They finally caught on that we haven’t paid for our UPS Store box in well over a year. When the other owners moved from Elm St. to Bell Rd. they screwed all their records up and never bothered to charge us. Besides, Tom’s such a likable guy that everyone likes and so they were especially nice to him. But recently new owners have taken over and want us to pay up. Since PO boxes are way cheaper we’ll be getting one in March. It’s a good thing I won’t be sweeping for a while what with how shitty the economy’s been because if I remember correctly, they won’t accept packages from UPS or FedEx. If that’s still the case I’ll have to tell my folks to send any packages they may have here. Jesse won’t steal them.

I miss those days of winning thousands of dollars worth of stuff and cash! God, do I miss them. But the longer the economy sucks, the more I wonder if it will ever get better. IDK, maybe it’s gotten so bad that we’re at the point of no return.

I stopped backing up my language notes in my old diary since I found I could download the entire exercise video for each lesson in each language. I backed the PDF files up on Yahoo, then the whole thing on my laptop and on iTunes where I can play the videos. It’s way better than reviewing on their site because it’s a slideshow that plays on its own with both foreign and English captions and voices. I’ll only use their site from now on if I want to do the “magnet” exercises. I still like that government site too, just not how complicated it is to remember where I’ve left off and dealing with their HUGE PDF files which have to be matched to the proper audio files.

The weather’s been holding steady in the low to mid-60s. Where December was very wet, January’s been very dry.

Have I become boring or something? Andy keeps in touch but says he’s too busy to read my journal even though I always have something interesting to say. Alison and Kim don’t do MyOpera much anymore, and Nane’s become a virtual stranger.

I was just about to wonder what was going on with Maliheh too, after the longest break of not hearing from her when she emailed me to say that she’s still sick. She’s not coughing or sneezing as much, but is still rundown and sick of feeling that way. She’s due for blood testing, she says, but since that makes her ill when they do that, she doesn’t want them doing it when she already feels ill.

She had me cracking up earlier with the way she said she’d tell her dad, whom she didn’t get along with in the end, to “head for the light and leave me the fuck alone” when she’d sense his presence. She said that a moth was flying around her face at his funeral that really annoyed her and wouldn’t go away. Then she learned that some Indian tribes believe that’s a sign of a loved one returning to say hello. She had a butterfly living in her place for a while that she knew was him and said it was creepy and cool at the same time. But she kept telling him to “hit the light” and I guess he’s backed off since.

If I see a butterfly in here after my mom dies, I’ll be chasing it with a fly swatter for sure!

I kind of miss the days when she’d be on my blog every few hours. But I’d rather be her friend and hear directly from her than have her on my blog more often.