I think we should let the Italy trip I won expire in 2014, then get it taken off our taxes. Why pay hundreds of dollars to listen to screaming kids fly halfway around the world with us, take a walk down memory lane in some hotel, then see a bunch of old, ancient crap? If old stuff is your thing, then great, Italy is for you, but as a modern freak, none of the old stuff that’s included in our Rome/Venice/Florence package would be exciting for someone like me. Me, who likes shiny new things. I can use my Italian in other ways. Besides, we have a habit of getting stuck in places when we travel, and I’m supposed to be retiring my adventurous side that seemed to come out of nowhere when I left New England. We would also have to get new luggage. I dumped all our old luggage as soon as we escaped the motel and moved in here.

Tom, however, says that if an opportunity presents itself to take the trip, we should take it. I just don’t like “paying” to win. That’s part of why I stopped sweeping, along with the bad economy that stopped me from winning these damn things in the first place. Not even my influencing ability seemed to help. I have been as non-psychic here as I was psychic in Maricopa and K-Falls.

I tried to change my ‘from’ name on my outgoing email messages to just my name, but can’t figure out how to do it. Although I’m the only one who ever uses my email account, I had both our names on it back when I was sweeping because I often entered contests in his name.

I don’t miss those days as much as I used to. If the job site keeps paying as much and as consistently as it has, why enter sweeps? So I can have to pay a fortune in taxes on my wins? So I can fight tooth and nail just to get some of the prizes delivered to me? So I can be congratulated on other people’s wins? I don’t think so!

Last night I dreamt I was back on probation and Tom and I went to report to Scot. I made a comment at one point about his broken door (it was partly off the hinges). He said I would have to pay for it.

“Whoa, what do you mean I have to pay for it?” I asked him, and he still insisted I had to pay for it.

I told him that there was nothing in my terms of probation that said I was legally obligated to pay for office repairs, and so he could forget about it.

“Well, like it or not, it will be included in your next electric bill,” he says.

“And like it or not, we will deduct it from our next monthly payment if it is,” I hit back with.

Then Tom turns into D and D is drunk or high on something, and I’m hoping Scot doesn’t pick up on it and think I’m on something as well. Eventually, we go to leave and she keeps trying to grab my ass. I growl at her, “Do it again and so help me God I’ll break your fucking fingers as soon as we get out in the parking lot.”

Then I woke up to her laughing way too loud.

I was reading about the teen who not only got arrested but also faces prosecution for making a racist comment over the PA system at a NJ Walmart. While that was a mean thing to do, prosecution? That’s ridiculous! Not only is it not a crime to hate someone, but shouldn’t they focus their energy on prosecuting real criminals instead of rude kids?

And once again I have to ask myself, what if it had been a black kid asking all whites to leave the store? Would anything have been done about it then? Sadly, I’m afraid I know the answer to this question.

There was also an article about booby traps being set for some cops here in Cali. While most of the responses to the article wrote it off as being just horrible, a few brought to light a very important fact. And that’s that sometimes the cops make the beds they end up laying in by using and abusing their authority and believing they’re these god-like, invisible beings who can shit on the public they’re supposed to be serving and protecting – the public whose tax dollars pay their salaries – and simply walk away.

And they also had a point in saying that while the media is quick to trash and bash us when we get in trouble, they sure fail to shout from the rooftops the fact that some of us – such as myself – who have been vindicated were actually innocent of the crimes we were tried and convicted for.

But guess what, everybody?! I was innocent of threatening Miss Joely Renee N. and the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix PD do NOT want you to know that. Yet while you will find all kinds of court documents on the case, my record is free and clear save for a few petty misdemeanors (prank calls) from a million years ago, for if it had been riddled with anything serious, Tom and I never would’ve been accepted by the management company we rented property from in Oregon. They do background checks on everyone.

Jerry O – more than just a friend of Joely N - really did falsify and plant evidence on me, but ssshhhhh, hush, hush!!! You ain’t supposed to know that either!

It gets worse. The bastard, despite racking up complaints not just from the case of yours truly but from others as well, might very well still be on the force. I’ve heard otherwise, but I would be willing to bet he’s still out there, using his badge as a weapon and his anger as a motivator.

I can’t believe the pestlord hasn’t been down here in over a month now. But his dogs sure were. Brandy ignored me, but Whiskey ran right up to me.

Ok, now I’m going to respond to various comments and questions I’ve received, so if I appear to be jumping subjects wildly, that’s why.

Yes, most of us seem to have suffered from the Bad Neighbor Syndrome at one time or another, as I’ve been discussing in this journal. Hey, it’s part of the “therapy” the good old state of Arizona itself ordered for me. I left New England in 1992 and from there it was on to 15 years of bad neighbors, the worst being in Phoenix. I had to wonder if I didn’t burn my neighbors’ houses down in a previous life and that that was why I was so tormented by so many neighbors for so long, even if the west – particularly where it’s warmer – tends to be a bit rowdier than the east. Just the fact that dogs are household pets in the East as opposed to something you stick outside and forget about should tell you something right there as far as noise goes.

And do the old neighbors and Mr. Corrupto read this journal? someone asked. I’ll never know for sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did, and not because they were interested in what may be going on in my life, but because they hope to “get me.” These are extremely hateful, vindictive and vengeful people that make my sister seem like a real amateur and I’m sure they would be itching to do something to me. Sorry, though. I’ve already checked out the journaling laws, and A, if you come to me and I don’t go to you with my words, well, you’re asking for whatever you may get. B, I don’t journal for profit. C, I don’t use last names, though I am not legally obligated not to. D, I warn people up front with my little disclaimer about not reading this journal if you’re the sensitive type in my introductory entry. E, if a site doesn’t say you can’t say “so and so is a fat, ugly retard,” then you can’t be in violation of a policy that doesn’t exist. F, I don’t make direct threats. According to my research, it is ok to say, “I wish or I hope so and so gets killed,” but “I am going to kill so and so” is a no-no.

Anyway, I write this journal to express myself and to record both the good and bad times so I can refer to them if I want to. Not to impress or anger anyone.

I am in total agreement with the fact that yes, sometimes the staff in funny farms and so-called private schools can be crazier than the students/patients. One staffer in Brattleboro thought I belonged on a diet at 110 pounds.

I am a much, much better singer now than in my teens. You wouldn’t know it was the same person. However, give me a guitar and I probably wouldn’t know what the hell to do with it, LOL. Same for the keyboards which I was into for a while during my 20s.

No, I am not against “Dr. Death.” I totally support what he did and feel that people should be able to end their suffering the same as dogs and cats can, especially if their illness is terminal and there is no hope for improvement.

I am not against abortion either. Birth control would be better, but abortion is ok, especially in cases of rape and incest. I don’t see it as murder, for we have zero awareness until after we’re born. That’s why we can’t even remember being born. So it’s not like the fetus can feel or know and understand that something’s trying to “kill” it. If abortion is murder then so is killing weeds.

Why do I publish my life? Why not? We all have good and bad experiences and we all make mistakes as well as accomplishments. No need to be embarrassed, ashamed or shy. While I’ve had some rather unique experiences, my life is not special, unique or different in any way. It’s just a life.

Now for what’s got to be the funniest question yet: Would D shell out $100 to save my life if that’s what it took to save it for some reason? LOL, I’m sure she’d do her best!