Charlotte Bronte

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the chorus of "OK pour plus jamais" (Okay for No More Always) by Serge Gainsbourg. I almost got the second verse nailed down and should have it in my head tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I washed the black glass that the scented candle I'd found had been in because I thought it would make a nice black mug. But it turns out that the black was not baked in and it all washed off until the glass was clear. Oh well, but it's still not a bad clear mug. 

            I was trying to find the reference in Jane Eyre of Jane being of a different race that I remembered seeing but forgot where. I re-read the first twenty pages until I found it on page 20. The reference is that Jane is reflecting back on her reluctant benefactor Mrs. Reed and offering justification for the woman's dislike of her. She asks, "How could she like an interloper … not of her race?" I'm assuming "race" here just means family. I read on from page 59 to 77. Jane has been sent away to a school for poor orphan girls. The headmistress is very kind but the teachers are harsh and the food is not enough for a growing child. The minister who acts as superintendent of the school demands that all girls have straight hair and when he sees one girl with natural curls he demands that they be cut off. He also argues for the simple and sparse food and clothing as aiding the children's spiritual development. But then we see his wife and daughters and they are finely dressed with artificial curls in their hair. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of half lemonade and half cranberry juice. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:20. 

            I read another 43 pages of Jane Eyre and I'm almost a quarter of the way through the book. Jane is eighteen now. At sixteen she went from being a top student at the school to a teacher. After two years she felt a hunger for something more and advertized herself as a governess. She was offered an appointment in a town quite a ways away serving as the teacher for the ward of a wealthy man. This part has been kind of boring so far. 

            I found a notice under my door saying that pest control will be here on Friday, The landlord restated his claim that he would be entering everybody's homes. There was the form from Orkin to give consent to the technician to come in. I filled it out and pinned it to the bulletin board in the hall. Then I confirmed to the landlord that I give consent for Orkin to enter. This time I didn't tell Raja in advance that he can't personally come in. He can find that out on the day in question. 

            I had a fried egg with a slice of toasted Bavarian sandwich bread and a beer while watching season 3, episode 32 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story the Brewsters return. They have bought a lot in Beverly Hills where they hope to build their dream house. They swear Drysdale and Jane to secrecy because they don't want the Clampetts to know they are in town. But Jed and Granny have decided to move the family back to the Tennessee hills and to transfer their $50 million to Luke Short's General Store. Desperate to keep them from leaving, Drysdale tells the Clampetts that the Brewsters are in town. Because if Jed were to move back to the hills and see the oil wells on his property he would order them removed, Brewster's company would be at a loss, so he has to appease the Clampetts. 

            The Brewsters once again allow the Clampetts to put them through the hell of staying in the cabin behind their mansion. Edythe keeps repeating "My dream house" and the Clampetts think she means the cabin. She is forced to learn to milk a goat and to take a bath in a barrel with lye soap. Finally Jane comes to explain to Jed that the Brewsters are not happy in their back yard. She shows him the lot that they have purchased. The Brewsters are allowed to go to a hotel and the next day they drive out to their lot only to see that the Clampetts have moved the cabin there and rebuilt it for them as their "dream house". 

            For the second night in a row I found no bedbugs. 

            I finished chapter 11 of Jane Eyre.