Still losing weight, but it’s going agonizingly slow, and again I’m wondering if I can lose as much as is average in any particular time frame because of my slow metabolism, but we’ll see. This is day 6 of the Fast Five. I should be 140 pounds by the end of the month, but I have a feeling I won’t be under 145.

The diet isn’t leaving me as tired during the daytime as it was the first day or two, but I’m definitely sleeping longer. Slept 10 hours last night.

Yesterday turned out to be a fun and productive day. I tried that carrot recipe where you bake them at a really high temperature coated in sugar-free maple syrup, and it was okay. Nothing great, since carrots are still carrots, and I’m not really big on the things.

Alexa is on the way! That’s that Amazon Echo thing. Can’t wait to play around with that. We were one of the few selected to buy her at the low price of $100, probably because we do so much on Amazon. Tom said if he could only use one site it’d be Amazon. You can shop there, play games, download books, listen to music, watch TV and movies, store stuff and so much more. The only thing it lacks is a blog. I’d choose them as well if it were the only site I could go to. I work for them too, and sell books through them.

We’ve been contemplating signing up for Netflix, but we’re not sure yet. We went to the Goodwill yesterday and they had a pretty lousy selection of knickknacks. Tom found some cables he could use and I ended up getting some incense even though I swore I never would again because of the mess it makes. I got 4 packs of 20… peach, strawberry, vanilla and opium.

After that, we went to Payless and I got some really awesome things. Even with the $5 gift card we had it still didn’t cost much. I could have gone and gotten expensive running shoes that would last for years like the Ryka’s that I won nearly 8 years ago, but I would rather get something I like that doesn’t last as long.

Kids’ shoes are simply more colorful and shinier, and I really wanted Velcro closures. I can fit into women’s size 5.5 or girls’ size 3.5. I ended up with a pair of shiny black sneakers with neon colors. Then I got some purple glitter shoes that were practically free, and a nice new pair of white slippers with silvery threads through them that fit me a lot better than the cheap Joe Boxer slippers I got a while ago.

Lastly, I got a pair of hot pink liners that you put on before you slip into certain shoes to make the soles of the shoes feel more comfortable to your feet. The liners aren’t visible in the way that anklets and socks are.

Had a dream that Tom was standing at the side of a large pool when a polar bear walked by and dove into the water.

Then Alison posted a blog about somebody she knew or knew of that had been raped by her gym teacher. In it, she pleaded for anybody who had also been victimized to come forward. I accidentally found a blog in which a niece of mine on Tom’s side of the family had mentioned me, but I don’t remember what she said.

In the last dream, we had company, and as I heard the doorbell ring, I cleared the kitchen table so we could all sit at it. I picked up a weight loss award that Tom had received and thought it strange that they would give him such a thing when he hadn’t yet reached his goal weight (I guess he was doing NS, too). I was just entering the living room when Tom opened the door to 3 or 4 guys who asked if I was home. I greeted them and proceeded to invite them into the kitchen, explaining that there was more room there, but they seemed to want to remain in the living room. As usual, the house looked nothing like the one we live in.

It’s going to be a sunny week here with highs in the 60s. I can just imagine how much racket I’m in for, too. I’m sure Bob will be reaching for that damn saw any day now. He was trimming trees in front of his place last Friday, but nothing noisy. I heard movement here and there when I was on that side of the house, but that was it. Nothing loud that could be heard throughout the place.

Later…

I am so fucking pissed off because Bob is back at the sawing. I had a bad feeling about that too, that he would start that shit anytime now. Some people, no matter how old they are, really don’t give a shit about those around them. I don’t care how deaf he may be; he’s still gotta have common sense. Any idiot with half a brain has got to know the thing is tremendously loud to someone living this close to them.

Tom says we’ll start soundproofing soon but what does he think we are, rich? We can’t afford to soundproof the 7 windows that are on that side of the house, 3 of which are odd sizes. Even if we could, shouldn’t the one generating most of the noise be the one to pay for at least some of it? Talking to the office does absolutely no good at all because they’ll just tell you it’s just “regular” daytime noise. Yeah, being loud, rude and obnoxious is “normal,” folks.

I am just so fucking sick of getting problem neighbors every single fucking place I go. If you can’t live in peace in a retirement community, where can you live in peace? It is like it is so not meant to be for me. Semi-quiet weekends and quiet nights are not enough. I want quiet weekdays, too! Like 3 or 4 of them a week and not just 1 or 2.

If we’re really here when they die, I would literally pay the realtor that shows the place to beg any prospective buyers not to ever own a power saw, or to at least promise to always use the damn thing on the other side of the house.

Even if the windows were suddenly soundproofed, I wonder just how much sound would come through the walls and up through the floor. Houses made of brick or stone and that are on concrete slabs deflect sound better than raised houses with wooden walls.

I was reading back on some of the last talks I had with my mother before she died, remembering how out of it she was getting and how signs of senility were shining through over the phone and across the country. It’s easy for me to say that I would beat the shit out of her for the years of pain and suffering she inflicted upon me both physically and especially emotionally. But sometimes I wonder if that would actually be easier said than done if she magically appeared, for example. Why? Well, because I’m just not her. It’s as simple as that. There are only a few people that I could literally have fun slowly torturing the shit out of, and that’s the people that fucked me over in Arizona. Not even the evil housemother of Valleyhead warrants such brutality. I’d never forgive her but maybe with a genuine apology, but there’s no need to torment Donna A.

You can tell by all the stars that I spoke this entry into Google, can’t you?