July 14, 2002 - 7:42 p.m.

simon is at work tonight, which means two weekend-nights in a row that i've spent by myself. i watched gilmore girls and when harry met sally on tv last night. i cried at the end when harry gave his speech about how he knew he loved her. i'm a big sap.

so back to this alone thing. we never have entire days (or even half days) together because of our crazy work schedules. after i come home from work, i'm usually so tired that it's difficult to get anything siginificant accomplished. left to my own devices on a weekend, i'm not sure quite how to occupy my time.

i've taken today to get some organizing done. i know it sounds dorky, but i have to say one of the most surprisingly fun things about living together in a new place is discovering where to put everything. to say we don't have storage space here would be quite the understatement. i was pleasantly surprised when simon decided to move the laundry hamper into the bathroom - in the space meant for a washing machine that we are too poor to own. it leaves more room in the bedroom and blends in quite nicely in its new home. he also used the bottom of an old metal clothes rack as an ingenious place to line up shoes. to my credit, simon has been impressed with my knack for hanging everything on old nails in the kitchen to save space.

we have quite a few empty boxes that we don't want to get rid of (namely the fantastic dish-saver boxes i purchased at u-haul, which will undoubtedly come in handy during the next move) and nowhere to put them. our catch phrase is "put it in the storage shed." too bad the storage shed is as big as our shower, and scary, too.

my brother and sister-in-law have a guest room that's really a junk room because they have nowhere else to put their huge collection of unnecessary stuff, e.g. picture frames, greeting cards, stuff they bought that they want to return, etc. i used to make fun of them, but right now our study is looking pretty much the same. does everyone else have a room like this, too? or does everyone else live in a dream mansion with huge built-in wardrobes and lots of closets?

in a weird twist, we might be having the wedding reception in a cafe down the street. it's a little more eclectic that i imagined, but there's plenty of room for everyone. we've pretty much had to nix the idea of using our own caterer unless we want to have it at the tennis club. eww. so let's hope the cafe can make a decent vegetarian variety, or all our guests will be raiding our refrigerator, conveniently located within walking distance.