14 Feb 08

From Iron Man (Letter 1)

2-3-08

Jon,

Good morning, bloke! It is 7:00 A.M. and I just finished an hour of yoga.

Congratulations on the radio interview and on getting your book together. I am really excited for you, and I know that with your dedication and will to power, there will be no stopping you.

Today was the first day I have been able to do yoga for a week. Everybody here has been sick. Some type of crazy virus ripped through the whole Tucson complex. Out of the 80 people here in the dorm, only two or three weren’t affected. Weird Al was one of the lucky ones because all he got was a case of the sniffles and a sore throat. Too Tall was in the hospital for a week. (By the way, Too Tall is a total homosexual now.)

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that Kat the Navajo cut off his own balls two days after you left Santa Rita. Coincidence? I think not. He/she is back with us now, happier and gayer than ever. Someone said that Kat must not have been too nuts about his nuts. Kat claims it was just a “sowing” accident and that he still has his balls, but the cops claim self-castration, and Kat was in the hospital for several days. Plus, when I asked Kat to show me the scar, he/she wouldn’t. So there you have it.

My coworker at the tailor shop had some kind of psychotic attack and had to go to the rubber room. He had that virus and a real high fever, and it triggered his insanity. Now I am the only tailor. My job consists of taking 2 or 3 pairs of worthless pants and combining them together to make one pair of wearable pants.

This place is out of money. They only give us one roll of toilet paper every 10 days now.

I’m off to do 30 minutes of hard burpies.

Alright, I’m back. Excellent burpie session this morning, followed by abs. I’m riding the high right now, but I know I’ll crash hard soon. Man, I’ll never forget the day we worked out and afterwards you said you felt like a small animal that had been thrown against the wall – and lived. That’s good shit, man.

In Dr. S’s Creative Writing/ Critical Thinking class, one of the writing assignments is going to be on: “What gives meaning to your life?” He says he got that idea from you. I’m glad you are still in contact with him.

I really miss working out with you. I’ll never forget the times we had pushing ourselves beyond the limits of normal human endurance. There is no place here to practice martial arts, so I’m back to just doing it in my mind. Yes, the martial arts attitude, the warrior mindset, really helps you keep perspective.

There are a lot more fights here than there were at Santa Rita. They don’t even take you to the hole for a regular fist fight. Tensions are high all the time and I’ve come close a couple of times already to saying “fuck it” and kicking someone’s ass. Hopefully it won’t come to that because if I get into it with someone it won’t be a “regular” fist fight.

Well, Jon, it was great to hear from you. Write again when you have the time. Take care of yourself and stay focussed on your goals.

You are in my thoughts and prayers, and it is with Love and Respect that I am,

Your Friend,

Iron Man

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