1:41 pm - Monday, Jul. 28, 2003
the third entry in a day, so read the others too, k?
I can�t remember if I told you I took Simon�s last name. I never would have thought I would do that. It felt like the right thing to do. Sooner or later we�re going to have Simon adopt Boy and then we�ll all have one name. Of course, Simon�s last name is no small thing- it�s grand and large, and many people are scared of it. I don�t know anyone who�s tried to spell it on their own, and I don�t know anyone who�s tried to read it outloud. It�s so long I have to move my hand to finish my signature.

I�m starting to settle into the fact that I am somebody�s wife. It feels good, not constrictive or repressive at all. It�s more fun than dating, that�s for sure. Simon and I have yet to put our finger on the exact difference yet. I�m starting to suspect that it has something to do with security.

My familial relationships are not the only ones in flux right now. I work in a very small company that sells diagnostic tests. It�s a very relaxed place � there�s an office dog, and a parrot, and one lady brings her baby to work every day. I had been working part time, but the office manager went on vacation, so I�m filling in full time. When I�m here part time it seems pretty uneventful. Full time it feels like there�s a pseudo-crisis every ten minutes. I will be working here full time starting in September.

I had a birthday party last fri�nothing too drastic, but it was very fun. Loon and some of our neighbors were there, and we drank and ate and had cake. I haven�t had a birthday party since I was twelve. Usually Loon gives me a birthday haircut and we go out for dinner. Simon pulled the whole thing together � made the cake, made pizza, cleaned the house�.

Can I share with you how nice it feels to have a clean house? It's at least as nice a present as the party was. We're so squished in our little apartment that any untidiness feels like a horrible mess. We spent just about every evening last week rearranging to make the place feel bigger. It worked. We've got the desk out of our bedroom, got the books along the wall and the coffee table in the corner, which means we have floor space both in our bedroom and the living room. Dude. And then Simon cleaned up and it's like a whole new place.

Last night we did laundry. This ia always a project. We usually wait until we're desperate. This amounts to a $40 laundry bill at the laundry mat by our house, or a day and a half at Loon's house. We discovered a nearly empty laundry mat down the road... it's cheaper and we didn't have to wait to use anything. We were almost the only ones there. There was a poor stupid kid who had two pillows, his comforter all his sheets and who knows what else stuffed into one dryer. I think he actually thought it would get dry. After watching this I vowed Boy would never grow up a laundry idiot and promptly had him fold his own shirts.

And now it's Monday. I'm back at work, getting a kick out my boss because she reminds me of me. But my lunch break is just about over, so I should go.