Nothing new to report really. I brought a T-shirt this time in case someone needed it but of course no one did. The Oz was the same guard as last time and performed her duties with the same attitude as last time. She put me in number 1 which had a metal grate and glass between the prisoner and visitors, so not very eye contact friendly. I picked up the phone and Ben could not hear me. I could hear him and he said he could hear me a little through the glass but not through the phone. So I went back to the great Wizard of Oz and told her the phone in booth 1 was not working to which she very curtly replied “well it was working fine earlier tonight, you telling me its not working now?” – the inflection was as though she was accusing me of making up this tale to get a better booth aka one without a metal grate. I kept my cool and remained as nice as could be when I said “well, its not working now. Could you send someone to check it?” and the she relented and reassigned us to 11. So I told Ben and for whatever weird reason the doors that are suppose to lock behind the inmates in the tiny phone closet did not lock so he opened the door and walked himself down to 11. There was not a chair at each phone which is really strange – where did the chairs disappear? So I started out standing and when someone else left I snagged a chair. We chatted again about the usual. Books he’s reading. His case. His past. Oh and my fellow DCDBer and friend Sally has been telling him things about me and he likes to surprise me with the new insights and I jokingly told him I would not tell Sally anything again. She thinks its only fair since I told him once some quirky factoid about her that was relevant to our conversation and he told her. So we have a fun game going on now. As long as it is amusing to Ben I am cool with that. On the way out people were either being booked or released- I couldn’t really tell – but there was a long line of people (so I guess released) and an officer with a clipboard taking down info like birthdates (so maybe being booked?) anyway he ran into a spanish speaker and wasn’t getting anywhere with english so he asked down the line if anyone spoke spanish i offered to help at the same time as someone in the line so I was not needed and went home. I am pretty sure my hubby and I watched Lost after that and went to bed. It is a hard balancing act to know that life goes on and Ben is in a cell, waiting, waiting for a time when justice will prevail. It’s like my brain has built a chinese wall- there must be separation between realities or I would just have to cry all day – I guess we all do that. There is so much pain in the world and so much darkness its easy to forget the light sometimes. Ben’s faith keeps him and gives him a grace that allows life to go on outside while he is waiting. I think I am rambling and likely not getting my point across now so  . . .  Goodnight Dallas and God Bless.