I decided to get dinner before finding a hotel and while I was eating at the bar of a place called Jack's, I met some incredibly nice people including a man who recommended the Best Western down the road. When I checked in at the Best Western, I noticed that the hotel bar was pretty lively. Since my room came with a coupon for a free draft beer, I put my stuff in my room and headed to the bar. While watching the Ohio State, Illinois basketball game, I met quite a few more incredibly nice people. Between the two bars, I talked to several people who said that they do not, under any circumstances, drive in Virginia for fear of getting pulled over. This seemed strange. After a few hours at the bar, I went back to my room, watched sports center, and went to sleep.
The next morning I got up and drove to Marion, Virginia to appear in court and pay for my speeding tickets. When I appeared in front of the Judge, he informed me that because I was going more than 30mph over the speed limit, it was a class 1 misdemeanor and I could potentially face up to 12 months in jail and a 2,500 dollar fine for EACH offence (there were two because the first officer was traveling the opposite direction on the highway and called the second officer to pull me over a few miles down the road where they arrested me and each gave me a separate ticket). I asked for a public defender and when I was appointed one he told me that because I was going over 30mph over the speed limit, there was likely no keeping me out of jail. At first I thought he was joking. He was not. He told me to tell the judge what I was doing here in Camden, admit guilt, and ask for mercy. I did this and then the Judge sentenced me to 4 days in jail and a 2,000 dollar fine. I was taken to a holding cell where I was to wait for a van to pick me up and take me to county jail. Shortly after, another man from the court room was brought to the same cell. He was going to jail for 6 days for a speeding ticket, despite having had a lawyer and having never been pulled over before in his life before this offence. He was a small Indian man and as they loaded us into the van to take us to jail, I noticed that he looked terrified. I looked at him and said "who would have thought you would be going to jail for speeding huh?" and then laughed. I saw some of the terror leave his face and I talked to him most of the way to the jail. I couldn't help but think that maybe I had to go jail so that the poor little Indian man wouldn't poop himself out of fear.
When we arrived at the jail and the officers were booking me in, they informed me that in Virginia, you only have to serve half the time that you are sentenced. Because my paperwork said that I was only sentenced to two days, they thought that I would only be there one day and left me in a holding cell (essentially solitary confinement) instead of booking me into population. This was a mistake in the paperwork and I did, in fact, have to serve a full two days. Had I been booked into population this would not have been so bad, but since I was in a tiny cell made of 266 cinderblocks (I counted many times) by myself, I nearly lost my mind. Even if I had to fight every second of the time I was there (which is generally not going to happen to someone that looks like me in county (especially in a place where they send people to jail for speeding)) it would have been far better than losing my mind in that tiny cell.
I was finally released on Friday morning. I was taken back to the court house and the officer driving the van told me that he would not even drive through Virginia if he didn't live there. He said he would drive around it unless he had somewhere to be that was actually in Virginia. When I got back to the court house, I paid my fine (which was slightly more than every penny I had. My parents sent me the difference so that I wouldn't have to return to jail) and got in my car to get the hell out of Virginia as fast as possible (without speeding of course).
Just when I was ready to start a petition to make Virginia secede from the United States, I stopped to get gas by James Madison University. As I got out of my car, I noticed that 5 of the 8 people pumping gas were attractive young women, all of whom smiled at me. When I went into the mini mart to pay for my gas, I noticed a basket full of ping pong balls next to the register (for those late night emergencies when someone steps on the last ping pong ball while playing beer pong). I said to the clerk, "This must be a college town" and then a voice from behind me said, "What gave it away? The ping pong balls?". I turned around to find yet another attractive young woman wearing a James Madison sweatshirt. I pumped my gas and continued on my way, but from the small sample size at the gas station, I determined that 60% of the people who go to James Madison University are pretty girls (all of whom will either smile at you or strike up a conversation with you, making you feel good about yourself). I am now strongly considering attending grad school at James Madison University.
When I hit Washington DC, it was about 3:30pm. This meant that I would be sitting in rush our traffic in both DC and Baltimore. I got back to Camden at about 8 o'clock, just in time to catch the end of the 3 on 3 basketball tournament we had for our Jr. High Kids. I would have loved to have been a part the basketball tournament but I was just glad to be home.
When I got back to Camden, Albert (my after school program director) told me that he went to my class the first day I was gone and his exact word to them were this: "I'm not gunna lie to ya'll, that nigga's in jail". This made me laugh and it was nice to be back with people. My kids prayed for me while I was in Jail and they told Albert that he should take the money from the change drive we are doing, to raise money to build a basketball court for a church in Kenya, and use it to bail me out of jail.
On Saturday I went with Mike and Charlotte (other interns) to Philadelphia and went to a couple of used bookstores. After Philadelphia, 8 other people and I went to dinner at Denny's and then hung out at the other intern house till about 2am.
On Sunday I went to church in the morning and then watched Michigan get killed by Michigan State, which would have been depressing if I hadn't already given up on Michigan's season. I then shaved my head into a mohawk and got all dressed up for our intern Oscar party, and I gotta tell you, I looked pretty damn good. The Oscar party was fun and when we got home at about 1am, my roommate Chad asked me to cut his hair. We shaved the top of his head so that his beard connected to what looked like another beard on the back of his head. Chad is crazy and it looked ridiculous. Video of the process can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=558251981881&ref=mf
Back beard
Chad named him Frank
Yesterday we did not have camp because we had to set up for the Jr. High Olympics that we are having this week. Last night we had another camp fire in our backyard. This time about 15 people showed up. It was a lot of fun. Today we started the Jr. High Olympics but I will save that for next weeks blog.
We got some great news this weekend. There is a former intern that Albert has remained friends with who is now a famous photographer and he is going to have a fundraiser for us at a club in New York. This is something that we have known for a while. The big news is how big the event is becoming. ESPN has gotten involved and is supposedly going to provide us with Disneyland tickets for the whole group. Also the legendary rap group Naughty by Nature is going to host the event and several other celebrities are expected to attend. There is also now the potential for some media coverage of the event. This event is going to be on April 1st and I am really looking forward to it.
only you, matt williams! sounds like its been eventful over there!! :)
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