I just left Andy a birthday message.

Yesterday turned out to be a very fun and productive day. First, Tom and I went to Wal-Mart where we got Ma’s new phone and also the best pens I ever had. There were 3 of my favorite colors in one package, pink, purple and light blue. Vision is the name of the brand and they have a window, just like Precise does, so you can see how much ink is in it. They’re not quite as fine-pointed as Precise, but I love them! So Precise has lost my business and now I’ll buy nothing but 3-packs of my favorite colors by Vision. Leave it to a writer to get all psyched up over a pen, huh?

Then we went to Mary’s and it was great to see Ma. She’s doing wonderfully but is a little weak. She has to keep testing her sugar level cuz of her diabetes. She has a machine that pricks her finger so she can test the level.

We talked and Mary fed us while we were there and I gave Ma a subscription for crossword puzzles that were in my word-find book. Then Tom and Mary went to the store to buy a shower massage for each of the two showers there and new handles that’ll turn easier for Ma while she’s there. After they left, Dave stopped in for lunch and he was his usual funny and joking self. I’d say he’s my favorite brother-in-law and my favorite sister-in-law is Sandy.

When Tom and Mary came back, Dave left shortly after and some old guy from the church came to visit Ma. So, Tom put up the shower stuff and I played computer games.

They have 4 hamsters and hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for them. You never saw anything like it! They have about 6 aquariums and so many wheels, tubes and burrows. So Mary brought out a box of cage parts and accessories and assembled a nice little cage for Gizzy. Wasn’t that nice of her? It’s a bit hard to describe its shape, but there’s the main part of it that’s a small square and it’s good cuz Gizzy’s not a runner who needs space. In that square, there’s a burrow with two entrances. It’s built into the cage. On top of the burrow is a deep dish for food or for them to nestle in. In the front left corner is a spot for the water bottle. To the right of the square is a wheel that’s attached to it and sticks out. To the left of the square is a short tube that shoots straight out, then a round tube that stems straight up from it. It’s about a two-foot difference from the lowest point of the cage to the top, which would be the top of the round tube. He really likes it and he can climb up and down the tube with no problem, as Tom and Mary had feared he couldn’t, but I knew he could. I haven’t seen him in the wheel yet, but I’m sure he’s used it and will use it. The tubes, wheel, and cage have many different colors of plastic. Clear, purple, pink, yellow, orange and red. I think I’ll want to start a little collection of my own and buy more tubes to run into the aquarium like they’ve got theirs set up. That way he can live in both his old aquarium and this new maze of a cage. They also had a separate wire wheel, like Gizzy used in his aquarium. Theirs is lavender and his is pink. The plastic, solid, attachable wheels they’ve got are mostly clear bright yellow, but she gave Gizzy a clear purple one. I thought his favorite places would be in the burrow and in the wheel, but so far, he likes to be at the top of the circular tube.

Still no pictures from my folks and again, I hope to hell they weren’t misdelivered.

We’re kind of back to being in the eye of the storm, but I have a general tension within me. I still have that sense of foreboding, saying it’s just a matter of days before some new shit goes down that’ll stress us both out and steal our time. There’s an ominous feeling in the air, but I don’t think Tom can sense it like I do. And I dread the next period and wonder how it’ll be. What kind of period will I have? I’m still a watery 104-pounder, despite the fact that my last rag ended up heavier than the two before it. I still feel it’s mostly water, somehow connected to my periods, but I also got fat, too. I’m so mushy, but I’ve still been too lazy to work out.

Tom’s working all through the holiday weekend and such weird hours, too. I don’t know how he does it, but he went in at 4 AM yesterday and has to go back at midnight tonight. He should be home at 1:30, maybe a little earlier. So at noon, I’ll make him Hamburger Helper. I want to and hope to have fun today, but I still have that nagging voice in my head saying - don’t do it. Don’t ask for trouble of any kind. Don’t set myself up to have weirder periods. Although, I don’t know for sure that his cum is causing my periods to fritz out. It could be some other unrelated reason, even though it seems too coincidental to be a gland problem or something like that.