It happens every month, and yet it's always an utter drag. PMS, that is. Some months are worse than others, but usually I'm bone tired, a little weepy, spacy as all get out, hungry, headachy, and have low energy.

This past summer I finally got into the routine of taking a daily vitamin. Much as I hate taking big pills and don't always "remember" to take it, I make sure to during my PMS and MS weeks, in hopes that that extra dose of iron will perk me up.

I've learned that my PMS week is my least creative and productive week of the month - and since I figured that out, I've begun to work around it. I've also learned that taking good care of me really helps - for example, going to bed a little earlier and forcing the rational me to actually go to the gym on my designated gym nights despite the irrational me's pleas to curl up with "Studio 60," "Veronica Mars," and my cat.

As I write this, I hear my couch calling me from 30 blocks away, but I've got my gym bag packed and under my desk, so there's no getting out of it tonight, irrational me, you hear me?!