They still haven’t left next door, and we’re still having chilly mornings. Yesterday afternoon, however, was the first time in days we had to run the AC. We’ll be close to 90° come Friday. :)

I sit here and I look around me, and despite the minor annoyances like traffic and landscaping, I still can’t believe we ended up in such a nice house. And so big, too. I really thought we were going to end up in another undersized dump, or at least a dump. We would have if we hadn’t gotten out when we did.

Had some strange dreams last night, both in which I didn’t seem to know Tom. In one dream I won some therapy appointments, LOL, and my parents, who were alive and well, took me to see a woman who seemed to be in her late 30s or so. She had long thick, wavy brown hair.

I went up these stairs and into her office, which was a large room. She was the first thing I saw. She smiled and said hello and I smiled, too. But then I glanced to the side and saw other people in the room as well. Not being a fan of group therapy, I turned and left the room. The woman called after me about the benefits of group therapy as opposed to one-on-one, but I wasn’t interested. Besides, my life was going just fine. I went to fetch my parents so we could leave, only they weren’t sitting up in chairs in a waiting room. They were asleep on a full-size bed in a small room.

In the last dream, I was about to or already had received a life sentence for who knows what, but the prison wasn’t anything like a real prison. It was co-ed and the security was such a joke that I felt confident that I could easily escape. The problem was where to go afterward.

Most of the “inmates” were young and immature. But one guy named Michael was a little older and a lot smarter. My dream self took immediately to the gray-eyed guy with brown curly hair who was soon to be released. At dinnertime, we spoke of escaping. He said it should be easy enough and I said, “I know. I was waiting outside the office building one time and slowly wandered over to the front gate. At first I was afraid to approach it, but then said, who cares? Who cares if a swarm of guards come after me? I’m going down for life anyway.”

Michael warned me about being sensible about making my escape and not doing anything foolish just because escaping wouldn’t be that difficult.

Then they loaded about 8 of us into a van to go to a fast-food place. The place must’ve been pretty far away, though, cuz we stopped for a cigarette break along the way. I just walked around and enjoyed the fresh air since I didn’t smoke. Everyone got back in the van and the door slid shut before I could hop in. I ran alongside the van shouting to the driver. He saw me and decided to play games by making me run alongside the van. His laughter was soon replaced by comments commending me on being such a good runner when he finally let me back in the van.

At the so-called fast food place, we ate in what looked like oversized bathroom stalls only there were no toilets. Just these weird tables and benches I couldn’t figure out how to sit on. Michael told me which way to face in the seat but my ass seemed to be too big for the seat.

“Our own room,” I said, thinking Michael and I were the only ones in that “booth” and could talk about my escape in private. But then I saw some other guy in the corner of the room and quickly shut up.

At one point after we ate I casually walked off, though I don’t know how far I got or where I went.

Later…

Posted a few quick rat vids on Facebook and swapped messages with Alison. Sure enough, she asked if I were behind the “April Smith” thing. A girl named Gabby reported to her that Kim went on a huge rant on her FB page about someone pretending to be Kathy and Molly. I pretended to be Kathy, not Molly, but that’s just Kim for you.

What’s funny is that she keeps changing her Twitter name but I keep finding it. That’s because she makes it so damn obvious because they’re just variations of the same name. I was surprised to see a 7-hour lag in tweets earlier, then she reported in saying she was busy being “Mattified.” Yeah, I’ll bet she was. Being other people is what she does best, along with lying and being unbelievably paranoid and delusional. She really, really seems to think everyone is out to get her. But she’s a really bad liar when she claims she hasn’t been to any of my sites in over a year unless it’s a so-called alter visiting me she’s not aware of. I’ve wondered if someone could’ve been impersonating her, though I highly doubt it. She was just too damn obvious. Besides, who would go to such trouble and take the time to pull off such an elaborate impersonation of the nut for so long? It was her. Trust me, it was her.

As Aly said, her mind is fascinating but highly disturbing.

Coincidently, Enfield, CT popped into my OD diary right around the time I was picking on Kim. Although the person has a mobile device and Cox, it’s still hard to believe it’s her and that she’d show up as being in Enfield, but it’s still possible.

She definitely read my blog last night because right after she read the “plant” in it where I claimed to have reactivated Ask just to be anonymously asked to follow (I named Kim’s accounts) on Twitter, she protected her tweets.

Nane was posting the usual kinds of TR pics I’ve already seen enough of but didn’t contact me. Oh well, I’m used to it. Maybe I’ll make her wait on me someday.

Here’s a funny Twitter story for you. Since people often don’t use their real names anyway, I decided to go with what’s trending to see if my follower count went up. So I became “Jodi Arias Hater,” and jumped 4 followers in less than a day. One follower is a famous judge in Miami. I never heard of him but I guess he has his own TV show. However, the intended goal wasn’t just to get more followers just for the sake of having more followers, but to get people to link to my blog and drive up book sales. Since blog traffic hasn’t gone up, though, I don’t see why book sales will. As with everything else that involves money, I have totally failed as an author. Oh well. At least Tom’s “allowed” to make more than enough.

I still worry about circumstances leading us back into the hands of poverty (with a little help from above), and I’m not talking about the kind where you’re tight for a while and that outfit you want has to wait a few months. I’m talking about the kind where you go hungry and are facing homelessness. As Tom pointed out, though, we just made another space payment and a mortgage payment, plus we’ve spent tons of money on new things for the house, yet the savings is going up. It’s going up slowly, but it’s going up. The 401K is going up faster.

As I was pointing out to him yesterday, first I wanted to win to get ahead in life, now I want to win so I can hire people to tackle the walls of OUR home. It’s not that I mind doing it myself, but I’m no pro. I don’t know that I could do that good a job. About 80% of the paneling in here was painted at some point and I can tell a pro did it cuz there isn’t a single drop of paint on the trim anywhere.

I dug up the old roast recipe my mother taught me when I last saw her in May of 1997 when she visited us in Phoenix. One of the few good contributions she ever left me. Only this idiot here forgot to add spices and didn’t add enough water either. It’s still plenty edible, though. I just added the spices afterward, more water, and cooked it at a lower temp for longer. Oh, the propane cooking this thing would’ve sucked up! LOL, it’s why I never cooked it while we were in the trailer as much as I wanted to at times, especially during the cooler weather. Now that we’re in a real house, the time of year doesn’t matter, though it’s still nothing I’d want to cook during the summer when we’re in triple digits.

I even managed to screw up poor Tom’s ice cream, LOL, by accidentally placing his chocolate topping shell in the refrigerator. He had to wait forever for it to warm up and turn to liquid again.

Anyway, for a whopping $15, we got an eye of the round roast. I put it in a big black roasting pot and dumped in a can of French onion soup and a can of golden mushroom soup, followed by 2 cans of water and a couple of cans of whole potatoes (these were mostly for Tom). You cook it at 350° for 3 or more hours.

