The State of the Chris

Work: I am enjoying work at the moment. I like most of the people I work with and even those with whom my personality clashes I can respect and work with well. I still feel like I am doing something worthwhile and while this is definitaly not a career job it is a great job to have in my mid 20s and has given me a stable background and foundation from which to work out what I do want to do as a career.

Study: At this stage I think I will give up the Masters in Social Work. I dislike the course, in particular the teaching, and I didn't get along with (too) many of the other students. If they are indicative of the kinds of people and personalities I'll be working with... no thank you. Also the hours were becoming impossible to combine with my job.

Sometime tomorrow today I will hear from a representative from SEEK education who will be checking whether I want to enrol in a Graduate Diploma of Counselling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. I will tell her I want to enrol in the September term. I've asked Melbourne UNi to send me my academic transcript and sometime this week I will suspend my Masters.

Married Life: I am really enjoying it so far. I'm not sure how much has changed. We've used it as a motivator to get our lives sorted out, so we've opened a new joint account and written up a budget and have a rough five-year plan that involves a house and a dog and hopefully a baby.

With the death of Seamus' father the meaning of our vows has really been brought home to me. Through no fault of ours (or anyone's) and without our marriage being "in trouble" we are definitely experienceing the "worse" in the "better or worse" and the "bad" in the "good times and bad." Without being married we'd be going through the same thing anyway and reacting in the same way, and it would still be my role to be supportive and loving and do all I could to help, but it feels good and right that we were willing to stand up in front of our friends and family and promise these things and that we are now following through on them. It's one of the few things that feels good about the situation. It means they weren't just words, and the wedding wasn't just an excuse for a party.

I was overjoyed when Seamus decided to hyphenate his name. I really love that we now have the same surname without either of us having to give up our name. I also love that we acknowledge both our families with our name, and yet we are definitely our own little family. We are not the Magees, we are not the Curtains, we are the Curtain-Magees, simultaneously both families and specifically our own. Symbolically of course, but it's a symbolism that makes me very happy.

Family: Family are doing as well as can be expected, considering. My sister-in-law has an exhibition that I really want to see, and I think my mother-in-law is planning on selling some of her paintings soon. My parents are well, though Mum is having an operation in June and will be home recovering for six weeks afterwards. Hopefully I'll be able to drive out and spend time with her during the day when I'm not working. Dad has been really great recently. He's spoken to me a lot about what he went through when his father died and has been concerned about Seamus without prying. He also came and prayed with us at Tony's side while he was dying and then officiated at the burial a week ago. It's sometimes helpful having a Catholic deacon for a father ;-) In some ways it did more to show that our two families are now joined than our wedding did. It's one thing to be welcoming to new people on a joyous occasion, quite another after a death.

Grandparents on all sides seem to be good, my grandfather had a hip operation while we were on honeymoon but is now home and much better.

Friends: No major crisies for so long it's making me wonder if we've all grown up. I'm really looking forward to Michael and Kate's wedding next Saturday, and then for the first time in about four years I will not have a wedding invitation on the fridge. As the wedding stage finishes (or at least tapers off) the children stage is starting, at least one person reading this is expecting a child before the end of winter. I'm looking forward to the children stage in my friendship groups, even though I know it will change my social life much more dramatically than the marriage stage did.

My friends remain some of the most important people in my life. I feel very blessed when I think of the people with whom I'm surrounded.

Cats: They're shits, but they're very cute shits.