I’ve been thinking about writing another story only because I’m obviously not going to be working for Mary what with the way she spends all her time writing José, and I’m not going to be assembling kits anytime soon for sale either. Besides, when I do, it’s not like I’d be doing that for hours at a time each day.

I asked Mary if she’d like to help me make extra money by finding people who still do CDs since I don’t need or want mine. If they’re interested, I’ll send them an inventory form and they can send me a couple of bucks per CD, plus $5 shipping, and I’ll send them their selections.

Last night they finally took the Indian doll money so she should now be on her way. Finally! As for the Twinkle fairy, if I don’t get her by the 15th, I’ll call and see what’s up with that.

I’m hoping to have the ornaments and the Barbie I want ordered by the 15th, then I’ll save up for Dalene, then my first kit! That will be $105 Haiku. I think I may even get her with her original wig as short as it is, simply because it’s so appropriate. Babies of the age this doll depicts wouldn’t have hair much longer anyway.

I woke up at 125 pounds as I hoped I would. So far, this diet seems to be the quickest and most effective, though it’s hard. Sort of. I mean, while it’s hard to go a whole day without eating, it’s also easier not to have to worry so much about what you eat every other day, rather than have to worry about it every single day for months on end. I’m amazingly regular on this diet, too. Tomorrow I shouldn’t be down anymore since I’m eating today, but I should be 122-123 come Saturday. Once I get under 120 is when I’ll really see a change for the better in my appearance.

Next week’s lawyer week and when Tom’s going to aggressively search for a job.

You know, I hate to say this as mean as it sounds, but a part of me hopes Mary does do another decade as she makes such a fun pen pal. Who would I have as a pen pal if it weren’t for her? Bob? What kind of pen pal is that? Not much.

I also hope that whenever she gets out, she does go back to popping kids like a rabbit. It’d keep her from pestering me. Everybody always wants something from me!

Not that she’s a liar, but she seems to keep some things from me. See, I was under the impression that she and Hope parted as enemies, but one of her aunt’s letters confirmed that they’re still friends (she uses the backs of her letters for stationery). I wonder why she didn’t tell me this. Probably cuz she knows I hate Hope and would simply chide her for associating with someone like that. Someone who could casually come out and admit to breaking their kid’s ribs like she said she did.

Later…

Oh, no I’m not getting kits! Thank you, Tom, for pointing out that most sites have more than what they appear to have. I thought that what you saw was what you got, period. But when I asked this woman named Sherry, whose prices are the lowest of all, if she could get and make dolls not pictured, sure enough, she said she could. Her undressed dolls are half or less than half of JBS’s undressed dolls. I could eventually buy undressed dolls, dress them up myself, then sell them for twice as much. Her average undressed and even dressed doll is the same or less than the kits at the other place. Why pay $150 for a kit when I can get a similar doll all made up for $20 - $40 less? Also, if you do want one dressed, there’s only about a $30 - $40 price difference between dressed and undressed. The other place didn’t even sell undressed dolls, so the difference between kits and dressed dolls was about $100. The only thing I’m not clear on is shipping costs, so I sent her another email, along with a price check on dressed Haiku.

I’m definitely going to skip Sydney. I’ll just save up for the ornaments, Barbie and Dalene, then start saving for these really nice and much bigger dolls.

Tom, who’s also dieting, though differently than I am, got a little snack-happy yesterday by getting too many chips. I offered to hide his snacks for him so he could ration them out better like he used to hide my cigarettes. Only difference is that I was psychic so I could always find them!

Mary, who told me that she still can’t get Clarence or Todd to give her pictures of Gretchen they have, told me to do my sick spell thing on Todd’s whore, who she thinks ditched them. No, problem, I told her, and when she realizes Buffy and Patrick ripped her off, I can do the same for them, too.

Later…

Amazingly, I got 2 of the 6 Powerball numbers, so I’m really encouraged to keep plugging away at it. I still don’t think I’ll win us a significant amount of money, but I’ll try to win us something. It would be quite a thrill even if I could just win us $25.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 127 and not 125, so now I’m stuck having to do Tuesday’s work all over again. For some reason, I’m not losing weight during the time I’m awake on days I don’t eat. Only in my sleep do I lose weight and that’s never more than two pounds. So I know I won’t be any less than 125 when I wake up tomorrow. I got a multi-vitamin that “claims” it has this green tea ingredient to help boost the metabolism, but I doubt it’ll work. I really don’t think there’s anything you can do to boost your metabolism. Anyway, 2000 calories, which is what I had yesterday, is simply too much for a person my age and height. Tomorrow I must make sure I don’t exceed 1500 cals.

Tom stopped in a nursery and was told that planting those hybrid willows would be a waste of time and recommended either oleanders or desert trees. But they grow too slow, Tom told the guy he talked to, who then said that yes, in the wild with very little water, they’ll grow really slow but water them like crazy and they’ll grow like weeds. That’s both the Palo Verde trees and the mesquites, but particularly the mesquites.