You’ll be water-picking and brushing your teeth for sure afterward cuz you get strings of meat between them – ew. We got these super high-powered toothbrushes. I won one like it back in 2006 that was then worth over $100, but couldn’t find replacement heads anywhere. Now they’re common and much cheaper. So for $30 apiece, we each got one.

Neighborhood report now. No landscaping sounds today or yesterday, but the house on the side got annoying cuz they’re moving out. It’s still for sale, though, so we don’t think they’re moving cuz the house sold, but more likely because the owner died or went into some type of assisted living program and that’s why it’s for sale. It’s going to be a tough sale. Too high, bad location. They’re asking way too much for the place and it’s right on the edge of the park. Screaming kids, barking dogs, loud music – you’ll hear it all if you’re in that house and the people across the street and just beyond the wall happen to have any of that shit going.

Yesterday there were a ton of vehicles and door slamming. A really loud pickup was making trips in and out till after 9pm. A U-Haul was parked there when I got up, but it left shortly afterward and I haven’t seen or heard much activity there since. Still gotta deal with open house traffic and whoever moves in, but there are worse things to deal with. Watch, though, I told Tom. As soon as the newcomers get settled in, another one around us will go up for sale. Well, it won’t be next door, thankfully. They’re quiet 99% of the time. Almost too good to be true. I just can’t believe we got lucky enough to get such great neighbors, retirement community or not. They’re living proof, though, that you really can be civilized and you don’t have to make a scene every day and make your every move noticed. We’re talking two people just a few feet away. So Jesse, that one person who was a few hundred feet away, didn’t have to carry on like he did. There was simply no reason or excuse to be that noisy so often. So glad we’re not there anymore!

I haven’t had any energy to work out today. At least not for high-impact stuff. So I hit the floor and did some floor exercises like back bows, pushups, leg raises and ab/oblique crunches. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have the energy for the butt kickers, lateral jumps, jumping jacks, burpees, lunges and squats.

Later…

The pregnant God-lover popped into my blog for 8 minutes, no doubt due to Kim’s urging, since MD is closed today. It was open yesterday to make it a handy reference for me, but once I was done with what I had to do today, I set it private again. I’m sure Kim checks it every day to see if it’s open. Still don’t get why she’s determined to dodge tracking, though.

Tom says there’s no way it was in the 40s yesterday morning and that Yahoo! was wrong. Maybe so, but it sure has been cooler. I like it hot when I’m not sleeping or working out, so I can be without robes, slippers and long sleeves. I like to hang out barefoot in shorts.

Tom’s got to work today and I’ll be in for lots of sweat and hunger doing those killer 1000-calorie workouts. As I hit mid-cycle the water slowly begins to come on, so I’m up a pound. I also ate a little more yesterday and most of it was the wrong foods. But damn that Velveeta cheese and shells cup was good!

I asked Tom if he thinks I’ll adapt to the everyday buzzing of landscaping equipment like I have with the traffic, and he said yes. I hope he’s right! It’s the weekend now and the two places with grass in their yards in the immediate area have already been done, so it may be quieter. It was actually quieter for the last two days. Just some buzzing diagonally from us for a half-hour or so right when I went to watch a video yesterday afternoon.

As disappointing as the sweeping’s been, I’m going to go get sweeping. My sweep subscription doesn’t end till Nov. 2nd anyway.

Later…

I’ve been doing my best to distance myself from Kim and hoping she’d do the same, but since we’re not always treated the way we treat others, I finally broke down. I couldn’t resist. So I created “April Smith” on Twitter and friended Kim with a plan in mind for the gullible, crazy sack of shit. April is 30, disabled from a car accident, and home alone bored in her apartment with lots of time to spare. She lives in Anaheim, too. I then randomly grabbed a face shot of a fat blond in that age range for her profile pic.

My goal is going to be hard to accomplish because Kim is both delusional and a liar. The idea is to try to get inside her head and see what’s really going on. To pay attention to things I never paid attention to back when we were “friends.” If I can get a handle on what makes her tick, then maybe she’ll be easier to deal with in the future.

I read her explanation of why she feels it’s best to block her ex-friends on Facebook “before they have a chance to find her,” but it didn’t make sense. Like I consciously go looking for her. rolls eyes Common problems with stalkers; they act like you’re the one stalking them.

Already I’ve got her talking about “loonies” which are her ex-friends and the ex-BF she never had. I’ve protected my tweets and am trying to get her to PM me so no one else who may be connected to Aly, Kathy or anyone else can see enough of our exchanges to figure out who I am. I doubt they would, but you never do know. I don’t want to move too fast and scare her off, but once I can get her to open up about me, I’ll hopefully get a sense of how close she’s stalking me, though I don’t know how much she’d be willing to admit no matter how much she may trust “April.” Or how much she even remembers. Again, if my MPD theory is right, she’s not always aware of what she does. At least not totally aware of it.

Based on the times she tweets, she seems to sleep from around 3am to noon her time and practically lives online as I pretty much suspected. I don’t see how she could possibly have a job. The bulk of her time is spent obsessing over celebrities. Gee, what a surprise. She creates tons of fan sites and interacts with those who are also fans. I had to pretend I was a Glee fan. Hope she doesn’t ask me any questions about the show I can’t answer.

I’m not going to play this game forever, of course, so how I’ll end it I’m not sure of right now. Maybe I’ll freak her out a bit by saying something like how I’m sorry her father died. Something she knows I shouldn’t know, LOL. Or maybe I’ll say I’m a friend of Kathy’s and how Kathy wants to dump her and all that.

Not sure if I want to let Alison in on what I’m doing or not. There’s still a part of me that’s hesitant to trust her. I’m 90-something percent sure I could, but maybe I’ll wait a while. I skimmed Kim’s private tweets once she added me and couldn’t find any mention of me. Just whining about Aly feeling “left out” and falsely flattering herself by thinking Aly cares enough to peek in on her that she’s got to hurry up and block her.

Anyway, I’m trying to get her to take the bait but she keeps running off. Got to make more fan sites. rolls eyes It’s sad that this deranged, 300-pound virgin with nothing but time can do nothing but live in a fantasy world and basically dedicate her life to these celebs she never met… when she’s not harassing people she was once friends with.

Molly hit my LJ blog real quick early this morning, so the “changed and restricted woman” is back at it again. I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough, but why that blog? She usually goes to MO. Either way, the only one she can read right now is on Blogger.

Later…

Game’s over. Already. And I did not expect it to end this way. Not at first anyway. I quickly got bored with the so-called attempt to get into her crazy head and realized I wasn’t going to get any useful info from her. So I said I was a friend of Kathy’s and that Kathy was pissed at her for hitting on Adam. The crazy bitch got off on it at first, laughing and saying how “fun” this was.

