I called and chatted with Tom earlier. His cold’s better, but he still has a cough.

He says Harry still screams like a guinea pig for no apparent reason.

As part of Captain Pisser’s orders to pick on M, Means searched today, though she made a game of it. She’s so funny. She put on her gloves saying, “I’m looking for a million dollars. Is it here?”

She lifted up a corner of my mattress.

“Is it here?”

She looked inside a bag.

Then she noticed the wads of toilet paper covering the vent and said, “You’re not really supposed to do this.”

“But you didn’t see it,” I said.

“No, I didn’t see it,” she said and left.

When I told her that Misery should have her name, she said people tell her that all the time.

The coffee cart’s selling soda now. Or “pop” as these silly fools out here call it. They want $1.50 for a 20-oz. bottle. What a rip-off! That’d be something like 79¢ on the outs. It’s still worth it in this place, though.

When Tate was on last night I told her I had 34 more days to go, and when she asked me how many hours I had left, I told her I’d have to figure that one out. I calculated 916 hours and informed her of this on her next walk. Laughing, she gave me a thumbs-up and told me she was going to ask me that every time she works here.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been alone for 2 weeks, with the exception of the 18 hours I was cursed with Jamie.

I’m still walking 20 minutes a day, but I don’t know why I bother. I’m still fatter than life itself.

I asked Lopez when my imaginary girlfriend (although I’ve been mentally dumping her for Johnson more and more these days) would return so I could chew her out but she has no idea.

One thing that will be different about leaving this place is that unlike with places I left as a kid, I’ll be going home to somebody who truly loves me and accepts me as I am. Not to people who want to abuse me verbally and emotionally, and mold me and shape me into what they think I ought to be.

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I was just chatting with Hope and Jamie, who are out cleaning the dayroom. Jamie just found out that she is on restriction for sure. I offered to buy her candy for some envelopes. Her being on restriction worries me, though. Especially if Chambers works while she’s still on it. She’s funny and all that, but getting stricter. People seem to always move when she’s on. If she works here before she’s off restriction, she’ll put her alone in here.