January 30, 2008

• Prison Cuisine

  It's been a long time since i've written about Tristen. For a while, when my life was in this huge upheaval, he was at the forefront of my thoughts & of my writing. Those of you who have been reading for a long time will probably remember some weird posts which seemed to come from outer space. In short, I was desperately in love. It was a total disaster.

  And then for all intents and purposes, the topic abruptly dropped off the face of the blog. I didn't write for a long while after that. Maybe I couldn't think of an eloquent way of putting it, to find a way to reflect my life experience into this format. Maybe I felt it belonged to me, and that's all it needed to be, so i didn't share it with you. One morning Tristen was home, we were waking up making pancakes and goofing around, and then a matter of hours later he was in big trouble and I didn't see him for a long time.

  I waited for a year for him. It was the stupidest, but also the most devoted and most beautiful thing I've ever done. I defied the judgements my friends, family and convention put on the situation. What would a young, clever, talented, educated woman like myself want with a convicted felon? All I can say is that he was my friend, and he needed me- my visits, letters, precious phone conversations- to get him through. And i was there for him. It is the best thing I have ever done. And in time, the waiting became not about Tristen, but about myself. It was my time of solitude.

  But back on topic.

  I probably know better than most Xangans what you get and what you don't in prison. I used to keep a copy of the canteen list on my fridge, and regular reports of what had been for dinner. These kinds of things fascinate me, I guess. Tris would generally avoid the food served in the chow hall, since it is pretty much what you'd expect. Most everything was processed or came from a can, like bad cafeteria food. In the mornings there would be rubbery scrambled eggs and maybe toast or cereal. Lunch would be a sandwich. Dinner was some poor excuse for fish sticks or sloppy joe's or soggy pizza. Of course, no fresh meats or produce, no homecooked meals or ordering in, no fast food, nothing exotic or fresh or interesting, not even a real cheeseburger, for god's sake, and certainly no dessert.

  I guess you don't get dessert if you've been naughty.

  What you could get was various items off the canteen list, if you had funds in your account. Tristen liked to draw, so he would trade his art skills for food or money. I have an empty packet of Cactus Annie's Squeezy Cheez that was smuggled to me in the mail as a joke, hehe. The list itself was extensive- not just non-perishable food items, but clothing and radios were available too. Also on the list was summer sausage, ramen, soda, juice, powdered donuts, candy bars, tortillas, tunafish, peanut butter, cereal, coffee, tea, powdered milk, etc etc. In short, if you are an ingenious inmate and you happen to have a crockpot in your cell, there are tons of things you can cook for yourself. Tristen came up with quite a few recipes, and would pool his stash with other inmates to make food far better than what was offered in chow. He also sent me some of his "recipes", and there's a couple i actually like, including macaroni and cheese with sausage, and thai peanut wraps, and this ass-fattening monstrosity made from pastries and melted snickers bars. Yum.

  By the way, he got out a few months ago. Of course I'd long since moved on, but one of the first things we did together [as friends] was go out for dinner. We had a really nice, long converstion about everything, and the food was excellent. : )

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  • 2:33 pm
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