Then she disappeared for nearly an hour (probably to go confront Kathy), and then I unfollowed her and she unfollowed me. I then changed my u/n, but it was too late. The account was already suspended. It was either automatically flagged and shut down due to her blocking me, or she reported it. Chances are it was shut down for being a new account that received something like 4-5 blocks. Action wouldn’t have been taken that fast had she reported me, and there was nothing to “report.” Unless there’s spam, excessive foul language or threats, you can’t shut someone down for saying stuff you don’t want to hear. I could’ve agreed to behave, checked a few boxes and sprung the account back to life, but I don’t need it anymore.

After we were disconnected, I then peeked in on her public account from my real account and while she never named names, clearly she suspects me. I would’ve thought she thought either Aly or I was behind it, but what narrowed it down to me was how she said she has “left me and my sites alone.” Well, Aly doesn’t have sites. She’s had a few FB accounts trying to escape this loon, but she hasn’t been active on Ask or any blogging site that I know of.

She threatened to get me in trouble if I keep it up, of course, and admitted it was “fun” at first till it got creepy. And damn, how did they find her?

I’m surprised she didn’t run and shut all the accounts down like she always used to. Instead, she started to change the name of her public one, then changed it back.

Stop lying and leave her friends and family alone, she says. Oh, but it’s perfectly ok for her to hit up the friends of those who dumped her, right?

Enough of that fucktard.

When Aly questions me about it, and unfortunately she will, I’m not going to lie and say I had nothing to do with it. I’ll tell her what I did and why. If she tells Kim, she tells Kim, but I doubt she will.

It’s been unusually cold. It’s now just 40fucking6 degrees out and I’m not liking it one bit. Had to run the heat for a little while, but have switched it off and put my robe on till it warms up. It’s to be back in the 80s today, thankfully. When I’m not sleeping or working out, I hate being cold!

I guess they haven’t left yet next door, after all. I noticed their light on early this morning when I walked into the kitchen.

Last night in my dreams my rats turned into shrieking guinea pigs, someone installed gray carpet in here that was wavy, and then my whorebag brother returned from the dead to take me swimming in some filthy stream.

Still plugging away at the French one lesson at a time, and still not sure which is harder, French or Italian. Probably French.

Have to give my muscles a day of recovery after yesterday’s kick-ass workout. Imagine doing jumping jacks and push-ups for an hour and a half straight. Well, that’s how intense these workouts are. I’ve even got a pulled muscle in my foot. So other than laundry, I’m going to be sitting on my ass all day. Only my brain and hands will be active.

Sometimes I ask myself why I bother killing myself with these insane workouts till I remember how good they make me feel. I was delighted to catch a glimpse of my profile in the mirror this morning to see how much my tummy, lower back and ass have gone down. My upper tummy is virtually flat again, even if I still kind of have to either suck it in or lay flat on my back.

Got views yesterday and today from the Sac, but no more dreams of the Doc. GA isn’t nearly as detailed as TIP is, so I can’t say what time or what pages they viewed.

After talking with Aly yesterday, I’d say the 2 San Angelo and 2 Junction visits were Kathy. They’ve really been restricting Molly’s online activity from what she’s been told. She and Kathy share a mutual friend who says she and Kim have become chummy for some reason lately. Maybe that’s because Kim goes along with everything she says, a must if you want to remain Kathy’s friend. I know Kathy was also afraid to stir Kim up due to her craziness.

Anyway, Kim has a couple of private Twitter accounts, and she is reading my blog. We just don’t know if she’s having Kathy read it for her or if she’s figured out how to disable cookies. The accounts are under celebrity names, of course. She started following a friend of Aly’s who returned the favor. The friend reports her 20+ tweets saying she’s not feeling well, people are picking on her even though she’s done nothing to deserve it, etc. Well, apparently I’m “harassing” her by blogging about her friending friends of those who have dumped her under false pretenses.

We have long given up trying to figure her out and how her twisted mind works. All I know is that for some reason she is determined to remain as anonymous as possible where I’m concerned, and thank God, too. The day she decides to come at me from bogus accounts, or as herself, is the day she could make my online life a bit of a bitch. The fact that she hides from me tells me she must have some awareness of what she’s done and is at least somewhat worried she may get in trouble for pestering me. But will things remain the same with her year after year? Or will she eventually get worse and worse till someone stops her?

While a part of me misses some of the drama and found some of it to be a bit amusing (I guess because it’s just so silly and childish), it’s important that I look out for myself. The last thing I want is this nutjob making trouble for me in other ways. She couldn’t play the race card since she’s also white, but God above would make damn sure that she won, and I, the victim, was the one to get screwed. I meant it when I said I’d never let anyone put me through that again.

Another part of me is tempted to reopen MD and Ask, but not allow for anonymous questions on Ask.

Again I dreamed of my dentist, though I don’t remember any details of the dream. Why do I dream of her so often? I had another local visitor yesterday early in the morning (this time listed as being in Sacramento), so maybe some of my local visits really are from her and I’m sensing her presence in my dreams or something.

“I don’t have to like anyone I don’t want to like. I don’t have to feel guilty for it either.”

Saw this on someone’s wall and totally agree. I used to feel a tinge of guilt and shame and tended to hide the fact that I’m not particularly fond of some individuals as well as some groups of people who, if you’re willing to open your eyes and your mind to the statistics, aren’t very helpful to society. But not anymore. Hey, as long as we’re not harming anyone, we all have a right to like and dislike whomever we please the same as we do with foods, music and color. No one likes everyone and no one is liked by everyone. Like it or not, that’s just a fact of life. Might as well deal with it.

Lost another pound, so now I’m down 9 pounds total with 36 more to go. Still doubt I’ll lose that much, but am glad to have stopped gaining. Had 1200 calories yesterday and might take it up to 1500 today. I’m hungry as hell. This is typical after hitting a new low. I dread entering the PMS zone when I tend to have days when nothing I eat fills me up. Did one of those 1000-calorie workouts yesterday and another one today that I haven’t done before. As usual, I fell short on some of the cardio training due to the extra weight (and maybe age?) but did better on the strength and core strengthening. Been pushing myself so hard that I may have to take a day off tomorrow or do a shorter video that’s about 20 minutes. Today I did an 84-minute one that was the longest 84 minutes of my life, LOL. Might as well have been 884 minutes. I’m totally burned out now and am glad I don’t have any cleaning or laundry to do today. I actually feel like I could take a nap. Just maybe I will. I’ll kick on the sound machine and just relax and drown out those damn landscaping sounds, which will probably start up in another half hour or so.

Later…

Wow. It’s just after 10am and still peaceful. No landscapers, no door slamming, no nothing yet. Part of that may be due to it being the coldest it’s been since moving in here. It’s even windy enough that I can hear my newest wind chime in front. It hangs just outside the window barely 5’ from where I sit.

