I finally heard from Mary. She never mentioned the money at all. She said she’d been busy with her classes and is now at a 6th-grade level rather than 3rd. How’d she acquire such good vocabulary on a 3rd-grade level?

Anyway, she did get the religious booklet and my stories which she says are fabulous.

She says her family still sends her money and that she and José still write to each other, though not as much. How they’re doing this, I don’t know, so I asked her. She said his mother writes to her, too.

I told her about Tom’s new job.

She said Clarence is history and enclosed a note for Chuck asking for his help on how to get her book published and if he’d handle her royalties. I guess this must mean she doesn’t trust us, but if she doesn’t, why would she still be my friend if that were the case? That makes no sense, so maybe she has other reasons. He couldn’t legally help her till she got out, though. Maybe that’s why I never got a response from him. I waited a whole day so I could enclose it in her letter, but nothing’s come in as of yet.

She said she feels her dream of getting the book published is fading away because she doesn’t know how to go about it and as I told her, my heart goes out to her as far as her frustration and cluelessness as to how to get a book published. This is the main reason I got turned off from the idea of being a writer. Finding a publisher is like finding a needle in a haystack, but others have found them, so don’t give up, I told her, and also, even if it never does get published, write the book anyway, because you’re a good writer, you like to write, and it’s a story worth writing. She promised Gretchen she’d do this and I let her know that Gretchen wouldn’t be let down by her not getting the book published, she’d be let down by her not writing it at all. I also assured her that although life is seldom what we plan it to be and dreams rarely do come true, all kinds of wonderful things happen to us along the way that we wouldn’t trade for the world. All we can do is try our best. Not succeeding isn’t failing, not trying is failing.

She wants to change the title to From the Cradle to the Grave and I agree that that’s much more catching and appropriate.

I told her this ought to console her and that’s that if the state doesn’t do the right thing and fry his ass, other inmates probably will. Also, if jail was as hard as it was for someone like me who doesn’t like to control or be controlled, imagine how hard being told what to do all the time is for a control freak like him?

I asked her which of my two stories she likes better, but I know not to count on an answer from her. That girl does not like to answer all my questions!

Anyway, Samantha came yesterday and is very nice. She has pale yellow-blond hair that’s crimped and blue realistic eyes. She wears a soft blue dress with off-white lace. I can’t figure out if it’s an old-fashioned or a modern dress. It looks like it could be either. My floral earrings that go with the necklace I got not too long ago go beautifully with the dress. I cut the clips off with metal cutters and glued them on. Porcelain gets hot as easily as it gets cold, and boy was she scorching hot when I unpacked her at 2:30 in the afternoon! I was surprised to find she was wired, but that’s no big deal. Wires are okay on a standing doll of this size. It’s when they’re over 30” or are sitting dolls that loc-tite armatures are better.

I emailed Vicki Pala as far as how much a completed Sweet 16 Bailey would cost and she said $250, so they’re the cheapest yet. I really want to get her in the dress she comes in when it comes time to get her. It’s such a beautiful pink dress with roses.

I can’t print pictures for Mary, Paula or Bob cuz my color’s dead and I’m low on toner, too. At least I’m full on black, but hopefully I’ll eventually be able to renew everything and not have to resort to writing people by hand, but if I do, I do. We’ll see. I like to write, but I prefer to stick to typing.

I slept poorly the last couple of days that I ended up sleeping forever today. I slept like I was in jail again yesterday and barely slept 5 hours. I guess it was the excitement over knowing Samantha was coming that day. Then we had a 6-hour thunderstorm. I fell asleep last night and only slept an hour when a loud thunderclap woke me. It wasn’t till 2:30 before I fell asleep and I slept till nearly 5:00 right before Tom got home! Both tonight and last night we’ve had steady rain that lasted for hours. The olies will love it!

Lightning knocked out the power in the whole northeast region a few days ago. Feeling a bit sticky, are ya, Tammy? Hee, hee! It’d be even funnier if it happened in the winter, but not for Paula and Bob. August in New England is miserably hot and humid. It’s like in the 90s with 100% humidity.

The bombs have done a good job of keeping spiders away, and any flies that get in die off pretty fast.

I asked Yves for another introduce-a-friend certificate for Paula, but just like with Tom’s mom, who knows if she’ll go for it?

I’m working on a third story. I couldn’t figure out what to write for the longest time, so then I decided to start at least a little something and let the story lead me from there, then it came to me! Isn’t that cool? Most writers have their stories all mapped out before they even write the first word, but I kind of start with whatever comes to mind, then take it from there. When I started the first one, I didn’t know Kate was going to become a psycho.

Anyway, the last two stories were pretty much romance that turned suspense, but this one’s going to be the other way around, so it seems, with the suspense turning into romance.

I quit the 2-hour workouts as they were just a waste of time. A half-hour or so is all I need to do to keep in shape and working out really doesn’t burn calories, and I don’t give a shit what anyone says. It doesn’t. The key is watching what you eat, though I’m not trying to lose weight anymore. Just stay where I’m at. Even the Bowflex people said that more isn’t better.

Tom feels more and more certain, now that he’s been there a few days, that this job will be a good one. Already they’re giving him a desk and a computer! He does a lot of walking, parking and moving around the zillions of cars. That will keep him in shape.

As I told him, more is always better, but I’d happily settle for $50 a month of extra money. If I could get a doll every 3-4 months, that’d be better than never and they’re not all going to be over $200.

This weekend he’s going to put the green truck’s muffler on the white one and hopefully, it’ll be quieter than the one that was on it before. He’s not sure what he wants to do with the green one. Maybe turn it into a trailer or race it at the Firebird racing track where they do drag racing.