Bev’s moving. I’m surprised it took this long. I thought she’d be gone after our first month or two here. It explains a lot of things like the escalated banging, the multiple trips in and out, the backing in, and the I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude she took on Easter. Romeo was here yesterday with his truck and some other guy. At first we wondered if they were hauling stuff out of her garage, which Tom saw was chock full of furniture and other shit when he was coming back from checking the mail one day. We could see through the garage window today on our walk to Burger King and it’s still full of stuff. She hasn’t even taken down her wind chimes or moved any of the stuff on her back patio. Her bedroom blinds are now wide open. I can see straight through to the wall of the neighboring house.

We’ve agreed to give our notice on May 1st and get out of here on June 1st. It isn’t just that I want a house, but we need to get a place closer to where he works so he can stop using the truck and either walk or ride a bike to work. It’s now costing more than a dollar a day in gas for him to go to/from work! We hope to pick up a couple of used bikes soon enough, as well as a used washer for $40 or so and start doing our own laundry which will be way cheaper than going to Laundromats.

She and Romeo made their first trip over here around 1 PM, and now they’re here on their second trip. Wherever she’s moved to isn’t that far, judging by how fast they returned yesterday to load up after dumping off each load. She’s probably moving in with him in a house. I really hope they come around while Tom’s at work (loud music would annoy Tom in a place this small) because I’d really like for them to listen to my bass go thump, thump, thump while they’re moving shit out. They’re banging like hell right now. I just hope to hell Tom’s right in assuming she’s paid up till the 1st, and that they’d need at least a week to carpet/clean the place, which would leave us with about 3 weeks to listen to whatever comes to go bump, bang and bass in there next. I’m sure that at this very minute, God’s up there thinking, hmm, who can I send to pick on Jodi? Well, I’m sure it’ll be a person(s) who’s very loud, very annoying, and home all the time. I’m not sure if dogs are even allowed here, but I wonder what will be worse – the banging or the bass? I think I’ll hear more from kids than from music. I hope they have trouble renting the place because it’s on such a busy street, but I know I could never get that lucky. I’m sure the newcomers will arrive before the month is out or by the 1st at the latest, leaving us with more like 5 or 6 weeks to have to deal with their shit.

A part of me wonders if she did have two 2-year leases since it’s coming up on May, the month she said she moved in two years ago. Another part wonders if she’s moving because we are, not wanting to take a chance on what may come in here next.

I just hope to hell we have no problem getting out of here and that it’s not going to be too noisy where we move to or a nightmare in here before we can escape this place! Then, once we do get moved, we can put the entire deposit in my mouth and get these cavities taken care of once and for all. Then, while we slowly save for the California move, I’ll save for the mannequin. I want to get it before we leave Oregon because the site I may buy it from is in California, and we’d have to pay sales tax if we bought it there when we moved there. After the move, the teeth and the mannequin, I think I’ll go for a double-raised airbed and then either some shelves or a computer desk. This will take years to come, but it’ll come (I hope!).

We walked to Burger King this morning. It took us 20 minutes each way. It was a nice walk. Only a few yards had dogs in them, but because it was fairly early, not many people were out and about. Although I still prefer cactuses and palms, the flowers that are starting to bloom, along with the budding leaves, were nice to see. Wind chimes are a big thing around here too, so it seems. The diversity of the houses is nice to see. They come in different shapes and sizes and aren’t all on one floor. In Phoenix, they all looked the same.

Yesterday we went to Antonio’s and K-Mart. Antonio’s wasn’t all that great, but did I think God would let me have something wonderful for free? He had linguini in meat sauce, and instead of getting a meal, I got two appetizers. I got crab cakes which tasted a little funny, and steamed clams in a buttery wine sauce. It all cost us just 44¢ and as broke as we are, we didn’t bother to leave a tip. Besides, we don’t plan on returning. I pictured a fancy place like Red Lobster, but it was actually kind of small and café-like. The room had hardwood floors and tables that were too small. There were no booths. No kids, either, but 6 loud-mouthed adults instead. I guess one was having a birthday party.

K-Mart didn’t have the perfume I wanted, so I got some incense and a new friend of Barbie’s named Madison instead. This is the doll with the big head and big feet that looks sort of cartoon-like, yet has a nice face and outfit. I thought she had detachable feet, but instead she just has big shoes with flesh-tone on some parts of the shoe. I like 2 of the 4 dolls in this series, including Barbie, which I’ll get some other time. Although this doll is black, she doesn’t have overly dark skin or hair. The big feet and head make her about a half-inch taller than regular Barbies.

I got some rose oil and dipped a blank stick in it. Not long after I began to air it out, it lost its dark brown color and faded back to the tan color they are when they’re blank. I can’t keep it lit either, so I don’t know if I just need to let it dry longer or what.

They now sell electric warmers which I’d much rather have over the light bulb ring so I don’t have to have a light on when burning oils.

I read a page or two of my book that he rewrote, and while the story was wonderful and he had many good suggestions and advice to give me as far as enhancing the story and making it more believable, as well as fleshing out the characters, he made some errors. Most errors were with punctuation, but there were a few errors with tenses as well. It also wasn’t my story anymore. I mean, it was, but it wasn’t. So we agreed that I’d do the rewriting of the book. I need to learn to do most of this on my own anyway. Then he’ll give it a final read-through so we can do any final editing that may need to be done, then we’ll submit it.

He loaded a Spanish learning program on my computer, which I want to go through to brush up on some of the grammatical problems I have, and it’s so way cool! If only I could’ve learned with this to begin with.

They just left. They took the washer, dryer and grill this time around. I can’t believe she didn’t barbecue while she was here. Better yet, I can’t believe next door hasn’t moved as well. Then again, why would God have them move? They get annoying.

Later…

She just left after her third trip here, this time with just Romeo in his big old ugly gray pickup. I doubt they’ll be back anymore tonight, so we have the whole house to ourselves!