Anyway, it got down to a frigid 67° inside the house, but the sun is now warming the place up nicely. It’s to be 76° today. The cold is better for sleeping and working out, though I do not like it much otherwise. I had to laugh, though, knowing we’d have the heat on for damn sure if we were still in that little old trailer. It would’ve been too warm not to go to bed with the window open and I’d wake up freezing and scramble to shut the window and get the heat going.

Bye, bye, Bob and Virginia. Yeah, they just left for vacation. Tom was on his way to pick up the mail yesterday when Virginia jumped out to meet him. She wanted to let us know that she and Bob are going on vacation for 3 weeks and that their son will be keeping an eye on the place, so we wouldn’t think anyone broke in. Since they don’t have a dog, why the close eye in a gated retirement community in a nice neighborhood? Maybe they have a cat or plants to water. Hopefully, the kid will park in front and go around to the front door instead of parking alongside us and going into the garage. If he does park by us, hopefully he comes and goes and quietly as his parents do. The light was on at 5am as usual this morning, so I saw from the kitchen window and knew they hadn’t left yesterday night.

She also said she’d have more tomatoes for us next year (I told Bob the previous morning when I had the front door open and saw him shut the back of his SUV how good they were).

I love our new home, park and neighborhood, but really get sick of the landscaping sounds, as I’ve said before. I heard what sounded like tree branches being thrown in a wood chipper in the common area yesterday and it was louder than what I usually hear. I guess that after the first rain, they are eager to prep for the winter rains, assuming we get that much. It’s almost impossible to do anything that requires a quiet background in the daytime, especially between 9am - 2pm. In some ways, I hear more here than at the Jes pest, though I’d still take the predictable sounds at predictable hours without the welfare bums mixed in. It’s still dead quiet most of the time, too. All I hear now are vehicles speeding down the freeway, a pleasant sound.

Andy suggested going to Macy’s and asking for makeup tips, but right now I’ve got more important things to focus on than trying to pretty up my face. For now, I’ll adopt the “don’t like it, don’t look” attitude. After I see how much more progress I can make from the neck down, then maybe I’ll consider the face.

Had trouble typing on my new keyboard and decided to switch back to my old one again. I like its layout better even though they’ve changed it a bit to make the newer keyboards skinnier.

I’ve lost 8 pounds in the 2 months we’ve been here. That may not seem like much, but to one as short as I am it goes a long way. I did a rigorous hour of kickboxing cardio this morning and have come to realize how much less boring doing a variety of videos is compared to the treadmill. The treadmill is boring whether I read while I’m at it, listen to music or watch TV. The vids provide a fun variety of routines whereas walking and running are just walking and running. I didn’t have the room to bop around to vids in the trailer, but now that I do I may retire the treadmill for a while. It was fun for the few years I had it and it has served its purpose, but a break from the thing is definitely in order. For now, my mat, dumbbells, and resistance bands are enough. Tom doesn’t care for running but may want to use the treadmill for walking.

I don’t see how you can really burn many calories and lose much weight from yoga or other no to low-impact activities. Some people who are older and or prone to injuries may have no choice, but I find the high-energy workouts more effective. I’m still a big girl, though, so some of the jumping exercises are still a bit much for me, and I have to improvise. But I feel like I’m really working out when my heart’s pumping and the sweat’s pouring. Yeah, I’m really on my way to becoming an expert on hooks, jabs, uppercuts, crossovers, burpees, star jumps and more.

I may always look fat, old and ugly, but damn do I need to do something about my makeup these days. Andy had said (in an honest way and not a hurtful one), that the way my makeup looked in pictures taken a few years ago reminded him of a character in the movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. It’s true that makeup simply doesn’t look like it once did on me, even though I apply it the same as always. It makes me look more clownish these days rather than just made up, so I’ve eased up on the mascara since my eyelashes have always been ridiculously long. In the picture, he pointed out I also didn’t have any foundation on and so I looked sunburned due to whatever (rosacea?) has been causing the constant redness in my face that began about 6 years ago.

Still get the runs at times too, and still don’t know why. I eat healthy and I get enough fiber. I have no stress or anxiety in my life right now either.

I opened the windows yesterday and ran the central fan to air the place out a bit. Opening some of these 30-year-old windows is a bitch! I’d like to replace them someday. I just feel so – I guess exposed is the word – when windows are open. I may not be so private online, but I like my privacy on the home front. I definitely miss the seclusion of the woods, but not the Jes pest that ruled those woods. Or his mutts.

It stayed quiet till 9:00 yesterday morning, then it was on to musical car doors with a burst of landscaping somewhere in back at 9:30, and a round in front at lunchtime. I suppose Bob will blow himself today, though I still love it here very much. I’m not going to let any evil God get this place, too. I just wish He hadn’t taken my winnings. He gave me a condition that prevents me from working. Then He helped see to it that I couldn’t get the compensation I deserve. My only financial contribution to our household was my wins, but it looks like He’s gone and taken that, too. I guess I’m just meant to be as “valuable” as an old cigar wrapper, and again I am thankful to have a husband who sees my love and upkeeping of the pets and house as sufficient enough. You know you are truly loved when conditions don’t matter and you simply do what you can do and that’s plenty good enough.

Amongst the usual spider dreams and dreams of being held places against my will, and even being dumb enough to type a long journal entry that I lost on MD, which doesn’t have an auto-save, I had a sad and scary dream about Andy.

Andy called and sounded very down and worn out. I asked him what was wrong. He hesitated a moment, then said, “I’ve got cancer.” I knew by the way he said it that it wasn’t treatable. After we hung up Tom gathered me into his arms as I cried, “I don’t want to lose my best friend!”

If it were before the fall of 2011, I’d be scared shitless for him. I wouldn’t expect him to actually die of cancer, but I would expect something to go wrong for him. The vast majority of my negative dreams were coming true like crazy between 2007-2011. Every time I would dream of a friend or a family member dying, getting into an accident, or becoming seriously ill, something bad would happen to them. I had dreams of Tammy dying and her lung condition worsened. A friend also died in my dreams that was dealing with breast cancer. That lying shit Maliheh fell overboard from a speedboat in one of my dreams and came within 500’ of being wiped out by a tornado around the same time.

Again, if it were a couple of years ago I’d worry and say that his next 72 hours were critical, not that any of my dreams have ever altered fate. But I seem to have lost most of my psychic abilities. I can’t influence myself to win like crazy like I used to, and I haven’t had any dream premonitions in quite a while now.

So Mommy Dearest has been dead for a year now. Not long enough. Just not long enough. As I told my sister, who also struggles with horrible memories, since God didn’t give a damn about how she treated us when she was alive, hopefully He very much gives a damn right now if there is such a thing as life after death. raises imaginary wine glass Here’s to hoping the Hündin is stuck on a plane full of tarantulas!

