Here I am, so swamped with stuff to write about that I don’t know if I can remember everything I wanted to write.

I’ve been living here for 6 years today.

Let me cover Monday’s happenings before getting to yesterday’s.

Andy finally called. He was in San Francisco for a while attending Juliet’s wedding. Also, an example of how he doesn’t listen well - he said he was glad we got that $83,500 offer when we were only asking for $65,000. Didn’t I tell him it was the other way around? That we were asking $85,000 and thought we’d have to cut the price down to around $65,000? Then he says we could give him $5,000 and not even miss it. Not true. We need all the money we can get. Just because someone’s not exactly poor doesn’t mean they don’t have plans for their money or their money tied up.

He also said he hasn’t yet listened to the beginning of the story I started (I left him a message reading him the beginning) cuz he wants to wait till he can concentrate (he means he wants to wait till he’s sober), but that it sounded like I was reading from a book and that I used words he’s never heard before. Then he can go ahead and erase the message cuz he already answered my question. If it sounded like I was reading from a book, then maybe my story will be good enough in the end if I can ever finish it and literally have a book. As for using words he’s never heard of - wow, cuz he was the one, along with Tom, who really helped me expand my vocabulary.

Tom said there’s this brand-new thing I hope we can find someday that sounds totally awesome. The decorative plates I have, well, you can’t eat from those or put them in dishwashers or stuff like that. Now, though, they have paints that you can use to paint your own plates that you can wash and eat off of!

Monday, we went to Trails End Realty and put $500 down on the first 10-acre lot we saw that I felt that instant “we’re home” vibe on. What’s even more ironic is how the view fits my vision almost to a T which I told Tom about. I told him I could only see one house from the back of the house and nothing on the sides and the front, and that’s exactly the case. It won’t last long, though. People are gonna take advantage of the fact that we’re having the power strung right in that area and use it for themselves. I know God will bring in more people and houses and noise just as soon as I get there, but I don’t think it can come close to how noisy it can get around here. It also figures that the land next to us was broken up into 4 pieces, which means that although they can’t usually afford it, thank God, we could end up with 4 huge Mexican families on the 10-acre lot next to us, but Tom insists that we have nothing to worry about as far as noise goes. He says the properties are too big for there to be a problem with that like it can be here since here, they put 6 houses to an acre. Well, we’ll see, but I still say that if God finally lets me live my life without neighbors included in it, he’ll just go and do something else. There’ll be some new ongoing issues that I’ll have to deal with, but I may not mind the change of pace if it’s not too bad of an issue to deal with, cuz 8 years of dealing with neighbors’ noise and their bullshit is more than enough.

I’ve gone back to Tic-Tacs since I can have them after all. It just took me time to get used to sucking on something I couldn’t feel on the roof of my mouth. I gotta have some kind of vice, though, since I can’t chew gum with the retainers, don’t smoke, and don’t want to have a million cups of coffee a day even if it’s decaf.

Later...

Tom got in and we discussed some of the house’s options, then he went to bed. He’s pretty beat with all that’s been going on, but not as beat as he was last week.

Ciara arrived yesterday, sooner than I expected! She’s gorgeous. She’s very hard to describe, but let’s just say she’s huge. Her upper arm’s bigger than my wrist. Her powder blue dress is beautiful with sequins, pearls, lace, chiffon, bugle beads and satin. If people saw my dolls and didn’t know any better, they’d think my favorite color was light blue! Anyway, the floral lace hem at the bottom is gorgeous, and she’s got 3-4 layers on counting the stiff net-like stuff that’s underneath to make the gown flare out. I don’t know what it is, but there’s this icy glaze over the surface of the satiny part that’s really nice. She has lace gloves that the hands stick out of that are of the same lace that makes up the hem of her dress.

She came with a pearl necklace and pearl drop earrings that you’re supposed to stick straight in the holes drilled in the earlobes, but they kept slipping out so I had to glue them in. Her earlobes are part of the head and not separate where you can grab both sides of them like with a person, so I couldn’t simply bend the earrings and hook them in. Her dangling pearl earrings are similar to Summer Dream’s.

She has a pretty hairpiece shaped almost like a halo that’s made of pearls and lace, but I’m not using it cuz it doesn’t stay on very well, and it doesn’t look as nice as how I have it now. I have the sides pulled back and the rest loose. Her dark blond hair is curly and I decided not to straighten it.

Her aqua-blue eyes are runner-up between all my dolls as far as realism goes.

It was a bitch trying to figure out how her stand works since it’s different from any other stand I have. At first, I thought it was just the always-a-problem-with-dolls-I-get problem I had to deal with and that they forgot to ship the part of the stand that catches her at the waist, but that’s not how she stands. You shove a rod up her crotch, then screw it into her round stand which is almost as round in diameter as an old 12” album.

I left off her pantaloons, which are as long as my arms. For two reasons - they’re not necessary since you can’t see them anyway, and because I couldn’t figure out how to get them on over the stand.

Her shoes could fit a 3-year-old. The only thing that makes no sense is why they put girl socks and girl shoes on this obvious woman doll. She not only has a woman’s face, but she has tits girls don’t have. She’s soft-bodied from just under the tits to her shins. Besides, socks and shoes like she’s wearing (not that you can see them under her gown) don’t go with her dazzling fancy dress. I’d put her in stockings and heels, not socks and girl’s shoes.

Her face, which is just average, looks better in person than on TV. I definitely got her mainly for her dress and height. I see a slight resemblance to Juice Newton when I look at her from certain angles.

