We’re back to the cold shower routine, but this time I did better than just grieve maintenance. I’m also having Tom find out who he can send in here to investigate this shit so they end up forced to give us hot showers.

In other news, Ida said to write in here that Tom must be a saint. That he is!

Last night Temple was on. She’s so nice. Brea’s on now. She’s nice, too. She’s sharpening my pencils for me now. Mary left 4 colored pencils she didn’t want in 3.

I’m still sick with the flu. At least I slept better. I slept longer with fewer interruptions.

I’ll be slipping Mary a note, asking if she wants to try to get back into 203 when Deanna leaves. But she needs to decide for sure up front whether or not she’s willing to be the one to move next time. I was surprised she was upset about moving because, after all, we were only doing what we agreed upon in the first place.

I like 203 better than 205. It’s darker and warmer, and I don’t like being vented to all these other cells. Especially a big one. It’s way noisier. It’s also more out of the way.

Ida was in the tents for a month before she went into Ad-Seg. She hated the tents for the same reasons I did, but she really was threatened.

Ida, who looks like a female version of the actor Sam Waterson, like she could be his sister, told me I seemed aloof when she’d see me out on my hour. Yeah, that’s me – anti-social. Ida’s no social butterfly, either.

She agreed to warn me when Misery’s on. She’s more by the book than Palma and is by far my least favorite DO. If she’s on, I gotta hide my juice bottle under my blanket because she’s the type who’ll go into a cell and look around, hoping to find something in plain sight that’s a no-no. She really looks for trouble.

If I thought blacks were sensitive to being called names – well – Deanna got 4 months in the hole all because someone called her a bitch and she couldn’t take it and had to beat them with a broom. For being called a bitch?! Damn! What a wimp!

I’m sneezing more, but my cough and sore throat have subsided a bit. I’m not as feverish, either.

Now that I’m settled in with Ida and am comfortable enough to be able to sleep well enough (the first night with a new celly is always stressful), I’ll be moved.

I thought I heard Mena, who was on last night, say that Deanna’s to be housed alone. And to what do they owe her that privilege? She wouldn’t see this as a privilege, though. I know she wants to be with Lisa and that she likes big cells better.

I’m debating whether or not to get mostly hard candy or chocolate this week. They’re both fattening and bad for my teeth, but in this place I really need them!

Ida’s tolerable, though I’d agree to clean the dayroom every day in a heartbeat in order to be with either Mary or Rosa for the rest of my time here.

I was right in suspecting Deanna was putting on an act that night she tried to get into D2. Even she admitted she was just playing, although she swears she really does hear voices. But how can a pill take away voices?

I finally learned why I got that candy bar from Melinda. It was for the bagel chips I gave her when we celled together in late November. I thought I had an impeccable memory! Pretty good for a basket case to remember that.

I drew sketches for Tom showing M’s small and big cells, their doors, and then A’s cells and doors. All the cells and doors are the same in A. It’s just that the 100 pod has that extra set of bunks they’re not supposed to have. That’s illegal.

I tightened my retainers now that they’ve begun loosening up a bit after shifting my teeth back where they were. Almost, anyway.

I really like some of these rap and hip-hop stations. I just might continue listening to current stuff as well as oldies when I get home. I’d go nuts without my little radio in this place!

White Johnson’s on tonight, but will Palma ever show up again? I doubt it. I really think I scared her off, but if I did, that’s her problem.

I hope Pérez is on tonight.

Ida was telling me she went on a cruise to Antarctica and she said that although it was tremendously cold, it was pure white, quiet, peaceful and beautiful. There was some color, though. She said minerals build up on the icebergs that reflect pink, blue and other colors in the sunlight.

She also told me about these huts with a scene frozen in time. About 80 years ago some English explorers went there to do research and they died. They were taken away, but their dogs and a penguin they were going to experiment on are still there, perfectly preserved. They look like they’re sleeping because it’s too cold for anything to deteriorate there.

I’d rather go on a cruise to a tropical place and fly up to Vegas in the morning and back and night.

Ida says the opposite of what Mary said. Ida says they won’t make me work if they see Tom can support me and especially not if I live way out in nowhere land. Well, if they ask me to do something unreasonable, inappropriate, or impossible, it won’t get done. Period.

Mary says she’s so unhappy in 4. Poor thing! We’re going to try to get back into 3 when Deanna leaves, but I doubt any DO will go for it.