I had a dream I was wandering through our backyard at the house I grew up in. I slowly climbed up the steep, but brief hill into the wooded area with a small clearing in which my old swing set sat. I walked beyond the swings and to the fence in back. It used to be a seemingly endless stretch of nothing but woods, and as a child, I did not dare climb over that fence, lest any monsters pop out from behind the trees and eat me alive. But in the dream, I was an adult and I knew it was safe to cross the fence. I proceeded to climb over it, but then the woods gave way to long freshly paved streets in which houses with no walls adorned the sides. I could see kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms as I walked down the wide road, but there were no walls and no people in sight. Everything was open and modern, yet barren and lonely.

Last night I looked at my old house and the house next to it where my maternal grandparents lived on Google Maps. The once well-manicured lawns and well-kept roads have changed quite a bit. The roads are now all beat up and the neighborhood as a whole looks rather ordinary with a few newer mansions that are a bit nicer. Gone are the vast expanses of woods in back in which new homes now sit. You couldn’t see any houses in back in the ’70s, but now you can see rooftops peeking through the trees. My parents and grandparents definitely wouldn’t have liked that at all. Gone are the lush hedges that once divided the properties and added some privacy. Now they’re nothing but scattered, dead-looking clumps of bushes. If my grandparents were still alive, would they still be there? I wonder.

My other dream was about Tom and I outside our place, only it didn’t quite look like this place. On the side of the house toward the roof was a giant spider. Tom was prepping this thing you hook to a hose that shoots a mix of poison and water, and I cried out, “Hurry up! The thing is starting to move upwards. Hurry!”

Later…

Although TIP missed them, I’ve got visitors, according to GA, from San Angelo and Junction, Texas. Molly-related? Either way, why aren’t they showing up on TIP? San Angelo once showed up on TIP, and I thought it could be Molly-connected, even though it’s closer to where Kathy is.

Love my new rat figurines, which would’ve been perfect if one’s paw hadn’t fallen off along the way. It’s barely noticeable, though, and not worth returning.

The mornings have been chilly and the AC didn’t even run at all yesterday. Today it will, though, cuz it’s to be 85°. I was thinking I might open windows and air the place out on Thursday because it’s supposed to be windy that day.

While I slept on Sunday, Tom said it poured like crazy for a few minutes, then drizzled the rest of the day. Really wish it would stop raining only at night or on Sundays, leaving the week wide open to the annoying landscapers. Wish the house across the side street would hurry up and sell too, so there won’t be as much traffic coming to see the place.

Early yesterday morning we went to Walgreens and got some fun stuff. Those little things we women love – perfume, nail polish, lip gloss and Calgon’s English Garden bath beads. I don’t take baths very often, but when I do it will be nice to have soft, silky, fragrant water. It was either that or bubble bath. I also got a lovely blue beaded bracelet, and I think that was it.

Tom said there’s no use making all this money if we’re not going to spend some of it, and it was good to get out anyway. He got a few things, too.

All my cleaning, working out and writing-related stuff is done for the day, along with my French lesson, so I think I’ll spend the rest of my day, which began last evening, with videos and reading.

It’s freezing in here! Most wouldn’t think 72° was cold, but I’m used to it being 78° - 82° in here. It’s great for working out, though. Yesterday I completed a 64-minute, 1000-calorie workout that burns 500-1000 calories. I’m so proud of myself! It was a very intense workout and even my hands were sweating. I’d give most people my age 5-10 minutes tops, although I myself did fall a few seconds short on a couple of exercises. Having extra weight can really bog you down on some of them, but I am slowly losing weight and inches and will continue to do so for as long as I can. Love how much better I feel! My flexibility is returning and I haven’t had any joint pain.

My bad ear has been worse overall, though, since the move, and I wonder if the drop in elevation could have anything to do with it. I often feel an achy pressure-like sensation and so I decided to pop a couple of Aleve at the start of each day rather than wait for the discomfort to set in. Then if I feel any irritation come on in the middle of the day, I can take more if need be.

Good and bad news from Tammy. They can’t operate on Mark because it would be too risky. He could either live for years or drop dead today. It’s a scary thing for them to have to live with, but they intend to make the best of what he’s got left. That’s all anyone can do is make the best of whatever life/situation they’ve got, for we’re not in the driver’s seat of our lives as much as we’d like to think we are, and no, we don’t quite always have “free will.”

Tammy will soon make an appointment with her pulmonologist to see what they’re going to do in her case and when.

So many people are getting sick these days, so it seems. While I don’t usually care to know about those I don’t personally know, I once idolized Linda Ronstadt, and it’s sad to know she’s got Parkinson’s, even though she seemed perfectly normal in one of her more recent interviews.

I know it may sound silly since they love me either way, but I almost wish Andy and other friends could see me for a second in person to see the progress I’ve been making with the working out. No camera can precisely convey how we really look. Not sure how much more I’ll accomplish, but what I have so far is nice, even if it’s not much. Tom sure thinks it is, though, LOL.

Andy crashed shortly after I got up. As kids, our game was crazy 8’s. As young adults, it was prank calls. As middle-agers, it’s sharing pics on Ask, which also provides a handy way to keep in touch and up to date with what’s going on with us. I think I like our middle-age game the best. :)

Tom says he’s tired of working and sleeping, working and sleeping, and I don’t blame him. So he has informed me that Sunday he wants to do something “fun.” LOL, I will do my best to please him even though I’m still mostly on nights right now. Aside from what we may do right here at home, there’s only so much open early Sunday morning which will be the end of my day at that time. Walmart, Denny’s, the casino…

Been sleeping better than ever, but had a couple of strange dreams last night. I actually had several, but only remember two. In one dream we were still living with the Jes pest. Two mornings in a row he drove down unannounced and even woke Tom up. Feeling bad for Tom and pissed at his rudeness, I wanted to let him have it but Tom insisted it was fine. So glad that was just a dream!

My paternal grandmother was in the second dream I remember. She was a pretty nice woman, unlike my maternal grandmother who was the bitch her daughter was. She made the comment about having a bad feeling and I just shrugged it off. Then I got the impression some time passed when she said it again in what appeared to be the first dream to take place in this house. She was standing just inside the kitchen when I went to reach for something in the refrigerator. After she spoke I shut the door and said, “A bad feeling about what, Nana? Emotional? Physical? Legal?”

She said nothing and so I said, “Touching someone sometimes helps make us see things. Here, let me hug you.”

As I went to hug her she said, “You can hug me, but don’t touch me,” whatever that means.

Now that it’s getting later into the night and cooler inside the house (it’s supposed to be only 70° and rainy today) I’m going to really challenge myself tonight. They have these 1000-calorie workouts that burn about 500-1000 calories, depending on your fitness/fat level. They usually take an hour to do. Don’t know if I can last that long, but I’m going to find out!

Andy’s fun but continues to be the pervert from hell. He can’t even go a day without posting some picture or comment that somehow pertains to sex.

