Good Morning,

I thought I would write to let you know how Thanksgiving went for Rob
this year. Due to some lack of communication on my part, Rob had a
visitor before he was able to eat the turkey dinner at Devens on Thursday.
The way it works on holidays and weekends is that there is a meal at
11:00. If a visitor shows up, the inmate must report to visiting no matter
what he is doing. Once a visitor is there, he/she can not leave and
come back again. But to make matters worse, I was actually looking forward
to a turkey sandwich from the vending machine there myself.
Unfortunately, it chose Thanksgiving day to be out of order! So Rob and I were
both a little hungry. We feasted on potato sticks (from a different
vending machine) and soda. It turned out that the inmates had actually saved
a meal for Rob to have after visiting! But he said it was so chewy and
gross, that he gave it all away. I think he had a can of stew from his
locker that he had previously purchased from the commissary that week.
--So he did not go hungry for long. :)

Rob really enjoyed hanging out with his brother, Mom and Dad though.
(oh, and me too!) It is kind of nice to have one big holiday out of the
way. In America, we put so much pressure on ourselves to carry on
traditions, buy gifts, put up decorations, etc. I personally enjoy all of
those things. But is has been a wonderful learning experience for me to
sort of "de-condition" myself, and really embrace what it all means to
me. --That is that I have some really special people (and animals :)) in
my life, and they really don't care about the lack of gifts,
decorations and parties I would normally have to offer. They come to Rob and to
me with warm smiles and let us know that we are valued because of what
we have to offer as people. That is a great feeling I hope I will always
remember.

I don't think I mentioned in my last email that Rob was recently
introduced to a new inmate last week who is there for a similar reason. Chris
Tresco, a former MIT Economics Department system
administrator. He was a member of another software piracy group called
Drink or Die. He has a 12 month sentence, which put him and Rob at
around the same date for release. They will likely go to the Coolidge house
at just around the same time as well. It must be somewhat comforting to
have someone to do the countdown with.

Rob is still on the road to getting in shape. He has lost almost 30
pound in three months! He is running the track or treadmill at least once
a day and not snacking too often. I am working on having him have a
photo taken by the prison "photographer" (another inmate with a cheap
camera and a clip board) --But he keeps telling me "not today, maybe in a
couple of weeks."

Rob has finally earned enough seniority to move to another bunk. It is
in a quieter area, away from the game tables. We are hoping he will be
able to sleep better now. I think the lack of sleep is caused more by
psychological distractions than physical. But it certainly can't hurt to
find improvements wherever possible.

That is about all I can think of for now. I will keep you posted if anything exciting happens!

Shannon