Caitlin took the written test and was awarded her driver's permit today. She and her father drove around KMart's back 40 which consists of a large empty parking lot with no obstacles or traffic. Parking between the lines seems to be a bit of a challenge. I took her out later this afternoon for a short drive to CVS and other than a brief, grinding encounter with a curb, she did very well. I had to consciously make an effort not to stomp the floor on the phantom brake, or to brace myself on the armrest against the impending crash. She needs a lot of coaching about how far to steer (or not, in the case of the curb) and how fast to go and when to brake, but that only comes with experience. My initial reaction to her driving over the curb (which was witnessed by two fuckingly self-righteous cyclists who received my version of W's "one fingered victory salute") was to drive the rest of the way myself, but then I realized she needed the confidence of getting herself out of the situation and back onto the road. My only wish - that Prozac was sold over the counter in jumbo packs.

Music: I've been searching iTunes every so often for Raul Malo's Every Little Thing About You for months, only to discover tonight that it was recorded with The Mavericks. It's rather like a countryish version of Bolero - all that slow, heated anticipation. Makes me all flushed just to think about it.

My iPod resides in my car now so that I can listen to it when my radio station is broadcasting music I don't like or Penn basketball games. It is always set on shuffle (which, although it's reputedly a truly random selection, seems to play the Hank Dogs - whom I adore, but who only have one CD's worth of music on my iPod out of over 800 songs - way too often) because I rarely want to hear the music of just one artist and I'm way too lazy to set up playlists. I've realized that, despite enjoying a continuous stream of music, I really want to hear someone's voice between the songs - announcing who's playing, perhaps what album the song is from, maybe a little bit about the song or the artist or the year in which the song was recorded. Sort of pop-up audio. I think Apple should be working on this right now. Instead they give us iPhoto, which means you can carry around pictures of your 25,000 closest friends or animals.

Men of a musical family (which would be...?):
1. James - my senior year in high school at the old Erlanger Theater in Philadelphia (now the Forrest Theater). Seats were way up in the back, but the sound was wonderful and he could break your heart with his voice.
2. Livingston - my freshman year in college, probably at a church that was being used for a series of small, intimate concerts.
3. Ben - his band was the opener for Dar Williams a couple fo years ago. I didn't realize who he was until I remarked to Caitlin about the similarity of his voice to James.