I was sitting on the couch while I was eating a protein bar and felt totally lost in our humungous living room. I was just a tiny spec within. An L-shaped couch in there would probably not only look best but be better for watching TV. That way it’d be right in front of part of the couch and not off to the side. If it was slightly off to the side, that’d be one thing, but 15’ away is a bit much, even with a 42” screen.

Paula’s been leaving messages for me to call her and she knows I don’t like that. She knows I hate phones. Besides, we recently talked and swapped letters. I suppose she’s just lonely. She has no life at all. She’s single, alone, lonely, fucked in the head, jobless and without any skills or talents to occupy her time. It’s been this way since we met up at the Laundromat back in 1990. This autistic, paranoid woman with ADHD simply exists but does not live. She is still someone I care about and I really hope they get rid of her ovarian cancer. She told me she’d be ok and she may really believe that, but when it’s coming from someone that’s not very bright at all, you can never really know for sure. She could be in remission only to see the damn thing return.

Soon I will send her the pictures of the house she asked for since she’s obviously never going to be online. I’m sending my Italian dad the same pics, too.

Tom’s exhausted and the rats are the usual – Romeo chases the duster, Sugar chases me.

Although it took a week, the sensitivity within my new crown is gone.

Working out in bursts of 10s where I sprint at 5 MPH for 45 seconds, rest a few seconds, do it again, rest again, then do it again. This comes to 22 ½ minutes of running and burns 300 calories. I’m too heavy to do it all at once and since I know I’m not going to lose any more weight, I’ve got to work with what I have. I’m just glad I stopped gaining. I hate to struggle just to stay 40 pounds overweight (though the charts say it’s 25), but it also keeps me fit, strong and flexible and helps with joint pain.

My Citrus Heights viewer who was definitely, definitely NOT me, hasn’t been around in a few days.

I had dreams of winning but awoke to find not one single win notice in my inbox. Guess I’m only allowed to be psychic these days when things aren’t going well. Either way, if I don’t do some serious winning soon enough and start winning more than chips and T-shirts, I’m going to shut down both my Twitter and Pinterest accounts. It would suck too, cuz I always felt that that was my main way of contributing, as funny as it may sound. If it’s true that God picks and chooses our illnesses, injuries and conditions – well – first He sicced one on me that kept me from adding an additional income to our household, and now you mean He’s gone and taken my winnings, too? I was winning cash and prizes that compared to a decent part-time job, and I know my husband loves me unconditionally and that I contribute enough just taking care of the house, but still… must I lose that, too? There are other ways to make money but not like that. No one’s gonna give me 9 grand to tell them what something means in Spanish. They’re not going to send me on a Caribbean cruise for reviewing their business either.

Well, I can’t win and I can’t have my disability benefits reinstated which are so rightfully mine, but I am immensely thankful that Tom is unlike other men. No man wants his wife at home these days. No man. Not unless she has a “visible” or “normal” condition that most people have heard of, and even then they often turn against them. If the woman can’t bring in the dough the same as he can, then he’s not interested. That’s just today’s marriage rules for you; instead of staying home with kids, you skip the kids and go to work. Well, I skipped the kids, so can I please start winning big again?

According to what Tom read, the cost of housing has soared in this area faster and higher than anywhere else in the country. Had we waited any longer we may’ve been forced to settle for another dumpy old single-wide despite all the money we had. Going from someone else’s shit single-wide to our own in an area that forbids barking, blasting music and other annoyances, would’ve been better than nothing, but how much of a step up would that really have been compared to this? I’m kind of surprised God didn’t help stall things even more so that we would have to continue living so poorly. He seemed to really enjoy seeing us do that year after year anyway. That’s ok, though, cuz while He may’ve denied me many things in life, I have denied Him myself. A small loss when you consider that there are 7 billion people in the world and that what I think of Him obviously isn’t important to Him, but I still like the thought of knowing I turned my back against Him same as I would any human being that treated or allowed me to be treated unjustly and unfairly. And guess what? I’m never walking back. I’m gone for good.

But what in the world has been on our side blessing us with good things these last few years??? Whatever/whoever it was that helped save us a couple of years ago couldn’t have been my parents or my foster mother as they were still alive at that time. Tom’s dad? Our grandparents? Or was it just a coincidence that we got a job and out of that trailer just in the nick of time?

Things are running smoothly and we’ve got a lot to look forward to over the upcoming months. Gotta call the travel agency soon to plan our trip to Hawaii, then come home, paint walls, get the new car, and install new carpet and flooring, etc.

It was chilly in here early yesterday morning. I went to bed cold and woke up warm. I still sleep better here than in the trailer, now that I’m adjusting to the traffic. It helps to add an earplug when I’m on nights and to always be able to keep the room dark. Blackout shades don’t do you much good when you have an evaporative cooler and need to crack windows and let tons of light in. We’ve still got a while before we need heat and heavier blankets. That’s usually not till late October or early November here.

Been on a roll with the French and doing well, but haven’t yet gotten back to my story writing. Maybe one of these days.

When the pipes spit air at me when I got up to pee and wash my face, I knew we must’ve played water games again that day, and was glad I slept through it. That’s how many times now since we’ve been here? Four? Five? I’ve literally lost count of how many times this has happened in the 2 months and 1 week that we’ve lived here. I still don’t understand why they don’t do the whole park at once and get it over with in one shot. Tom said that’d cost them way too much money and that they’d have to dig up the roads in the entire park. I can see not wanting to tear up the whole park, but they’re going to have to spend the money eventually on these old pipes anyway. I just dread the day the water stops when my hair is full of shampoo!

When Andy pointed out that he hasn’t been harassed by the trolls, I realized that this is probably because he’s never been friends with the trolls for years like Aly and I were, and because they know he’s never been friends with Aly either. They’re looking for those with public accounts on which Aly has commented. They know they’ve never been friends, so there’s no reason to focus on Andy. Or to lash out at him in anger over having been dumped for being a crazy, habitual liar.

My Citrus Heights viewer again has me stumped, but I still think it’s almost certainly me with a twisted view count. I probably didn’t filter myself out correctly, whereas it’s easy to do so on Blogger and TIP. Same browser, same OS, same provider… though why it would say I was in one city in real-time and another when I visit the blog, beats me. I’ve been in a few times today and so far it still says there have been 0 views from my town today. This part also makes no sense if it’s me. Tom thinks it started off as being me, but since I filtered myself out, it’s someone else. But then why would it see me in RT and not my visits?

Been winning little stuff, which is better than nothing, but it’s been a disappointing experience so far. Tom thinks I’ll win big again someday, but wouldn’t think that had I not gotten any small wins.

I’m looking more fit and pretty good for one just a couple of years away from 50. I may look like shit compared to 20 years ago, but I know I’m doing pretty well for my age and that a lot of women out there would kill to weigh what I weigh. I don’t expect much more change within the scale or my measurements at this age, but I like how the exercise has made me look and feel.

I also like and am amazed at how such a little trim has really gone a long way as far as making my hair feel and look healthier. I didn’t think it’d do much good.

