Great. Now there are two dogs living across the street. I’m amazed they’re even kept indoors. I just hope they don’t toss them outside to live when it warms up. They’ll be at the side of the house barking at those who walk by and that’d be totally obnoxious to have to deal with. There are at least two people who are home all day over there. One comes out to smoke every so often. They’re our typical home-all-the-time neighbors.

I finally got a letter from Mary. She’s just been busy, she says, talking about God like she loves to do, meeting with chaplains. In other words, she’s drowning in all kinds of religious hogwash in order to survive. Perhaps freedom will snap her out of it, although I wouldn’t expect her to have much in the way of freedom when she’s released. Especially not if she’s going to be on intensive probation. She hasn’t exactly been too clear on that, but I have a feeling she herself doesn’t even know what the hell’s going on. That’s just the system for you; it keeps those who are naïve to it in the dark whenever possible.

I’m still enjoying having Ashley around. I glance at her in shocked disbelief from time to time. I’m glad I didn’t have to settle or pay $400 or more for one that wasn’t nearly as nice. I’ll take pictures of me standing next to her when I dye my hair for Paula and Mary, though as I told Mary, no pictures till she’s out of jail. This grocery store is more like a convenience store, so it has a shitty selection of things, including dyes. I’ll have to wait till we can go to a department store or something to get the dye I want. I have coupons for two boxes. I think I’ll get one in blue-black and one in either dark red or burgundy.

Was that Beverly I just saw driving by? It looked like her car. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was in such a tiny town. This is a main drag, too.

I still can’t figure out what’s going on with the house diagonally across from us. It still appears empty, yet the cars keep coming and going in the little parking lot they’ve got towards the back side of it. The 3 rentals in the area, including the one next door, are still set at $800. I still can’t believe we’ve lived here just over 6 months now and next door’s still empty! I’d be way surprised if it were still empty by May.

No more scary occurrences since the rent mix-up. And it would be easier to get evicted from here than the duplex, since this place isn’t as noisy (and I seem to have a harder time getting out of the noisier places), although the dog across the canal has been at it more often lately and getting on my nerves to the point where I had to bring the sound machine out here for when I’m not drowning the fucking thing out with music. Anyway, no more scares, though I’m often paranoid. I don’t know if I’m going to find a summons waiting for me because someone broke into the black sicko’s place and decided I should be the one to take the fall for it or what. But I remind myself that I won’t fall for it.

I decided to put all the Barbies and Tonners I want towards the end of my list and concentrate on everything else first. For the last win Tom owed me I was going to have him get me a Barbie and a Tonner that are on sale, but I decided to get those vibrators instead. They’ll be ordered this Friday. Then I’ll pay that off with my weekly $50 and any bonus money we end up with for saving on groceries/utilities, which will be around $200. Then I’ll save for that awesome Cher wig. It looks so cool! It’s on sale right now and would be just under $50 with shipping.

I may not bother ordering bras and undies, since we should be able to get to a department store sometime this summer. Tom wants to get a tandem bike, so that way we could both go and be able to get back with a few bags, too.

We are starting to suspect that not only is the popping in my ear canal related to the pressure that goes with being in such a high elevation but is also related to when it’s both cold and cloudy here. Of course that’s 90% of the damn year, so we may have no choice but to get out of here if not this fall, then hopefully by the next. No problem. I don’t mind. Oregon can kick me out all it wants. This state may have a few good points, but other than that I hate it! It’s noon and it’s 19º out there! Still, it does seem that when the barometer falls and it gets stormy, my ear acts up. The only thing I’m not looking forward to in California is the noise and whatever new medical problems I acquire down there. You know how it is – gotta have problems everywhere I go. I had colds all the time in New England, couldn’t breathe in Phoenix, couldn’t stop sneezing in Maricopa, and am feeling like my head’s in a vice here, so perhaps I’ll develop arthritis down there. That is if my teeth don’t all fall out first! It’s true, even though I know it sounds funny as I try to add humor to the things that aren’t so cool in life.