The great irony of diary writing is that when you have a lot going on that you could write about, you don�t have the time to write. And now that I have the time, I no longer recall exactly what I wished to write about it. I find myself musing about too many disparate ideas that instead of coalescing into a nice, neat, coherent entry, instead drift off into the ether, unfinished.

In any case, yesterday was certainly busy enough to warrant my first postless day in a month. The day began, as do most days of late, with a swim followed by playtime with a very crabby AJ, lunch and the rapid assembly of assorted picnic items during AJ�s brief afternoon nap. As soon as he woke up, we loaded ourselves and our supplies into the car and headed to the home of my mother-in-law who had just returned home from the rehab center on her two new bionic knees. While she�s still hobbling, naturally, she was in an extremely good mood (and after returning home after nearly three weeks in assorted medical facilities, who wouldn�t be?). We had a pleasant visit and, for possibly the first time ever, in her very own home she not only did not try to feed us, but let us bring her dinner. This is nothing short of a miracle in an Italian-American family. It takes major surgery to get her to sit down at the table with us instead of nervously puttering in the kitchen, worrying that there isn�t enough food when, in fact, there is enough for approximately five times the number of people present. We had planned on visiting and dropping off our dinner offering before heading to an outdoor concert and picnic, but the sky began to look rather ominous, so we elected to eat in the backyard, closer to shelter. When the clouds blew off after a brief rain, we returned to plan A, packed up our wine and dessert and drove to Elmhurst College where there was an outdoor jazz concert on the college�s lawn featuring singer Patti Austin. I confess, I did not hear all that much of the concert which, with the possible exception of the ersatz Manhattan Transfer group that opened, was quite excellent (and they weren�t bad � just not my favorite music). I spent too much time watching all the many, many children racing around and having a marvelous time (AJ among them).

The concert area was boxed in by college buildings. About two thirds of the way back from the stage was a swath of lawn that had been overtaken by children of all ages running wild. There were boys in Little League uniforms playing catch. There were teens playing Frisbee while trying to see if any members of the opposite sex were watching. But mostly there were little girls in sundresses. They were everywhere. One was twirling around and around to the music with her toy bunny in her arms. Others were turning cartwheels, their skirts twitching over their heads while little brothers yelled, �I see London, I see France!� One little girl with an ice cream cone was red-faced and weeping, running around and around looking for her mother (she was quickly found and calmed). AJ ran into the middle of this chaos, and sat down, staring, while other pre-schoolers stood behind him and twirled and twirled. There was something timeless about the whole scene. The children could easily have been me, years ago, twirling in party dresses on a warm summer night.

The other big event this weekend was a very long phone call from my brother, who has recently moved from Jerusalem and a job in the West Bank to Jordan. They are still getting used to the relative quiet there, but are relieved to have it. As we spoke, I could hear very faintly the sinuous melody of the call to prayer from the mosque down the street, a reminder of the geographical distance between us. He was saying how much he enjoyed that sound, but that the frequent fireworks displays were less pleasant, for that kind of sound has very bad associations for him now. How our lives have diverged.

There is more to say (there was, for instance, an earthquake here last night, which I slept through), but I must get to work now. The final report for my dissertation grant is due in three days and, since they only just e-mailed us the report forms this morning, it�s going to be a bit of a crunch. I resent having to pay the price for someone else�s disorganization, but seeing as they did give me a rather large amount of cash for doing something I would have been doing anyway, it�s kind of hard to complain too much.

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