September 12, 2002 - 6:03 p.m.

sorry to neglect you, dear diary.

why does life have to be so up and down sometimes? i'm not even talking about the wedding.

my temp agency offered me a job that pays less than my current one. they were being rather forceful about the whole situation, calling at work and demanding that the relief receptionist find me so they could speak to me on my break, etc. it wasn't until too late that i found out the job is permanent. they kept talking about how much "room for advancement" there is within this particular company, but i had to tell them i really don't care. when they asked me what i reallywant to do, i told them point blank, "i want to be a staff photographer at The Age." oddly enough, they called me back and said the company still wanted to meet with me.

the office reminded me eerily of sherry's workplace. everyone was very nice and happy to work there, and it became evident after the interview that simon would be perfect for this job. after a series of phone calls back and forth, with me putting out hints for them to see simon while trying not to jeopardize the job for myself, they finally decided to see him. he's got an interview at 9am tomorrow, so wish us luck. this would mean a much larger budget and a lot less stress.

speaking of stress, the car died a few days ago. luckily, it died right as we were parking across from our house. the bad news is that it will cost $2000 to repair, so - after a lengthy discussion last night - we've decided not to get it repaired. his dad offered to pay for it initially and have us pay him back later, but i don't want that hanging over our heads. who knows if we could ever pay it back? (we still don't know how we're going to make ends meet after our week and a half off for the wedding, let alone fund a hotel room for the wedding night.) so we're without a car, which means simon has to take a tram, train AND bus to get to work now. i really hope he gets that new job.