May 05, 2002 - 4:45 p.m.

just when i think nobody is reading this, i get e-mail asking me to followup on earlier entries. it's weird to think that you're all paying attention to what i write and just keeping very, very quiet.

so, to answer what's on everyone's mind, the dishes are in perfect condition, with only two casualties. one is a teacup i almost didn't send because i was getting a bit tired of it. the other was a dinner plate from the matching set (gasp! i have a matching set!), but there are seven more just like it. i'm debating whether or not two casualties are worth claiming at the post office. then again, i could use 10 bucks. wait, that's 10 in u.s. dollars. i could really use 20 bucks.

simon and i went to an estate sale on saturday, and we found more dishes. amazingly enough, they matched all of my other unmatched dishes. (if you've seen my dish collection, you know what i'm talking about. if you haven't, none of them match, but they all work nicely as part of a matching-yet-nonmatching group. most are from the '50s and '60s.)

i would have said no this time, but they were friggin' 20 cents apiece and in mint condition. so i got 5 dinner plates (which i needed), 8 salad plates, 4 bowls and 2 mugs for $3.60 total. no two are the same color, and some have a neat rounded square shape. the bowls are speckled like bird eggs and are just begging to be filled with ice cream. we were both quite pleased.

friday was nice, too. i worked all day at meredith, and the people were really nice and funny. i didn't have to deal with peter hardly at all. the best bits were when they sent me out on errands. they had an emergency at one stage, where they needed both "loo paper" and "choc-chip biscuits" with the same urgency. i was quite happy to run away from the office and go shopping.

after work, simon and i met up with des, a new friend i met at a casting agency. he's an actor from ireland, and we had a swell time at one of our favorite restaurants, nyala. it's an ethiopian restaurant in fitzroy, which gives us two good reasons to love it. everyone had a fantastic time, and we agreed to get together again after des comes back from sydney. yay for me! i found a friend!

i almost forgot: simon and i agreed to ditch the big wedding. we went to tell his dad, and it turned into this horrible discussion about - well, i won't go into it, but it was bad. so, once again, we have no idea what we're doing. i ended up in tears afterward. it really makes me miss not only my parents but my relationship with my parents. we're definitely in a good place. my future in-laws, however? how do you undo the pattern of years of miscommunication and noncommunication? i feel out of place completely speaking my mind because i can't jeopardize the only family i've got here. all those etiquette books talk about the restraint that daughters-in-law must exercise. so i'm trying to be good. really, though, it's killing me.