september 2, 2000. I'm not pregnant! Woo! I'd become quite anxious in the last week, ever since my mom extrapolated pregnancy from my almost constant stomach upset. It was worrying: for days and days after the wedding, I couldn't keep my food for longer than a half hour. It wasn't until we hit New Brunswick that the mysterious sickness stopped, and the whole time I wondered if our migration east was just a prelude to a hurried journey back to the Morgantaller abortion clinic. See, I have no idea how birth control is handled in this province. If they still do it by hospital boards, that is, if the province assigns control of abortion to the permission of a hospital committee, then we're fucked (pardon my French). There's just no way that a married woman with a degree who's impregnated consensually by her husband is going to find sympathy for her plight. Not being pregnant is a relief. I have too many lazy Saturdays to plow through before I can handle the joys of motherhood. We have a local friend! Last night we got a phone call from St. Pete, who had told us at the wedding that there was a good chance we'd be able to hook up in Nova Scotia. It's terribly exciting to have it actually happen. I'm in a frenzy of housecleaning. I want our very first guests to get the very best impression of our living arrangements, especially since Pete's seen the way the Boy lived in the Last Bachelor Pad. In essence, the two of them squatted in their own filth, or that's how it always appeared to me. (They didn't line their garbage bins! And they just crammed more garbage on top when they were full! On moving day, I uncovered several months worth of feminine hygiene products in deep layers in the bathroom wastebasket, which was one of the most disgusting moments of my short life.) I've discovered something about myself, now that I have my own house. I'm kind of a fusspot. When I lived on my own, I just did things to suit myself...now I realize that I'm quite attached to my own way in most household matters. The big challenge for me now is not to nag at the Boy, because I know I can make him do things if I apply enough pressure. He's so sweet that I'm ashamed of myself for pushing him towards sanitary conditions. I'm hoping that as the stresses of the past year recede into the distance, it'll be a lot easier to be an easy-going fun-time girl that you'd want to live with. I'm also hoping to lose weight on all these hills. We'll see. Sneeze sneeze sneeze. This is getting ridiculous. I started sneezing on my honeymoon and haven't stopped yet. I sneezed all the way across the country, at times fearing that I'd lose control of the car in the middle of a nose-busting 15 in a row. I hope to god that I'm not becoming allergic to the outdoors - the Annapolis Valley is a fruit-growing region and has a very high pollen count. Yeah, I'm probably screwed.