I finally got a letter from Mary! The letter was much easier to read because it was written in ink.

She says she likes it way better there than here. She’s totally alone in PC and can see a lake and palm trees from the two windows in her cell! She gets 3 decent meals a day and unlimited coffee in the mornings, but the girls fight a lot. Isn’t that a bad sign? I asked her. Would she really feel safe going to GP if they’re so aggressive? I ask this because she told me she wants to stay in PC and told her aunt she wants to go GP so she can attend mass and get her GED to hopefully impress the judge. I hope she isn’t too disappointed if the judge, like with most cases, doesn’t give a shit. Anyway, I wonder if she’d have to work if she went GP?

She said she wouldn’t feel lonely if she were in PC which she wanted to be in so as not to have a roommate and so she could concentrate on her book. I’d never feel lonely either. Not with DOs passing by every 20 minutes and all the other inmates buzzing about and screaming up a storm.

Those in GP go to rec during the very hot daytime, but if you’re PC, you get to go at night, which sounds way cool. They frisk you to and fro, though, and even make you walk through a metal detector, she told me.

I was shocked to hear the toilet/sink is porcelain and not metal!

What is a DR write-up, though? She said she didn’t want to get one of those.

Their uniforms are bright orange. I always did agree that the orange uniforms were nicer than those tacky stripes!

I can imagine just how lonely she must be for friends and family as she said in her letter. Only distance is between us, I told her, but nothing else has changed. The miles between us have increased, but my fondness for her has not decreased.

She said the rules are the same as Estrella, so I take it that means the picture limit is 5. I just noticed on the back of her envelope to me that it says ‘no packages allowed.’ I hope they don’t consider the manila envelopes a package. I should think not. Packages, at least to me, are boxes. It also says ‘PO drawer’ and not ‘PO box.’ Oh well. Same thing, I guess. I told her I wouldn’t send anything else till I got a confirmation from her saying she got the 2 regular envelopes and the 1 manila I’ve sent so far.

She said she was going to enclose a commissary sheet so I could see what she could get there, but she forgot to add it.

I called Carolyn like she asked me to upon hearing from Mary. I was worried that the first letter I sent would be returned to me as it did not have a booking number which Mary gave to me in her letter, but then Carolyn said she sent stuff that she knows she received without the number. I gave it to her nonetheless, and if the mail comes back, I’ll send it again, of course. I did get the final Estrella letter back today too, so I sent that with my letter which will probably go out Monday.

Carolyn said she was busy working on the puzzle I made/sent her. She said I was cute and that she’s got an even smaller and older house than we had. Hers is a ’65 house that’s 900 sq. feet. Ugh!

I told her why I was in jail, too. She assured me she wasn’t prejudiced against Jews and told me that her best friend’s Jewish. I told her that although I’m not an atheist, I’m not really of any religion, though my family was Jewish.

Monster is there now too, and he was flown since they obviously weren’t going to chance dragging a madman cross-country by bus.

Mary talks about losing the daughter she never had, but she can and will have more daughters. I hope she knows this. She’ll have daughter(s). Just not Gretchen.

I’m a third of the way to getting the Indian doll, just about, with $50 saved.

I took a chance like a fool and went to sleep with the fan on low. Sure enough, I was woken up for a minute or two by a big gust of wind. It tore part of the skirting off again by the front corner of the house. Is it now going to do this every time it’s windy which is a daily occurrence around here? I hope it calms down over the weekend. Although it’s not easy, we can plant and fence with the wind, but his working on the truck might be rather difficult with the wind whipping the way it does all day.

I was cleaning the kitchen and forgot about the rats that I let out. Naturally, the little devils had to end up in my office, but amazingly, they were dry when I picked them up to bring them home.