Her head moves, and her arms do, too. Her arms move front and back, but not at the sides. They do move in and out a little, but that’s only to give it flexibility when you’re dressing/undressing the doll. They don’t stay that way, though. Once you let go, it goes right back to where it was. I thought it looked better with one arm in a little more towards the body, so I stuck a bead in her shoulder socket to keep it in. They tend to have a doll’s arms stick out too much away from the body. Also, I like how the head’s attached at the top of the neck, rather than at the bass as with Bailey and Maria. It’s less noticeable at the top.

She also came with a little purse that matches her dress. It’s got a long pearl strap so you can hang it from her shoulder, but I chose to wrap the pearl strap around her hand and have the purse dangling from her hand.

She’s number 99 out of 300.

They sent me a complimentary scarf with dull neutral colors, but I’ll keep it anyway. I also got a card for subscribing to doll magazines, but I opted not to do that. After I get the rest of the dolls I want, I don’t want to be seeing more gorgeous dolls that I can’t get till there’s extra money for that again.

Tom set things up so I don’t have any claims to the new house/property, even though we both know it’s our place so that if he dies, I could just take the $50,000 of life insurance and get out of there without any responsibilities holding me there. That’s very sweet of him, but I meant it when I said that if he died, I’d die. Where would I go? How would I live? And even if I could stay at the house with a million dollars and live just fine, I wouldn’t want to. I won’t live if he can’t, whether or not we’re rich or poor.

I’m on my third page here and I’m still not done. I still have to write about the home inspection they did yesterday, but I’ll do it later.

Later...

This sucks. I’ve been recording 80s stuff all day and they haven’t played one good song that I don’t already have.

Anyway, the home inspection was more involved than I thought it’d be. I thought just one person would come out and breeze in and out of the house in ten minutes, but instead, the H’s realtor came to the house with two inspectors. The H’s are the people buying this house, by the way. Their names are on some of the forms Steven sent us. Along with the Realtor and the two inspectors, the H's came to the house with a friend of theirs. So, there were a lot of people here yesterday.

I don’t know what the results of the inspection will be, which was done by two guys in their late 40s-early 50s. They were nice, though. Especially the one with the German accent.

I was surprised the buyers were here, but Tom said that that was good. They should be here to know what’s going on so that they don’t have any questions in the future. I guess Steven’s gonna contact us about it sometime next week. Tom’s nervous about it, but I’m not, even though perhaps I should be. I mean, this is where God could really get us. He could really mess with our plans and make our lives miserable if he wanted to. If he’s gonna do this I suppose now would be the time to, but I’d like to think and hope that he wouldn’t be that mean to us after how long and hard we’ve worked to get out of here and into where we’re going, even if we do have to stay in an apartment for a month or two on our way there. Maybe I’m not nervous cuz I don’t have a bad vibe. I don’t vibe the H’s backing out. They seem too eager to move in here, and I’d think I’d sense it if they were gonna back out on us. Also, why would I get such a strong home vibe on that land if it weren’t meant to be ours? Just because I wished it could be? I don’t think so. I think it was more than just wishful thinking.

Also, the H’s seem very easy-going and easy to please. They don’t strike me as the type to make serious demands, changes, or additions that we’ll have to negotiate. We’ll see, though.

Ms. H and I talked yesterday and she is one of the nicest people I ever met that you just feel instantly comfortable with. Good looking too, although not fantasy kind of good looking. She looks great and is in excellent shape for being in her 40s. I’m sure it’s the result of never having kids unless she has kids that are on their own since she said it’ll just be her, her new husband, and his dad who’ll be having hip surgery, who was one of the few that stayed skinny after having kids. However, she strikes me as the classic woman whose right to have kids was stolen from her. She totally strikes me as the type who loves kids and who wanted them, but I’ll bet you anything she could never have kids. Why she never adopted, beats me, but maybe she did and they’re already on their own.

Anyway, I asked her if she worked out (even her handshake was firm and bone-crunching) and she said she swims a lot at the house she and and her husband are now renting. Also, this is their first house.

When they told me they have 3 dogs, I no longer felt so bad for them having to be next to a pack of wild freeloaders, cuz if you can stand 3 dogs that are no doubt gonna be out back barking non-stop, you should be able to stand music and other things. They do seem pretty easy-going and tolerable to me. I’m still glad, nonetheless, that no one banged in next door while they were here. Let them get introduced to and acquainted with next door’s shit after we move.

I guess Mr. H grew up in Sunny Slope and Ms. H is from Texas. What a nice Texan. Usually, they’re prejudiced, conceited snobs like Donna and Rosemarie were from the Vista. Texans hate everyone. The only thing they do right is killing their violent offenders.

Anyway, she admired Ciara, said she had braces too, and that her mom died. Maybe that’s why they’re suddenly buying a house and can afford to put a $23,000 deposit down like they said they would. They must’ve inherited some dough.

She asked me why the electric bill was so high. I just said I keep the AC cranked up all the time, but Tom told me later that it’s not high. Whatever.

She asked me what I liked best about the house. The truth is - none of it, but I told her the pool.

To get an idea of just how serious they are about moving in here, I asked her if she was excited about moving in and she nodded yes with a big grin, so I guess that and my vibes answer that.

She thought Ratsy was so cute, but I stopped her from patting him before he could bite her like he does with Tom. She thought the mice were cute too, and says, “So the place has mice.” Ha, ha!

The thing that had Tom and I baffled was how Mr. H was boasting about this being a great neighborhood. How does he know that if he grew up in Sunny Slope? Well, he’s gonna be very disappointed when he finds out that his lazy, inconsiderate freeloader neighbors can be so loud and messy.