Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Irony is: everything that was yesterday

This seems to be the new start to my Wednesday’s posts: Thank you so very much for your thoughts and prayers yesterday. I certainly felt them all as I took care of everything at work.

via pinterest

Ironically, as I drove into work and mentally prepared myself for everything, the radio station was interviewing a woman who’s been in and out of prisons for 15 years.

And then right after that, a female Correctional Officer who’s worked in men’s prisons for the past 25 years, and just recently retired, was interviewed.

And then shortly after that, the song ‘Courageous’ came on. You know…the song I was singing to myself the night before to ‘amp’ myself up…yeah, that played.

I just chuckled and knew everything was going to be ok, because clearly God was with me.

And it was. Everywhere I went, everyone I encountered, showed genuine happiness to see me and genuine happiness for me…once they recognized me. Several of my co workers did double takes and it was kind of fun watching their minds work as they figured out it was me.

It took about 3 1/2 hours for me to find everyone and get their signatures throughout the entire institution. In that 3 1/2 hours, I talked to a number of Lieutenants, Sergeants and Officers. Cracked a joke to a couple of inmates, got 1 hug (not from an inmate), several handshakes and 1 date offer.

One thing C/O’s aren’t is subtle. Doesn’t matter that they’re going through a divorce (for the 2nd time with the same wife) or that they’re a lot older or the fact you have a big fatty wedding band on your ring finger; if they see a ‘pretty officer’ they’ve never seen before, they will ask her out!

After declining, he offered me everything he had in his lunch box to eat…even what he was about to eat.

::please note I am not married. I only wear a wedding band to work to make people think I’m married…clearly it works well::

It couldn’t have gone better. Well, that’s not true. Had I brought my checkbook to pay the outstanding balance they overpaid me and not have to return today to do it..then it couldn’t have gone better. I got a taste of what it was like to be around inmates in civilian clothes, too. They acted completely different around me not knowing I was custody and that was very interesting to me.

One thing I noticed with a lot of co workers I spoke with is they wished they were in my shoes, retiring. They all want to be out. A few told me how much longer they have until they’re about to retire, eager to have that in common with me.

It made me all the happier to be retired, and done and no longer having to deal with ‘how horrible the department has become’ (as everyone kept saying).

I’m FREE!

Even though I have to go back today and pay the overpayment, I’m free.

Praise God.

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8 comments:

Sam W. said...

i'm so happy it went well!!

i used to wear a wedding band in college when i substitute taught in a very sketchy school system. i got so much more respect! crazy how that works.

Ashley said...

soooo happy to hear that your "FREE" whoop whoop!

I didn't see your post yesterday, so I'm gonna have check it out!

My-cliffnotes said...

Woohoo you are free. When I separated from Active Duty I was over paid also, and I took it as a bonus, until I joined the Guard and they took that overpayment back on my first paycheck. LAME

BUT YOU ARE FREE.

Bonus we are both working out today RIGHT????

I'm Hannah said...

What is your new job?

Hope it suits you and your heart better :)

LeAnna said...

Sooooo glad you had a great response, and heck, getting asked out on a date never gets tiring. Unless they are flat out creepy or you've already told them no before. Then it's scary.

Sorry you have to go back today. But yay it's almost over!

carissa said...

i'm so glad it went pretty well. praise God, you are free indeed!!! so happy for you. : )

meghan said...

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to comment! I'm so excited for you that you're officially free and everything is taken care of. It sounds like it went better than you had expected too, and it must be such a wonderful wonderful feeling! I can't wait to see you build up the photography with a clear mind without all of this stuff weighing you down. :)

Megan said...

Hoorayyyyyyyyy!! That's so exciting!!!!

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