David Brooks has a good column in today’s Times about how pointless it is for high school seniors to get worked up about college admissions. Doesn’t he watch the WB? Everything is a big deal when you’re a teenager. And the college admissions process rivals the senior prom for the most nail-biting saga on any teen TV show. Remember on “90210” when Andrea decided to pass up the Ivies? Remember on “Buffy” when Buffy didn’t know where she’d get in, and then she and Willow both decided to go to UC Sunnydale? And did you see the size of that college library? I’m assuming Clark and the rest of the gang on “Smallville” will soon wind up at Smallville U, and new friends will arrive.

College is a time of huge cast changes. What can be more tumultuous than that?

It was a busy weekend. On Friday and Saturday night, Matt and I had our concerts, which went very well. Matt has some photos of the two of us in tuxedos. (I wanted to send one to my parents and tell them that we’d gotten married in Montreal.)

Other than that, I fell asleep on Matt’s couch on Saturday afternoon and talked in my sleep on Friday night.

And then yesterday, I had a double helping of theater. In the evening, Jere and I saw Pardon My English at Encores! (the exclamation point is part of the name, as in “Yahoo!”). Matt couldn’t make it because he was on duty. The show was a madcap trifle, not quite in the same league as Anything Goes, but still entertaining and containing a zippy Gershwin score. The other show, though, made more of an impression. I saw Craig Lucas’s Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons. (Craig Lucas actually e-mailed me a couple of years ago after reading something on my blog. We traded a few messages back and forth and he wound up sending me a signed copy of a book of some of his plays.) I’d thought about seeing the play, and then yesterday morning Matt and I were on the Internet trying to find out why Lee Pace, the actor who plays the brother on Wonderfalls, was so familiar to us. We realized it was because he played a transsexual in A Soldier’s Girl last year. Not only that, but he was in Small Tragedy. Since yesterday was the final performance, I knew I had to go, so I got a rush ticket and sat in the third row. Lee Pace was mere feet away from me at some points, and he did a smashing job. He’s an actor’s actor, fascinating to watch (and hot, too). He’s going places.

I’d write more, but it’s time to go meet Matt for dinner!

I’m enjoying my new TiVo so far. Last night I slothfully sat at home and watched stuff. (Wednesday is usually my vegging-out night, because 1) “Smallville” and “Angel” are on; 2) it’s usually the only weeknight that I’m not otherwise occupied; and 3) Matt has his weekly residence staff meeting.)

One way in which TiVo has already changed my life is that I’ve started watching “Days of our Lives” again. I’ve watched it on and off since 1986, when I picked up the habit from my mom at age 12. During eighth and ninth grades I was obsessed with the show, taping it every day, making family trees, memorizing the order of all the actors’ names in the closing credits. On an unrelated note, I also had no social life. My obsession only ended when we moved to Tokyo in 1988. Since returning to the States in 1991, I’ve watched it sporadically, sometimes for regular stretches, such as during the spring of my first year of college (I’d monopolize the TV in our dorm suite from 1:00 to 2:00; our cleaning woman watched it, too, and she’d always ask me, “Did you see the story today?” — she always referred to it as “the story”) or during the summer I was studying for the bar exam. I’ve decided to start watching again, because there’s this big serial-killer storyline that’s been going on since August. Several beloved major characters have been murdered, including many whose histories with the show go back 20 years or more. It turns out that the Salem Stalker (as the serial killer is known) is Dr. Marlena Evans, one of the most well-loved and respected residents of the town of Salem, who’s been played by Deidre Hall since 1976 (except for a hiatus from 1987-1991 so she could star on “Our House”; Marlena was presumed dead during that time). None of the other characters knows it’s her, although some are starting to suspect. We, the viewers, have no idea why she’s gone evil. The show sucks these days — it’s poorly written, badly acted and too campy — but I can’t seem to stop watching because I want to find out why Marlena’s doing all this killing.

I watched the pilot episode of “Alias” last night (not on TiVo, but on DVD), because Matt has gotten me into the show. Wow! It was one of the most amazing pilots I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to watch the rest of the first and second seasons on DVD and catch up. I’m always a latecomer to all the good shows — I didn’t start watching “The X-Files” until season 4 and “Buffy” until season 6. I guess I don’t want to put in the time with a show unless I think it’ll be worth it.

I’m philosophically and morally opposed to television. I think it engenders sloth and passivity and sucks away the time that one could spend doing other things. And yet I can get very passionate and obsessive about the shows I do watch. And I know lots of TV minutiae. For instance, at Trivia Night on Monday, I knew that the show that spun off from “Love, American Style” was “Happy Days.” I’m weird like that.

Like sands through the hourglass…