Really, it is. I'm working on four hours (had to finish the book I'll be talking about in a bit) and everything about it I like, as long as I only do it once in a while. Seriously... the compressed, fast dreams that I have when I know that I only have three or four hours to get all my sleeping done, resetting the alarm two or three times to squeeze out every possible minute, the mad dash in the shower and the (now) synchronized progress of events in the morning that allowed me to wake up at 7.10, leave the house by 7.22 (I have a razor at work) and show up at my desk only a minute late at 7.31. That minute was most likely due to my contacts... I didn't have to worry about putting them in the last time that I did this.

So I've just finished the excellent novel The World to Come. It's the second book by this particular writer (Dara Horn) but the first one that I've read. Highly recommended. The book weaves a story of Yiddish folklore, the early days of the USSR, a painting by Marc Chagall, and the theft of said painting in our time by a man who grew up with it hanging in his house. The writing is extremely rich and readable... at first there were times when I simply didn't want to go on, and just reread parts that I'd already gone over, tasting them as long as possible. The final thirty pages or so are another example of that... I wanted to stay up reading it, but it was just so difficult to speed through it, as beautiful and thought-provoking as it was. I'm releasing it today (I'm a member of Bookcrossing and use them to both get rid of books I may not read again and pass on books that I want as many people as possible to read...) downtown Newport (unless anyone wants me to mail it... it's that good, and I'd be doing you and the book a service). I just hope it finds a good home.

That's another thing I'm doing. Since my friend, companion, and roommate is packing up her things to leave, I've been doing some major spring cleaning myself, and getting rid of things that have just been weighing me down. Over the last three days, I reduced a huge box of 'filed' paper and things to about four folders and a tiny Amazon.com box, and I was able to finally sort my knitting things. Still have a lot of work to do, but it's nice not having so much clutter.

Okay, I'm sitting at my desk, and I should probably actually get to work. Have funn...