Been here for 8 years! Right this moment 8 years ago, I was either in Greenfield talking to Sheila, or at Boo and Max’s in Longmeadow. I know I took a nap for an hour or two at their house before leaving for the airport. My plane took off at 4:30 ET. I landed at 7:30 AZ time and 10:30 ET time.

For the third time, I’ve decided to change the title of my current story. First I started off with A Matter of Priority, then it became He’d Stop at Nothing, and now I want to make it He’ll Stop at Nothing. I think it sounds better.

Later...

I finally spoke to Lisa. It was a spontaneous decision to call. I looked at the clock, and knowing school was out and that Tammy would probably be at Mark’s store, I called. Sure enough, Lisa answered. I reminded her that my silent treatment had nothing to do with her and that I still loved her very much and missed her tremendously. I also told her we moved, were happy, and that I didn’t want to give our address or number, not because I didn’t trust her, but because she could slip. Even the smartest, most trustworthy people can slip, and I don’t want the information to end up in the wrong hands, even the worst that could come of it would be unwanted mail, or more likely, unwanted phone calls that would never get answered, thanks to caller ID. Speaking of caller ID, Tammy’s got it. She never had that as long as I knew her, and I’ll bet you anything that she got it around the time we moved to see if she could get our number if I called. I hope to hell I remembered to block any calls I’ve made to her, as well as to Larry and Sandy’s parents. I did get a private hang-up after calling Sandy’s folks, but that could’ve been anyone and my guess is that Tammy doesn’t have the number, or else she’d have called by now. At least I blocked it out this time for sure.

Anyway, like I’ve told Lisa before, my not contacting them has nothing to do with her. I just got fed up, especially with Doe, Art and Larry, etc. She claims she hasn’t talked to Larry in over a year and I do believe her this time because by now Larry would be fed up with dealing with her. Especially when he realized he couldn’t spite Tammy and replace Larry by getting custody of her. And because of the close connection to Tammy. Her being Tammy’s daughter would be enough to drive him away. Lastly, I’d hope that Lisa would’ve learned her lesson about people like Larry by now. Again I told her that she has to do what she has to do, but if she knows what’s good for her, she won’t contact Larry ever again. She said she still keeps up with her singing, but that I have no idea what her life has been like, in a not-so-thrilled tone of voice. I let her know that I’m sure I did have an idea of what her life’s been like. I asked her if she was still smoking and she said yes and that at least she was being honest. I appreciate that, I told her. I’d rather her tell me something I didn’t want to hear that was true than a nice-sounding lie.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that Tammy is going to marry Mark and that they’re moving in with him. Then she’s gonna sell the house. She finally gets to move after 15 years of being cramped in that tiny house. I knew it’d come down to this too, and I’ve noticed a pattern; relatives and friends always seem to move around the same time. Within a year of each other. At least she didn’t marry Mark just 5 minutes after meeting him unlike with the others. Maybe she has broken the abusive-men cycle she was on. And maybe she can and will defend herself and put her foot down in the future if need be, but hopefully there won’t be a need to.

I signed off by letting Lisa know I loved her and might contact her every 6 months to a year and that it’d be best if we didn’t contact each other regularly. She gave me Mark’s number and advised me of his Caller ID. I’m still perfectly OK with never seeing Doe, Art, Tammy or Larry again because they are that detrimental to my emotional state and to my overall sanity, but I sure do miss Lisa!

Later...

Got quite a surprise from Ma. I had asked if she had any doll patterns, never expecting to get that, and a couple of dolls, too! One’s a Barbie-type doll, although it’s not Barbie. The other’s a small, cheap 7½” doll. I can tell these dolls are quite old, too. From the 60s or 70s. The Barbie and Barbie-type dolls of today tend to have hair past their asses. In the 60s and 70s, they tended to have short hair or hair no longer than the waist. This doll has short red hair, including a bald spot I covered using an old ribbon as a headband. The other doll has curly brown hair to the middle of its back. Anyway, we’ve got a pattern for a few different outfits, including one to make a teddy bear with. Got a seam-ripper too, which I’ve been wanting. I lost mine years ago. Tom’s gonna do the math to improvise anything we make for the porcelain dolls cuz the patterns are for dolls smaller than they are. It looks like I got blue and gold lace and a few pieces of material. A little scrap of blue vines on a white background. A solid melon-colored piece. And a pink piece with white flecks. For now, I’ve got the Barbie-size doll in one of the spare Barbie dresses, and the little one’s naked cuz I don’t have anything that fits her any more than I’ve got anything that fits my 17” plastic doll.

Ma also gave us an anniversary card and a check for the usual $25, but Tom says we’re still on for the printer.

Tom said they were doing some construction here in town which held him up a bit (he called from the cell phone) and I was like – Here? Here in Maricopa, we’ve got construction holding us up?