This week is unhinging me a little. I hadn�t quite realized how much I love preschool and camp. I drop AJ off; I don�t worry about anything; I pick him up later. While we�ve got AJ�s favorite babysitter in this week for a few hours to cover our bases, it�s just harder to have someone in our house. I have to plan snacks, make rules about playing with The Girl Next Door, leave phone numbers, lock doors. Not to mention just remembering the schedule, which changes daily. There�s a lot more of my psychic energy involved than in dropping him off at a place set up just for him. I underestimated how that psychic energy cuts into my work time and productivity.

Still, it�s been fun being able to do things with AJ in the morning. Today we got out of the house by 8:30 and headed to the new Trader Joe�s, which AJ had never been to and which takes their whole pirate theme to amazing lengths. There are model volcanos and ships, and there are parrots and fish hidden all over the store. He had about as good a time as a kid can have grocery shopping.

We were stocking up, in part, for the arrival of rs536 who comes on Friday. AJ is very excited to have a visitor, especially when it means he can talk me into buying potato chips. My friend M., who used to live near RS in Brooklyn, is coming down from Madison to meet up with us on Saturday. Sunday I think we�ll be going kayaking. The rest of the schedule we�ll play by ear. I�m sure some portion of Friday will include AJ showing RS each and every one of his toys until either he runs out of toys or she dozes off. Or possibly when she breaks her ankle tripping over his train set, as I nearly did this morning. RS, you might want to bring a pair of shin-guards. But don�t worry, we have plenty of ice packs.

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Musical obsession of the day: Janis Ian�s �Searching for America,� a hauntingly beautiful song about illegal immigration. There�s a twist of Joni Mitchell in the chord changes of this one, although it�s much more strophic and rhythmically regular than most of my favorite Mitchell tunes. Ian�s voice is also quite different than Mitchell�s -- much more focused, although still a light voice, pretty and controlled. The accompaniment is mostly acoustic guitar over a simple and fairly unobtrusive drum kit. Electric guitar is used for punctuation in interesting ways � it creates atmosphere. Interestingly, this song is produced by Ani DiFranco, whose own music seems to share many influences with Ian. I can hear her touch too.

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