We’re still losing guppies left and right. We’re down to just 8 or 9 left.

The glass fish don’t look nearly as cool as they did when we got them. Their color is all broken up.

My hair has been much healthier looking and much easier to manage since I started packing it in with elastics after washing it. I part it in two as if to make two ponytails. Then I put elastics all the way down it, about 4” apart. It looks healthier because it takes the frizz out, and it’s more manageable because it removes most of the curl. The curlier it is, the harder it is to brush knots out of. It feels so much more straw-like that way, too.

So now I’ve learned 3 very helpful hair tricks; how to dry it faster by twisting it tightly in a towel for a few minutes, how to keep my bangs out of my face by twisting them and clipping them back (once the hair dries I can remove the clips), and now how to make my hair straighter, healthier-looking and more manageable without killing it with straightening irons.

If only I didn’t have so much fat to go with it! Yes, I’m definitely going to lose some serious weight in the next few months. No bigger bazooka. It’s time to get this extra weight off of me. It’ll make it so much easier to get around, too. I used to be able to just lift one leg up while standing on the other when putting socks on, but now I have to sit down to do that unless I move my leg to the side. Anyway, I’m going to increase my workouts, get the pedals as soon as I can, then begin dieting after New Year’s, making sure that with the exception of one snack per week that I can eat in one sitting, I don’t have any sugar, rice, bread, potatoes or any form of starch. I don’t want to start now, though, and deprive myself of any holiday goodies. If I were thin, or close enough to it, I could look really good for my age. I could never look like I did a decade ago, but for my age, I could look pretty damn good since I never had kids and am blessed enough to have virtually no facial wrinkles, though that could be somewhat related to my giant face. Wrinkles don’t show nearly as much on a heavier person.

I wonder if the prairie dogs will wake up early next year like they did this year. In 2000 they were out and about by March or April, but they were out in February this year. Of course, I didn’t have the privilege of seeing them when they popped out in 2001, and he was too busy to take notice himself. He had his mind on plenty of other things.

Oh, the worry I went through over Tom while I was in jail! Always worried he’d get in a car wreck, have a heart attack, fall and break a bone, etc. That time I kept trying to call back only to get no answer when someone came to the door really scared the shit out of me. He may be strong, but he’s no “fighter,” so it really wouldn’t have mattered. It usually takes an aggressive mind to succeed in self-defense. Well, you have a better chance, anyway.

If Scot doesn’t show up this month, then we’ll have beaten last year’s 16-week no-show. Whether or not that’ll happen, I haven’t got a guess at this point, but I know he’s coming between January 2nd and the first time I see him in Casa Grande. His female clients in Maricopa are going to be pissed for the same reason I am and it may cause some of them to run. What I don’t know is if he’ll get visit-crazy on me at the start of the year like he did this year. I kind of doubt he will because last New Year’s I had 22 months to go and by this one, I’ll have 10.

Although I’d prefer to be able to snap my fingers and have it be 10/30 of next year, I’d settle for April of next year. That way I’ll at least know that by that time I’ll never again have to subject myself to the humiliation of having to piss in front of someone. I may not be able to speed up time, but at least we can’t regress in time! At least I don’t have to worry that tomorrow I may wake up to find myself back a couple of years ago, or worse, many years in the past. It seems, though, I’m always wishing time would speed up for one reason or another. Maybe, just maybe, I won’t care so much a year from now, at least for a while. On the other hand, I doubt there’ll be much of a delay between curses. God may even curse me with the next long-term problem before we’re even done with the freeloaders. Well, one thing I know for sure is that I’m going to live like a hermit as much as I can as soon as I no longer have so many appointments. At least not the kind that could get me thrown in jail if I were to miss any. With the exception of work and those with medical problems, I don’t think most people have nearly as many appointments as I do. They may have one every few months, but not twice a month! It’s better, though, than the first half a year of my part-time freedom. Then I had a couple or more a week!

I guess Mary’s that much stronger than me because even if it were guaranteed that I’d get pardoned within 2-3 years, I can’t imagine sticking around to take the shit she’s going to have to go through. The poor girl might as well stay in jail! I don’t know what intense probation entails. For some reason, she won’t tell me when I ask. My guess, though, is that she’s going to have thousands of hours in community service and she’ll have to report weekly. Maybe even twice a week. I don’t think she’ll have to pay $40 a month, either. I think it’ll be in the hundreds. I doubt they’ll do many drug tests, but she’ll never get to pee alone even just once. Lastly, she’ll probably have so many classes and therapy sessions that I don’t see how she’ll have the time to work in order to make the money they’ll milk her for. Besides, innocent or not, it’s very hard to get a job in the first place as a convicted felon. This is why I think the jails/prisons ought to do job placements. No one wants to hire an ex-con, though because Mary’s young, pretty and innocent-looking, she may have an easier time getting jobs.

People don’t realize just how hard it is! They think you go to jail, get settled with a celly you get along with, and do your time. However, I know firsthand it doesn’t work that way. They bounce you around from cell to cell like a basketball. Just when you get comfortable with one celly, off you are to join a new one.

Same with probation; people think you simply report, say, “Hello, I’m here,” go home, pay your fees and that’s that, but that’s not the way it works. There’s always something coming up. A new change, a new demand, or at least a possibility of there being changes/demands.

Anyway, I got up at 1:30 today. I love it when I wake up towards the end or right after prime freeloader time (assuming they didn’t wake me up first) cuz then I don’t have to sit in anticipation of Scot distracting me from whatever it is I may be doing at the moment. I’d rather be distracted, though, than woken up.