“Are we going to be able to pay the rent? Do you really think we’ll make it this month?” It is sooo nice not to have to ask questions like that! Yet despite an economy that isn’t much better and a God that probably still hates us for reasons we’ll never know, we’re doing better than we were in Oregon, in some ways, and even when we were in Arizona. Our expenses here are more than they were in Oregon, but we don’t have all our money going into an $1100 mortgage payment and a $450 electric bill either like we did in Arizona. Oh, the freedom of renting! I sometimes miss being the boss of the place, but it’s not worth it at all unless you own the place outright.

Lately, we could live off his OT alone, seeing that he’s made over $80 in OT each day this week. He made enough to pay the rent and buy 3 weeks’ worth of groceries in one week. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I thought that the average American made $45K - $65K in the U.S., but Tom’s research shows that the average male makes $33K and the average female makes $25K. This still makes no sense seeing that the average woman is smarter than the average man. But if that’s so, then he’s actually above average. Next week they’re on for 10-hour days instead of 12.

Anyway, both of us are going to spend most of the weekend eating and sleeping, though we’ll sort through some stuff along the way, too.

Heard a bunch of car door slamming and even a quick horn honk at Jesse’s. This is one thing I dread about having neighbors so close to me once again. Everyone seems to have tons of company every day. Well, all that car door slamming can get pretty old if it’s right outside your place. I refuse to ever again take a place where the neighbor’s driveway runs alongside our place. I hate that! So you could say I’m both excited and apprehensive about the move. I just hate to end up in a place that may turn out worse than this place could ever be, but if we have any doubts for whatever reason, we’ll just stay put. No, I don’t like dealing with Jesse’s shit, but at least it’s pretty predictable. I’m not going to miss the place stinking of skunks every now and then, that’s for sure. Yeah, a skunk made another blast-off last night. At the dogs, I hope:)

He was leaving on the motorcycle as Tom was coming in. If we were behind him as he was leaving on that thing and I was behind the wheel, it would be sooo hard to resist the urge to terrorize him a bit and get a little too close to his back wheel and shit like that, LOL. Then again, I think it may be more fun to let Jesse watch us “tow” his dogs away. As in chained to the back bumper. grins evilly

So Donna Summer died yesterday at 63 of cancer. An article I read on her said she once made anti-gay remarks. It appalls me when anyone is hateful of anyone who doesn’t hurt anyone and who wants nothing more than equal rights, but it especially appalls me when the person is black and supposedly should know better, even if they’ve been treated just fine for the most part for decades now and have been given more rights than anyone else out there. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Obama were re-elected because of his color. Where the country idolizes youth and money, it also idolizes blacks. I’d just rather the Democrats be in power vs. the Republicans, black or white, because the Republicans tend to be more hateful towards gays and they don’t believe a woman should have any rights either. Anyway, I don’t know if Donna meant it or not, but she later apologized for her big mouth and said she realized it wasn’t her place to judge people. No, it wasn’t, but she had a helluva voice and I loved a lot of her songs. She definitely made up a huge part of the disco era.

When I got up I picked up my Nane messages. It was her last day of work and now she’s off to TR for the next couple of weeks. I was giggling to myself when I thought of how both Jim and I were going on vacation with her in a sense. Only I’m going in the form of my books, LOL. Yeah, she’ll be catching up on some of my stories and who knows what else of mine while she’s relaxing on one of those rocky beaches. She now has doubts about retiring there since TR doesn’t have a social system like Europe and the U.S. No insurance or anything like that and I guess you can’t rent places there. You can only buy them.

“Funny how I win all these writing contests and awards yet still never make much money from my writing,” I had said to her.

“Sabır, kızım sabır,” Nane told me, which in Turkish means, “Patience, girl, patience.” So without meaning to, I’m learning some Turkish words here and there cuz of her. Before we met I wouldn’t have been able to recognize Turkish writing but they don’t dot all their i’s and they have other telltale signs which I now recognize.

We wouldn’t do this, of course, but it would be so funny if someone mailed the next people a postcard which I know Jesse would read since it all comes to his mailbox saying: How do you like the trailer? Glad the landlord never discovered your rap sheet. After all, attempted murder is a biggie, etc. LMAO!