I called my parents back and this time my mom answered. She sounded horrible at first and I thought she was sick. She’d actually been napping along with Dad.

I realized I’d forgotten to tell them not to send anything when I left the message yesterday till we get our new PO Box address next month, and also let them know that PO boxes don’t accept packages from UPS or FedEx. Those will have to be sent here. At least we can forward our mail from the PO Box whereas UPS Store boxes won’t do that. These greedy bastards want $90 for 6 months, but we can get a PO Box for a year for $45.

We talked about getting everything sent here, but even though I’m not sweeping right now, we don’t want to overwhelm Jesse as we still get a bunch of crap. Also, it can be confusing for the carriers when one person forwards mail from a particular address while the other person doesn’t. We don’t want some of Jesse’s mail forwarded to us while some of ours gets held back here, so that’s why we opted for the PO Box. I don’t want Jesse coming down here every time I get samples either, which is almost every day.

So after asking about Dad, their store, etc., I bring up the idea of moving to Florida when he retires and she says in a very stern and serious voice, “Not here. Don’t come here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her, and she said things are very bad there. I asked how and she said, “Jodi, I’m sure you read.”

“But I haven’t,” I told her. “You know I rarely read the news. It’s too depressing.”

But try as I would, I could not get her to tell me the specifics of what’s wrong, despite promising not to put it in this blog (and I won’t if I find out what it is). All she would say was that it was things in general that have been bad for several years, that explains it in a nutshell, and they’re talking about moving. I asked where they’d move to, and while they know they would never want to go where it snows, they don’t know where they’d go.

I hope they don’t go to Arizona! I asked if they wanted to come to Cali and she laughed and said no, but that we’re in a fine location. Yeah, I agree. The winters are still a bit cold, but I love the hot, dry summers. It doesn’t get insanely hot like the desert, but it’s still desert-like in the summer. The rain is nice too, since it doesn’t rain too much or too little here.

Then it hit me that they might be having legal problems, but I couldn’t find anything online, so I’ll have to ask Tom what he thinks and if he’s heard anything in the news.

Anyway, I’m kind of surprised. I thought my folks loved Florida and would basically spend the rest of their lives in the condo they’re in now. For them to want to move when they’re pushing 80 makes me think it’s got to be pretty bad, whatever it is. I didn’t want to push her, but I am curious. Next time I catch my dad alone, he’ll probably give me some hints as far as what’s going on.

As I was telling someone I was talking to last night, not knowing what lies ahead for us gets tough at times. Yo se que I’ll eventually learn the answers to some of my questions since it’s just a matter of letting time play itself out, but sometimes I get impatient and I wish I could have some answers right now. Will we really get a house of our own? When? Where? Will I ever see anyone again I’ve actually met, particularly Maliheh?

Nane knows a little Spanish from when she lived in New York for a few years back in her 20s. Next to the latest picture of her taken down in Turkey I wrote: ¿Por qué tienes que estar tan lejos? (Why do you have to be so far away?) She replied with: no sabes como sufri :)))))))) (You don’t know how I suffer)

She still hasn’t said anything about my story, so I guess she’s either still reading it or didn’t like it, but isn’t saying so for some reason. I’m surprised. I thought she was more honest. Well, we’re attracted to each other, and we share a love for languages, but that’s pretty much where our common ground stops, LOL.

Swapped a few messages with Maliheh last night who said the sole highlight of her week will be painting her living room that’s how bored she is. She said there are things that could be done, but she doesn’t want to do them and isn’t ashamed to say so.

I still get mixed signals from her, too. I sense someone who’s lonely and who wouldn’t hesitate to run over, pick me up and take me back to hang out with her – possibly to do more than just hang out – but then I remember how she says she values her space and has only had company a few times in all the years she’s lived there, so I don’t know what to think at times.

Jesse’s schedule has become more predictable which is a bit comforting to me because then I know when I can have some peace and quiet during the daytime. He goes out in the truck around 9am for a couple of hours, then leaves around 1pm on the motorcycle and doesn’t come back till around 5pm. I guess his kid hasn’t been coming over lately after school; because he would bring him home around 6:00.

Whiskey barked once as he was zooming out when I was hanging sheets and he yelled “Quiet!” It worked, too. I’m amazed at just how much quieter they’ve become, though they’ve always been quieter when left alone in the afternoon versus at night or early morning.