Saturday will be the first day in months that we don’t make it into the 80s. It’s even gonna be cloudy. While I LOVE the heat and HATE long sleeves, sometimes I get sick of the constant dry heat and fierce sun. Sometimes I just want rain, clouds and cooler weather that’s more comfortable for working out in. I want to snuggle under a real blanket. Instead, I sleep with the fan on and a little pink blanket that’s so thin you could floss your teeth with it.

I’ve learned that French is both easier and harder than Italian while German is still the hardest of those I’ve studied. The grammar part of plurals is simpler, but the pronunciation of many plural words sounds the same as the singular version, making those listening exercises a bit tricky. Their software is great. It’s not too easy, but challenging enough not to seem impossible and make you want to give up. If your brain isn’t “set” for languages and you have no desire for them then forget it. You’ll never get beyond the first level.

On this very day in 2011 we learned we would die (it was just a question of how) before what may’ve been the spirits of our dead loved ones rushed in to save us. Two years later my husband made big bucks, I made a small win (just some stupid things for the kitchen), and then I learned that Kim’s gone Molly, all while being in the comfort and security of our own home.

So much for Aly signing up for a new FB account since Kim was able to remember who her public friends were and check their accounts for comments from her. She is also friending friends of ex-friends in hopes of being part of our lives that way and having others to harass and basically use as a weapon against us, and what better people than our friends and family, right?

I’ve described Kim and what she does and suggested those with public accounts go friends only, but most don’t seem to want to heed my warning. I guess they either feel it won’t happen to them, can’t relate to the possible consequences of remaining public, or maybe they’ve got a little troll in themselves so they actually can relate. At least a little bit. I’d feel bad if they got caught up in shit that had nothing to do with them, of course, and I’d hate to see them harassed and possibly their own friends and families too, but they at least can’t say I didn’t warn them if she does latch onto them. They’re big boys and girls, though. They can take care of themselves and I know they gotta do what they gotta do. I figure those with public accounts must want it that way for a reason, usually so old friends can look you up and know who you are and what’s up with you. I can understand that while people want to be cautious, they also don’t want to feel locked in a cage when online, so to speak, and to deny themselves sites and features they enjoy. If it weren’t for Molly and then Kim I’d probably be public too, only because I don’t care who sees what as long as it’s not sensitive info. I wouldn’t blog if I did.

I’m not there much myself anymore due to the glitches and the news feed being littered with crap, but I do try to check in once or twice a day to pick up any messages and comments I may have.

Anyway, I’ve made them aware of the situation and it’s up to them how they want to handle it. I alerted them to her real name, age and location and described what she looks like, letting them know she often uses variations of her name, as well as impersonates celebrities and other people. From what I’ve heard, she’s obsessed with Glee actors these days.

As some of us have learned, though, this sick twist has very little concept of right, wrong, fact and fiction. She’s so damn crazy I’m amazed she hasn’t threatened anyone yet. I almost wish she would, though.

Anyway, we’re thinking of having them do both the carpet and the kitchen/laundry/second bath floors next April or May. That way the rainy season (assuming we ever have one again) is over with, but it’s not yet so hot that the AC would be running like crazy.

We’re probably going to go with crème instead of lavender because the place is so damn big. So much lavender, pink or mint green would simply be too overwhelming, not to mention colors that could clash with other things. Little shit trailers are a different story.

All we have to do in the meantime is hope that God isn’t cruel enough to have Tom laid off so all our plans are shot to hell for who knows how long. I’m not stupid, though. The last thing any God cares about is our damn carpet. So I guess we can be glad that they’re not only always busy as hell where he works, but glad for all the OT, too. We could literally live off of that alone, even here. Literally.

LOL, Kathy tried to view my blog, but couldn’t quite make it. I was wondering if she’d try again. Well, she apparently tried to link through to MO, unable to get to my Blogger link, since making that blog for friends only. She must’ve been too stupid to think to check her history (if she saves it) or have a friend see if they could get it from my FB page since she’s got me blocked. She definitely suspects Aly or myself as being behind the nasty Ask messages, but I don’t care. I’m 100% done with her now. Too risky playing with one who’s both Mexican and pregnant. Texas is too much like Arizona. If she wants to focus more on me than the kid she’s supposedly having, that’s her problem, but I’m done.

My Citrus Heights viewer is definitely, definitely me. It may not update as fast as it should, but it’s definitely me. So that solves that mystery.

Ok, even though Tom and I both hate beer, we’re entered to win a trip to next year’s Oktoberfest in Munich so we can meet Nane.

I was so fucking pissed last night. I was all excited about tackling French 101 only to find that LiveMocha has TOTALLY changed. It’s nothing like it used to be. I hate their new language-learning software. It’s glitchy and a poor way to learn, IMO. Why oh why can’t things ever stay the same?! Underwear, wallpaper and piss-poor attitudes are for changing, not sites that people liked just the way they were. Change, change, change… I fucking hate it! sighs All good things really do come to an end.

Then I discovered Duolingo and started their basic French course until I’m asked to pay to advance further or that site goes to hell too.

Was reading an article about whether or not they think some people have an easier time learning languages than others and why. It not only stated the obvious – that we tend to do better in what we like, but that the area of the brain responsible for languages is enlarged in people like me. Let me guess… the part that processes numbers is so damn microscopic in my case that not even the most powerful microscope can detect it, right?

Wish I knew why I’ve been having the runs more and more often. Makes me wonder if my weight’s down due to that more than to all the activity. I just don’t get it, though. I’m not nervous or worried about anything. Life is great. I have everything I need and most of what I want, so I can’t complain. If anything, I worry more for friends and family who have been having hard times in various ways.

The only negative thing is that tomorrow is the two-year anniversary of when we got our would-be death sentence in the mail. It was just about the worst and scariest day of our lives. September 27th, on the other hand, was the one day and the one day only when a true miracle occurred. The phone rang with news we’d been waiting for for half a year, just days before we’d have had to either kill ourselves or let the streets do it for us. Well, the streets would’ve done it for us in a much slower, more agonizing way. But here I am, two years later in a home of our own. I have emerged stronger and wiser. I now have more paranoia about spending money and more hatred for God. The more He lets life rain down shit upon me than most can ever imagine, let alone deserve, the further away I turn from Him. And just like I’d be proud of myself for turning against a person of a negative influence, I praise myself for filling my heart a little fuller with hate each time He lets disaster strike, while others tell themselves God simply “teaches us lessons” and “strengthens” us and “tests” us. This may be so to a degree, understandably, but enough is enough for some people! And no, whatever doesn’t kill us doesn’t always make us stronger. I’m stronger in many ways, yes, but in some ways, I’m also more fragile, more paranoid and more anxious. Things are going well right now, as I just said, and I haven’t had any nightmares, but how long will last? How long???