Then I remembered the monsoon storms, and they did seem to grow noticeably practically overnight, so we’ve decided to draw a little curtain of them around our house if fate will permit us to do something to make us more comfortable around here. I mean, as it is the fences are off indefinitely. Especially if he’s forced to settle for an $8-an-hour job. The kiln I don’t care about anymore. Not with sites out there like Sherry’s Specialty Dolls, Tracey’s Treasures and Dolls-N-More. Anyway, as soon as the sun comes up, we’re going to hunt around the land for baby mesquites to put in front where we have a barely half-grown mesquite and run a drip system to them and the nearby palms, another dumb mistake. Not only were the mail-order plants a mistake, but so were these palms after he saw what he saw at the nursery which was a huge selection of prices and sizes in palms. They sell fully-grown ones for $400 that they plant at your place with a tractor, something I’d never want to spend money on, but for $60 we could’ve gotten palms 4 times the size of these little dwarfs we got for $30. Guess it’s all part of the Tom-and-Jodi-must-waste-money-and-waste-time-and-do-for-free rule.

Anyway, we’re going to start with just a few in front as a test, then draw a privacy/shade curtain around the house. Then people around here can wonder how the hell we did that! The sides won’t matter, but we’ll keep close to the front and back where the sun rises/sets. The guy says we can get many feet of growth a year and since most of the olies will probably make it, those will be a good reinforcer behind the back mesquites which will go between the olies and the house. The olies will make playing peek-a-boo a little harder since the mesquites aren’t tremendously dense. They’re dense enough, though they do have little peepholes scattered throughout them. So, in the end, this may’ve been all we ever needed to do with absolutely no cost to us other than the electricity to run the well.

To give a quick summary of what my story’s all about – Sativa goes to a Phoenix jail for a month for egging a pig’s car where she meets Officer Jackson. They get it on when they can, then Sativa goes to live with Kate on her Maricopa ranch when she’s released. Things are fine at first, then Kate turns into a violent psycho which Sativa tries to escape. Being only able to go to her friend Mary’s place and stay in her guesthouse, Kate soon takes her back with her when Mary and her family are vacationing. When Sativa escapes again, she runs to the nearest house where an Indian woman, Raven, hides her out in her cabin in the woods of northern Arizona. Tom guessed that in the end, either Kate was killed or she went to jail, so I surprised him with a different ending that I knew he wouldn’t expect. Kate jumps out at Sativa while Raven’s using the restroom as they’re out on a hike through the woods. Raven hears the commotion and shoots at Kate. They think she’s dead and return to Maricopa. While Raven, a tribal cop on the Indian reservation, goes off to see her dad, Sativa returns to Kate’s house using a spare key to retrieve some things of hers before Kate’s family can get to the house to clear it out and sell it. That’s when Kate surprises her with a knife and the story ends, leaving the reader certain Sativa was killed.

Since I’m not going to be making dolls or working for Mary, other than to mail her mail to José, I’m now trying to think of new story ideas, even if I can’t earn a dime for my efforts. I was thinking I could either get some sort of illness or injury and end up with one of the nurses who tends to me, or I could get to live with a gorgeous woman as part of the witness protection program, or I could get in trouble and get it on my PO instead of one of the guards. Especially if I pick a crime that requires no jail time. Since it would be boring to have only good things happen during any of these stories, I’d add some suspense to it by either having the people I’m with go bad like I did with Kate or have a third party that’s bad that’s somehow involved with us.

Sherry didn’t get back to me with Haiku’s price, but her site does have an Indiana address and phone number. I’ll want to call anyway when it comes time to order so I can ask any questions I may have about shipping, stands, eyes, wigs, etc. I can’t believe Haiku would be much more than $110 with $20 for shipping. So I need to save up $10 less for this 24” doll than I did for the 18” doll I’m still waiting on.

Mary said in her last letter that her dorm was searched at 3 AM. Ugh! Even Estrella’s Shadow Men didn’t search us that early, though 9 AM was still considered the middle of the night to me when I was in that hell hole. Mary said she simply wouldn’t let it get to her and I was like, how can you “not let” it get to you? And how can you “get used to it?”

As far as the dog goes, I told Tom that not only won’t get her/him without a doggie door, but also not without his promise to either dump or return the dog if it turns out that I don’t like it. I meant it when I said I’m not going to be pressured to keep animals we both don’t want. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog. This is why I’ve never been against adoption. If you don’t want the kid, at least have the decency to give it to someone who does. Same with pets. No pet/kid wants to grow up where they’re even slightly unloved/unwanted. I can tell you this from personal experience. So I’ll need this promise from him and for him to keep it, though I think, and I hope we’ll both love the dog.

With a dense curtain of trees, dogs should have a hell of a hard time squeezing through them and exterior fences won’t be needed as much. Especially if Tom is forced to take a hefty pay cut which is my biggest fear, though we’ll survive either way.