3/13/13: We have a new Pope. For all Catholics, we look forward to his leadership, guidance, & his new ideas. Also, today I decided that I will finally take some rest from the gym. I either pulled or tore my hamstring & the pain is constant so I'm off for the next 7 days. I just pray the pain goes away & it heals. I'm no stranger to pain, & normally I work through it but this time, no. We have some very bad medical care in here (as in all prisons) & when I'm 40, 50, 60, & still here, I don't want my body to be deteriorating & falling apart. I wanted to let everyone know how to get cheaper phone calls. This is perfectly legal & it helps save money in this bad economy. So here are step by step instructions on how to get a pre-paid cell phone with a local number. I'm not sure how other states' phone calls are but in PA, if you have a local phone # to the prison, the calls cost $1.60 for 15 minutes. So you can either get a cell phone with a local # or you can buy a pre-paid cell phone & get a local #. You go to Walmart, buy a phone called a "Net 10" phone. They ask you for your zip code. This is so they can give you a number. You give them the zip code that is local to the prison. Like this one is 16654 so when my brother bought the phone, that's what he gave them & we have a local number now. The only catch is that when the minutes run out, you always have to go buy more. But it does cut the cost of your calls in half, & the more you call, the cheaper it is in the long run. If prisons were ever about helping people, let me assure you that, now, they are not. I know a guy, Rob, who maxed out this morning & went home. Nowhere to go, no money, he is now homeless. But no one cares. Prisons are about making money & punishment. That's it. The word "rehabilitation" is a joke in here. We fix ourselves. My 15 year old daughter Krista, she is lost in foster care, she has a father who was never there, a mother who doesn't want her. What happens when she's 18? Will she be homeless? Will she follow in her father's footsteps? I hope not. I hope my daughter is stronger than I was. I dream of sending her to Italy with my friends but it's just a dream. I'd love to send her to my friend Maria, I know she would be well taken care of, loved, & she wouldn't have to be afraid. But in here, all we have are dreams. During my week off I'll be too busy to daydream. I have our annual Cursillo retreat weekend. That's a 4 day church retreat here in the prison. I'm a worker so I'll be working the entire time. The outside guests who come here & run this retreat, they amaze me. Some have been doing this for 3 decades & they never give up. Over the years I have gotten to know most of the men & a few of their wives & they are very good people. We enjoy this retreat weekend every year. There's not much going on in my life that's interesting. I will miss working out this week with my buddy that's commonly known in here as "Boo-Cheeks" but I call him by his name, "John". John never seems to run out of energy & when I'm exhausted, I hear him yell, come on Robert let's go. One thing about John, he always, & I do mean always, has a smile on his face. Soon I have to write my friends in Italy. Christine & her husband Nuccio just got back from their 6 week vacation to Costa Rica. They got sick from bad water. But they loved going back. My great uncle Dean traveled Italy while researching our family tree. He spent close to 2 decades researching our genealogy. He was a man I admired. Wish he was still around to tell me about his travels. I for one am not well traveled so I love hearing about new places. I hope Christine sends me some pictures of her trip to Costa Rica. Whoever is reading this, I hope you went to the website, pasentencing.com, and signed on to support giving men & women in PA a 2nd chance at life on the outside. No words from my daughter so I am sending her a St. Paddy's Day card and hopefully she'll write. It's so impossibly hard to maintain a relationship with a child while in here. I hate that I cannot grow closer to my own child. I just sent her the blog site & if you're reading this Krista, Daddy loves you, angel. Life in prison is not easy. What would have been easy is if I were sentenced to death & killed by now. A life sentence is a lot worse. You sit here, stagnant & you rot. I don't desire sympathy, nor pity, but I am a changed man, not completely changed, but I've come a long way & I still have a way to go, but I'm working on it & just having wonderful friends in my life like Christine, her daughter Lisa, my Midwestern girl Maria, & even my Dutch friend Sonja, though she does not write often enough, having good people in my life to help guide me & motivate, to give me reason to change, this is what a lot of us need in prison. BJ & her mom Barbara have been very influential in my learning of the Catholic faith. Well, as boring as I am, I will sign off now. To my family & friends, I thank you's all for being in my life, for caring, & for not giving up on me. Next week I'll let you know how the Cursillo retreat 4 day weekend went. Till next week. Ciao.