Scene: Harriet�s backyard. AJ and Harriet are lying in the freshly mown grass looking up at the newly emerging leaves, the white flowers like snow on the plum tree and the clouds skittering across the sky.

AJ: Let�s find pictures in the clouds.
Harriet: Great idea! I see a horsie!
AJ: There�s Florida! There�s Florida!
Harriet: You�re right, that one looks a little like Florida. And that one looks like a choochoo train.
AJ: And that one looks like Greenland, a territory of Denmark!

* * * * *

AJ has become a little obsessed with geography of late. He pores over maps and puzzles as if the explanations of every mysterious thing in the universe are contained therein. He seems to have an endless desire to memorize and master bodies of knowledge in a limited sphere, as if by accumulating these small zones of information control, he gains control of the world around him that continues to amaze and surprise him.

This morning he was perusing the NASA website in search of information about how rockets work. Lord help me. Yesterday I couldn�t even tell a tourist who asked where the science library was.

My obsessions of late have been entirely musical. My unfailing devotion to my class � the hours I am putting in are quite insane, although I was reassured after talking to T. yesterday that this is totally normal for the first couple of years of teaching but that it gets a lot better after that. And for the last couple of days, the Shins� �Saint Simon,� which can�t seem to come up on iTunes often enough.

The sun is shining, the oppressive humidity of the last couple of days has vanished into crisp spring air. The lilacs are blooming. Life is good.

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