The house should have a roof now! As Tom said, though, it would’ve been nice to see it moved from one spot to another.

The house is due on Thursday, but when are they gonna drill the well and septic?

Yesterday I finished a book and forgot to get another one from the trailer, so I bought one at K-Mart. I read 255 of its 290 pages.

After work today Tom will be at Mary’s playing car again. Just how much of our time and money will this cursed car eat up this time? It’s the water pump this time.

I got up at 8:00 when the alarm went off, made coffee in the microwave, then went to the lobby for a muffin. I returned to the room and ate it, then I let the front desk know that now would be a good time to send up housekeeping.

A woman and the supervisor, the same one that knocked yesterday, came up and were very friendly. I let them know that all I really wanted was the garbage emptied and the bed changed.

The housekeeper and I chatted a bit, and she too, left Phoenix cuz she was just as sick of everyone wanting to be on stage and in the spotlight. She too, got sick of always having to know what her neighbors were up to, like it or not.

I asked if they had lotion and the supervisor generously gave me three bottles and apologized for disturbing us yesterday. She said new people were just hired and they screwed up and had the room listed as a check-out, so she thought the room was empty. No problem, I told her.

I’ll write about my “free” breakfast later.

Later...

I expect it’ll be hours before he gets back, knowing how car jobs always turn out to be a bigger deal than expected before we go out to the land.

Yesterday was acceptable here - just a few scattered door slams. Hopefully, God will let our last day and night here be peaceful and will let me be the childless woman that I am. But with kids being made to be part of my life anyhow, you just never know.

This place is in Phoenix right on the Phoenix/Chandler border. No wonder the tightness and congestion are back. And we’re by a major freeway too, with lots of traffic to pollute the air.

I had $12 and change and went to the Cracker Barrel restaurant after the housekeepers left, and ordered breakfast. I ate that to the tune of babies crying (usual restaurant sound), then walked out without paying. I left $1.50 for the waitress’s tip, and I would’ve paid if someone had been available to take my check and money, but I was ignored long enough and decided to split. Naturally, Tom would be anything but thrilled to hear this, so I’ll just tell him I got a buck’s worth of junk from the vending machine. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. It’s nice of me to lie to him, in a sense, what with how paranoid he can get. I mean, why stress the guy out unnecessarily? I just hope he doesn’t suggest we go there later and have me end up accused in front of him, but I doubt I would. I’m sure there’d be different people later, and even if there weren’t, I wouldn’t be remembered. Most people don’t have as good of a memory as I do and that place is pretty packed, so I’m sure one walk-out every now and then wouldn’t even be noticed. Not unless the person left the check on the table.

I have news regarding Andy, but first I want to shower. I’m a grub.

Later...

I called Tom at Mary’s. Mary answered, sounding pleasant enough (I was surprised there wasn’t some hostility cuz of my getting upset with Evie). Tom was just finishing up with the car. Another surprise. I thought it’d take till 6:00. This time it ate about $50 of ours.

He’s on his way here. He suggested going through a drive-through which I happily agreed to, conveniently commenting on how sick of noisy restaurants I am. After we eat, we’ll head out to the land so I can feed the animals, and this time, remember to bring a book back with me.

Later...

Tom’s still not back. For now, I’m listening to next door slam its door, and I thought I heard a little kid over there, too. Figures, huh? Can I ever have just adults next to me?

I was surprised to learn that pets are allowed here. An old couple and their dog passed by me in the hall earlier, and I saw someone out walking dogs, too. Even Tom had said he saw people walking dogs.

Later...

That vicious, no-good rat Polar Bear decided to go for bite number two and got me on the knuckle. It bled and I put a Band-Aid on it. I swear, though, if it weren’t for Tom, I’d fucking kill that rat! Or better yet, I’d turn him loose in the desert for the coyotes and snakes. That rat just will not allow himself to be picked up unless it’s for moving/cage cleaning. And only after the others have been moved first. I bopped him a few times and yelled at him, and like I said, it’s only cuz of Tom’s pleading that I didn’t go any further. That and the fact that Vanilla Belly and Scuttles felt he deserved a little protection and jumped on him. Ratsy kind of acted like nothing was going on and he stayed on his wheel. Tom was going on and on about how he’s just an animal, he’s blind in one eye, it’s his nature to be aggressive, etc.

Then on our way back, we got held up in traffic for at least a half-hour (must’ve been something big going on). At least I remembered to bring something to read, and at least Gravity will be out to put the septic on Thursday when the house comes.

I wondered if the rat attack and the traffic jam were my punishment for the breakfast I stole this morning, but I don’t think so. It doesn’t seem harsh enough.

Anyway, APS was out at the land while we weren’t there, cuz we discovered stakes for poles they put in. So APS is on a roll, and the house and septic are on their way but will the well driller hold us up in any significant way? I kind of think so. I still feel we won’t be in that house till November 20th-29th. I hope I’m wrong for the better, though.

I had a hunch they’d mail guest’s mail and was right. I brought Bob’s letter to the front desk on my way to get a soda.

