My tank was returned to me, asking me to be specific about what kind of paperwork I needed – federal or superior.

Visited with Tom for an hour today. We’re both getting so excited about my release as it gets closer!

He still has a cold but is improving.

He got another raise and promotion at work. He’s now getting a salary, too.

We discussed it today, and I’m not going back to the same dentist. We got a new dental plan, and although they accept it, I may as well play it safe and find someone closer.

I had another idea about what could’ve earned me that evil look from Palma. Before she came and got Silvia, she and Johnson were in the tower talking. Palma probably asked her why she had to come get Silvia when all Johnson had to do was put me in 4 or 5 or leave me where I was since the Spanish lady wasn’t closed custody. Johnson would’ve told her something like how I preferred to be alone and Palma couldn’t have really argued with her because Palma wasn’t working M that night. Johnson was. Anyway, if this is true, then Palma might’ve been ticked off at me for making more paperwork for her. And so late in her shift, too. Ha, ha, ha!

When Temple saw I was still awake, she stopped and chatted with me for about 10 minutes. Mostly about my leaving. I asked her if she’d like the honor of kicking me out when the time comes (I’m hoping she or Pérez will be here that night). She asked me what day I was leaving and I told her. She said it wasn’t a DOC pickup night, so it shouldn’t be so busy. She agreed she’d walk me out of here, or at least to the door for the escort to take over from there. That’d be so cool.

Wouldn’t it shock the media to know that a black woman was going to see me to the finish line?

---

Dinner was at 7:00. Hot dogs, veggies, potatoes and a donut. I could smell the fucking jalapeños from inside the hot dogs before I even opened the Styrofoam container they were in that we’re back to. I like that better than the brown trays, though. They’re easier to carry and they keep the heat in better.

Mena just offered me some Tylenol. I stashed it for later. I love how she leaves the cell smelling of her perfume. I miss my perfumes and my pink, glittery kiwi-strawberry lip gloss.

Every staff member at the Brattleboro Retreat that I was in in 1981 in Vermont was white. Here there’s a variety, which I like better.

Early this morning when I was sound asleep, I suddenly heard this voice saying, “Jodi, honey. It’s your hour out. It’s 8:00,” but I was too tired. I was beat for days, so I slept in till 10:30. Anyway, before I realized it was Bangert, I thought it was Jamie and was like – how the fuck did you get back in here!

When I was at the entry door with Bangert waiting for an escort, Barajas was across the way in K’s door talking with Bangert. Bangert was bitching about how the tower’s either too hot or too cold. Then I commented on the fact that it was so hot in my cell that I slept in my underwear (only women work M because only one DO works M and it can’t be a man. Men have to work with other women as they do in the towers). Then Barajas jokingly yells out, “Quit complaining, S!”

When I mentioned having 37 days left, she teased me by saying she wouldn’t have them put her in M while I was still here, and I said that was too bad because I missed her. After all, I miss driving her crazy.

“She does drive me crazy,” she told Bangert.

When I returned after my visit, I was telling Bangert how nice it was that I was taller than her. She insisted I wasn’t, so we stood side by side and looked at our reflections in the tower door, which is mostly glass like the big cell’s doors.

She was right. She is slightly taller. She’s old enough to start shrinking, though, but I didn’t tell her that.