Now that I’ve set more realistic goals for one my age, my goal is to be the exact same weight I am now at this time next month. Millions and millions of older folks struggle to lose weight year after year that never comes off and I don’t want to be one of those people. I want to just accept that we’re supposed to be heavy when we age, the weight’s not going anywhere, and to just eat healthy most of the time, keep active and try not to gain more. I only take one day off a week for the no-nos like sweets, potatoes and things like that.

Sarah’s 23 today and Aly has confirmed that she has cut ties with Kathy, which was easy to do. Yeah, dropping assholes is a very easy thing to do next to breathing. The “Crazy Beagle Bitch” must suspect I was the one who had some nasty things to say about her on Ask before she ran and deactivated her account there because she spent 12 minutes on my blog yesterday. This was no doubt to see if I mentioned her or maybe at least getting similar shit from Kim or someone else.

I just couldn’t help, as much as it may’ve been stooping to her level, lashing out at Kathy after the way she has treated both Aly and me.

Aly also confirms that she doesn’t know of any NorCal friends Kim may have.

The mystery of my Citrus Heights visitor has deepened. I would’ve been 100% convinced it wasn’t me until I noticed that GA sees me in real-time, which only called for more questions. In real-time, it listed me as being in Sacramento. TIP agreed. But if GA sees me in real time, then why not my page views? And if it does see my page views, then why would that say I was in CH while RT said Sac???

I sent the people at LiveJournal a message saying that it was too bad there was no easy way to make all posts private or friends only, and was told that a plus subscription would make that easy enough. But then today I accidentally discovered a quick and simple way to do just that. So now LJ and MD are private while MO is friends only. This way I can focus on maintaining/editing one blog only while the others serve as a backup.

Last night I finally got around to organizing our file box with hard copies of things pertaining to things like manuals, taxes, insurance and things like that.

Not gonna do much tonight. Just read, proofread/publish old stuff, and copy old stuff over here as well.

Later…

Was thinking of the financial pinch Tammy and Mark have been feeling, and it just seems kind of bizarre. Not that I don’t doubt it, as hard times can fall upon anyone. It’s the timing that’s a bit unnerving. Upon moving in here, although it wasn’t a serious fear that was always at the forefront of my mind, I did voice my concern to Tom about Tammy going broke so she would be unable to help us if we went broke again, too. If God can hate Tammy enough to damn her physically like He has been doing for years now, he can curse her in other ways, too. Well, why not pick a way that could negatively affect two people He hates?

I know that Tammy can’t accept that God is not always good and that no, He doesn’t love us all equally, and yes, He really does play favorites at times. Like most people out there, this is just too scary a concept to possibly admit and accept. God favors, protects and blesses some, but like it or not, He also lets some people suffer unfairly. And yes, He really does give some of us more than we can handle. Take that absolutely sickening and heartbreaking case of the woman who was gang-raped, beaten and ultimately killed in India. God gave her more than she could handle. So why do some people feel they are invincible and assume that just because they’ve always had it good – or at least had had it good for a while – that He won’t one day sic a sack of potatoes on them too heavy to bear? Sorry, folks, but none of us are exempt from His wrath and hate.

Really hope, though, that my husband and I never again experience such hard times and that surgery will put Mark back on his feet and back in business.

I’m no longer going to proofread and post old journals as often as I have been because it’s just so much work. Like Andy said, what’s the rush? I have about 180 more entries to go and will now post just a couple a day instead of 10-15. It’s been a very time-consuming project, I’m sick of it, and I need a break.

I still haven’t gotten back to my stories and languages, and now it’s time to decide if I want to start learning a new language or review old ones. I think I’ll do both. I’ll review some Italian and maybe enroll myself in the French course. I already know a little French, so that should help the less advanced lessons. Then I was thinking I may go for the Hindi, Russian, and maybe even Dutch, since it’s related to German. I can already feel that excitement and anticipation building up that only a true language junkie could understand, sort of like a racecar driver revving up his engines and ready to go. When you practically have tears of joy in your eyes over the thrill of learning a new language, even if it’s not quite “new,” you know you’re a real language addict. I can understand a lot of French I read since it’s another romance language, but I’m sick of not always knowing its pronunciation guidelines so I can speak it as well as read and understand it. So… French 101, here I come!

I’m still torn between thinking my CH viewer is me vs. someone else. Sometimes it jumps a count when I hit my blog, sometimes it doesn’t. So if it’s me it’s counting, it’s doing it in a really weird way. I also still can’t figure out why some trackers see things that others don’t. According to GA, I’ve had visitors from countries TIP can’t seem to see.

Another short, sweet and probably boring entry, mostly cuz I don’t have much to say and am quite busy.

They took Tom and other coworkers to Thunder Valley Casino for a buffet that was outrageously expensive ($30), even though he didn’t have to pay for it. He didn’t bother with gambling since we have money and he says it’s not as fun to do alone. He could’ve with coworkers, but that wouldn’t be much fun for him either. Coworkers are for working with, not playing with. Maybe we’ll go together sometime. It’s just not a high priority now. First I want to get the savings back in the 5-digit range so spending 3K-5K on the renovations won’t leave me feeling at risk and insecure. We’re determined to keep our credit score up there cuz our next car will probably be some sort of luxury car with many fringe benefits, even if it’ll be used. At least a Mercedes or a Lexus wouldn’t stand out here and be as at risk. Besides, at 7pm, the front gate is rolled into place. The back gate is always locked. No transmitter, no entry.

I just hope the dream I had last night doesn’t mean anything, cuz in it Tom was saying that they announced they would never again give raises at work. Tom, however, says he’s sure he’ll get another raise again someday.

After a long, hard poverty stint, it’s still both shocking and weird to be doing this well. I just worry about how long it’ll last. All good things seem to come to an end. Like sweeping. I used to win something every few days, but now I’m hardly winning shit. Things just aren’t what they used to be where that’s concerned. Too many people entering.

If you think I’m mischievous now – imagine if I could be 100% psychic in whatever way I wanted! The monthly newsletter would magically get edited upon delivery to each house here right after it was dropped off. Instead of “Hello, everyone,” it would read something like, “Hello, butt fuckers!” Then again, some of these old folks may have heart attacks.

Nane’s gone to TR for a week and I’ll miss her while she’s gone. She’s still my hottie and she and I are still pretty close, even if we’ll never get to meet face to face.

Later…

Gonna hit the Walmart in Roseville on Sunday cuz it’s got a better selection. Working tomorrow is optional for Tom, but he decided to take advantage of the big bucks he’d get.

All the working out I’ve been doing is really beginning to make a difference in my appearance more so than with the scale. I’m losing inches and looking more toned. Only problem is I still have a ton of fat on me and I’m not sure much of it will ever go away. As Tom says, though, it can take a year or two, which is why it’s so hard for so many people to stick to. I’ll settle for just not gaining anymore.

Got everything done that needs to be done, including organizing the file box, and now it’s off to watch YouTube vids.