The stupid shits screwed up again today and had us down for checking-out today, and just like yesterday, our key cards expired at noon and we had to get them reprogrammed. I’m sure this had to do with us changing rooms, but either way, the service is “horrid” as Tom says. They’re totally incompetent here.

I decided that I may’ve been too forgiving in the past, but that I was being too non-forgiving with Evie. I left her a message and let her know that I was sorry I didn’t handle things well and that I understood I was being a bit immature. Also, I loved her too much to be in any hassles with her, and shouldn’t have been so selfish with my conditions. I could simply move stuff if any kids were visiting. Yes, she should’ve come to me first, and no, I won’t be so forgiving if she does something again that I don’t like, but she does have a right to discuss whatever she wants to with whomever she wants to whether or not I agree with it. Nonetheless, I hope we can get along from here on out without offending each other. I explained that we’ll be without computers for a while longer and why, then I gave her our PO box address and cell phone number.

When I told Tom about my message to Evie, he had an amused smile on his face, but what was so funny about it - I don’t know and I didn’t ask.

Wow! He’s actually snoring! A good 90% of the time he sleeps in hotels, though, he doesn’t snore for some strange reason. I wish he’d be this quiet in the trailer. And in the house, too. Then only his talking and his movements could wake me up, but he doesn’t talk that much. Not as much as he moves.

I’d have loved to have called the black bitch to see if I could get a reaction, and therefore a confirmation, that she did receive my mail. However, I couldn’t remember her damn number, and she probably would’ve been out at the time, anyway.

As for Andy - he read it all. At least that’s what he said, so maybe God did answer my prayers about that. I express myself best on paper, and I really wanted Andy, the blacks, and the Mexicans to “hear me out,” so to speak. That goes for the losers back east, too. When I’ve got something to say, I want people to listen to me in my writing. I think that the reason I prefer getting my point across in writing is that I can then edit a sentence easier if I decide I don’t quite like the way I worded it the first time around, and so I don’t get interrupted. Out of all the people I’ve had a heart-to-heart with upon moving, Doe, Art, and Larry would be the least likely to be such captivated readers. This is why I bluffed them. Hope the curiosity got to them!

Anyway, I knew Andy would be home, and wanted to see if he’d mention my mail or not. As it figured, he was on the phone for ages, so I left several hang-up messages on his machine. Sometimes I’d breathe heavily for the hell of it.

When he finally answered, I was surprised, not surprised, and baffled by what he had to say. I wasn’t surprised that he was angry and bitter and “counter-attacking” me, so to speak. He and Tom are similar in that they either accuse you of exactly what you accuse them of, or they accuse you of something, whether or not you’re guilty of it, for accusing them of something.

I was surprised that there wasn’t any trace of sadness in his voice, but hey, I dumped him. I didn’t die.

I was sort of surprised he was willing to stay on the phone as long as he did like he would with Quinn when they were having problems. I used to tell Andy he should just hang up right away on people he has trouble with and not bother giving them a second of his time, no matter how bored he is. As Andy always said, he doesn’t give up on people easily. He’s too forgiving, not that he’d forgive me any more than I’d want to resume our friendship. I just hope I haven’t upset any of his other friendships. Meaning, I hope he’s not afraid to continue his friendship with Michelle out of the paranoia that she’ll dump him.

There were two different phone calls, but of course, I never said a word. Not surprisingly, he knew it was me and said “Mystery, Mystery. You’re so bored. Such a schizophrenic, crazy loser, so bored, so bored.”

Why does he think a prank phone caller has to be bored in order to make prank phone calls? That may’ve been his case, but not mine, although I can sure get bored waiting for this house to be ready.

Then he said “You’re a phony, a fake, pretending to be my friend, and I believed it. Surprised I’m not eating? Should I get a Twinkie and continue this discussion? Everything you detest, you are. Just look in the mirror at that fat ugly face and you’ll see.” Then he hung up.

Everything I detest, I am? I don’t get that one.

When I called right back after he hung up, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find him not answering the phone. He no doubt was seeing if he could get the number. Well, if he could, wait till he gets a hotel number, I thought. That ought to confuse him. He might now have had time to call here, though, in between my calls to him. He may not have found out where the calls came from till after our last chat.

In our last chat, he said, “If you have something to say, just say it. You wouldn’t be calling if you didn’t want to talk.”

Wrong. Very wrong, Andy. I wanted to hear you talk.

I grunted at one point, and he said, “Yeah, Jodi, I know it’s you, and you know I know it’s you, so let’s not play stupid games.”

He was getting frustrated on top of being angry by this time, then the confession came he said, “Well I obviously can’t be prank calling you now. I don’t even know your number. So if someone’s calling you now, don’t take it out on me.”

The ‘I obviously can’t be prank calling you now’ part totally confirmed my gut feeling that yes, it was him pranking us from time to time. Any innocent person would not have used that choice of words.

By this time I really was getting bored with him and hung up on him as he was saying, “What the fuck are you calling me for? You got what you want, you have no neighbors, you live alone, have no life…”

Live alone? I don’t think so! Have no life? He wishes! I have more of a life than ever before!