I am so pissed. So, so pissed! To say there’s a sleep curse on me is a total understatement. It is so, so obvious! My 7 AM wake-up call was so, so supernaturalish. Woodpeckers simply don’t go banging on the undersides of vehicles. They don’t. Period. Yet whatever this bird is, and I know it’s a bird of some kind by its cries, has to be pretty big in order to make such a racket. We could’ve just rented an apartment and let it be the owner’s responsibility to play fix-it when things broke, other than our personal stuff if I knew I was going to sleep this poorly. What’s God going to do when I’m in the shed? Have this bird go beat on that at 7:00 in the morning?

I am so, so fed up with this thing that doesn’t want me to sleep! It’s really too bad it doesn’t have the guts to come face me in person, whatever the fuck it is. For years I was frustrated and annoyed, but now I’m furious! Hasn’t this thing got anything better to do than pick on my sleep? I’ve been cursed in that department all my life, in a sense. Throughout my school years, I always had trouble falling asleep and trouble getting up in the morning. But why is it so damn important to this thing that I lose so much sleep? Why does it care so much? It’s gotten me 5 times in August alone!

Later…

They didn’t say anything about it, but they did get into my photo albums. The auto receipt I got says so.

I called and talked with Paula. She didn’t recognize my voice at first, but when she realized it was me she shrieked with delight to finally be hearing from me.

She really had me nervous when she said she hadn’t gotten my long 10-page letter till she said she hadn’t been by her box in two weeks.

Her one and only other friend, Alida, a Puerto Rican girl, died of AIDS. She didn’t even know she was dying. I guess the girl kept it a secret for some reason.

Miguel got in trouble again for hitting her. Of course, the male Puerto Rican only did 30 days for it while I, a white female, had to do 180 days for utter bullshit.

I was surprised yet glad to hear she recently burned the last of the incense and liked every single stick. Even the prank blank!

I’m sending her 25 sticks I didn’t care for in a brown manila envelope with bubble lining. There are 5 different fragrances.

She still asks me if I got my braces off.

I showed her where Oregon is on a map she had. After guiding her away from Louisiana and up over California, she found it.

I’m burning my Sweet Musk now, dreading the idea of falling asleep. For what, to get woken up a million times along the way?

Tom thinks the banging was caused by a bird trying to go after a chipmunk that was hiding, wedged in somewhere down under there.