and set-up from 11 to 4 PM and then return at 6 for the Catholic Easter Eve Vigil. So this is the last chance I will have to get a letter out to you this week.

It is already almost 10 pm and I still have not done any practicing.

I will have a "day off" on Easter Sunday, so hopefully I will use the time to get a nice long letter out to you along with a bunch of stuff for the blog.

Thanks for the IFC schedule, I have already shared it with other inmates.

After many denials, they finally approved the other half of my nose surgery. This will be to fix my deviated septum. The doctor here had to really push for it. No date is set yet, but it should be in the next few weeks.

Much more to come.  ¶ 11:29 PM