I feel the need to be more diligent about my blog. I read all these knitters' blogs (see additions at right) and see how good they are about updating with pictures of their progress...I am jealous. Granted I'm busy, but I do sit at a desk for twenty hours a week--and I'm certainly not spending all that time working. Maybe if I spent less time on the singers' forum and PerezHilton.com I'd actually return emails and update my blog daily... So I'm going to be better about updating. At least three times a week I will at least post a link to something silly. Isn't the purpose of this damn blog to let y'all know what I'm up to?

And what I've been up to is rehearsal. And not so much rehearsal, but driving to and from rehearsal. If you count my round-trip office commute, I'm spending nearly four hours a day in the car. I'm buying gas every other day. I'm eating crap. This is not a positive turn of events. The show is going well--don't get me wrong--but the drive is killing me. The audio books have helped--I really liked Jane Eyre (why didn't I read this book years ago? Probably because I didn't like Wuthering Heights, namely I didn't see why Heathcliff was this big ol' romantic hero when I thought he was just a dick, and I figured one Bronte was as good as another. Not true!) and right now I'm listening to Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut, which is subversive fun. Friday I will start I, Robot. (I saw the movie, but I'm sure the book is better.) I probably won't need another audio book before next Friday (our last performance), but who knows? I really like having them, and they make the drive go much faster. I should download books off NetLibrary and put them on my MP3 player to listen to on the road all the time. But I'm off-topic--all the late nights (and aforementioned eating of crap) are really taking a toll...I'm exhausted all the time, and snapping at Mark, and I constantly have a headache and intermittent mild nausea. It's honestly just exacerbating problems I've had for months. I'm really looking forward to that doctor's appointment next week--maybe she'll order some bloodwork and tell me what's wrong, finally.

So it's Valentine's Day. I took the day off from the office (I needed the rest, plus the laundry is piling up) but I have rehearsal at 6:30--which means leaving the house at 3:30 so I can buy Mark a card and beat rush hour traffic, and getting home tonight around midnight. Mark left this morning around nine and won't be home until after I leave for rehearsal. How romantic. Not that I put much stock in Hallmark holidays anyway, but it would be nice to have a conversation with him while the sun is up. I'm working tomorrow but have no rehearsal, so we'll hopefully be able to have a nice dinner or something.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I had a sexy dream about John Mayer last night. Where this came from I had no idea. He's more my type than Will Ferrell (who I had a comparatively X-rated dream about last month, ew!), but still not really. I'm barely aware of him, honestly. What the hell is going on in my brain? I guess I have to get the energy out somewhere.

Knitting news, as promised: I finally finished a sweater for myself last week! I bought this super-soft cream colored boucle yarn in December, anticipating I'd make myself a particular sweater with a moderately intricate lace pattern and a bunch of shaping. After working on this sweater nonstop for a month, I finally tried it on--and it was FIVE SIZES TOO BIG!!! What the hell?! I did a gauge swatch and everything! So I said fuck it, pulled the whole thing out (what I learned: never sew in your ends until you're sure!), and made myself an entirely different sweater--this time from an awesome 1977-vintage book I picked up at the last local library sale. The book is called Make it with Mademoiselle (as in the magazine), and not only does it include knitting and crochet patterns, but a dozen ways to tie a headscarf, basic clothing patterns and 101+ ways to decorate with sheets. Plus none of the models are wearing bras--the only way you can tell some of the patterns are from the '70s, honestly. (I'm glad people are wearing bras again!) Anyway, the sweater is totally cute (and a lot more my style than the first one I knit), and I got nothing but compliments on it last Friday when I wore it. (Another lesson learned: patterns that seem three sizes too small will probably fit you.) I will try to remember to post a picture of it. Right now I'm working on an afghan for my friend Sandra's baby (due in May--and it may take that long, the gauge is so small), and over the weekend I dashed off some washcloths/burpcloths with an OM motif (Sandra is into Bikram, crazy lady that she is) for her shower next Sunday. Which I will be unable to attend because, of course, I will be in rehearsal for eight hours that day. Not counting driving. Ugh, I don't want to think about it any more!

Also on the knitting front, I made some squares for Project Linus over the weekend, using stitches from a book I got from my sister-in-law for Christmas. I have to mail those tomorrow, along with some hats I made for a first-grade class in the Bronx that I never got around to mailing. I also want to make some scarves for the National WWII Museum... Well, I guess I'm staying busy enough.