Tomorrow’s birthday will be the first one where I don’t get any cards. It kind of hurts that I haven’t heard from Mom and Mary, but I understand and don’t hold anything against them. Ma’s too old and shaky to write, and Mary’s too busy with her own problems.

A mean old lady was on last night, a nice old lady was on today, Chavez, who’s OK, is on second shift. I hope Pérez or Temple is on tonight.

Palma walked by earlier when Chavez was on break and I said hi. I started to tell her I missed seeing her in A Tower, then Madeline screamed out that I liked her. I quickly cut her off by yelling at her to shut up. Palma didn’t hear, but she sure had a funny expression on her face. She looked all confused, then shook her head and walked away. I was both amused and pissed by Madeline’s little outburst. She and I have a routine now. It’s become our ritual to argue at night. We fight from dinnertime on till around midnight, but we’ve kind of taken to each other at the same time. I think she enjoys jumping down my throat as much as I enjoy jumping down hers. She’s still one of those cellies I wouldn’t miss if I never saw her again.

I didn’t know the DO’s uniforms included shorts, but they do. Miss Know It All says the inmates can wear shorts in the summer in the tents, too. They got a new rule today – shirts must be tucked in when in the hallways.

Deanna gave me a pretty bookmark and half of her eraser.

I told her about rodents and she wants a guinea pig. I made out a list of things for her to buy along with it.

I think Madeline and Lora may be making some kind of card or letter by the way they’re acting.

I may take Lora’s bunk when she leaves for 3 reasons (if I’m still here). So I can have more privacy since I can see into the tower from where I’m at now, so I can be away from the vent, and because Madeline says she’d rather it be my feet climbing up and down on her bed below it than someone else’s. Yeah, I’m sure someone will replace Lora in a day or so.

It’s almost change of shift. The lights should be going out soon. We’re not going to request that they stay on late because no one wants to read tonight.

That dump I felt I had to do all day that I was waiting for the lights to go off to do, seems to have disappeared. If all people did was piss, I could live in this cell, but I don’t want to. I want to return to the tents, but again, can I handle it? Well, if I can’t, someone taught me how to escape the jungle!

What do I do if I can’t escape, though? What if I try to re-PC myself with a DO who won’t care to help me like Rule did? I’d hate to bother Rule with re-PCing me. I don’t want to take advantage of her, and it may look funny if her name is on two PC forms.