Thursday, Jul. 17, 2003 | 10:38 AM

Something I love about being with Ivy is how much we have to teach each other.

She tells me about dance and photography and I am fascinated. And I share with her music.

Last time she was over I introduced her to The Magnetic Fields. We sat on my bed and listened to Sixty-Nine Love Songs, and she was transfixed. I love how she gasps at a clever lyric, or closes her eyes when something touches her. I love that she doesn�t mind me staring at her while she listens, and that she stares right back at me. That our eyes lock and we let the songs talk for us.

That night I also introduced her to Jeff Buckley.

(She knew who he was, but somehow had never managed to actually listen to him. This is off subject, but it seems like everyone has a gap or two in their musical knowledge�something everyone else in the world has embraced whole heartedly a million years ago, but for whatever reason you missed out on it. Movies are like that too. For instance, I didn�t see Top Gun until I was 22 years old. Anyway�)

Ivy is a big Leonard Cohen fan so I played her Hallelujah, and during the lyrics,

I've seen your flag on the marble arch
But love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

she leaned over and wrapped her arms around me and we kissed. And it was like some terrible spell I�d been under was suddenly broken. Every molecule of cynicism drained out of me, and for that moment I felt so unguarded and innocent and new and trusting.

She�s in San Francisco right now. She�ll be back a week from today. Then Friday we�ll be together.

And after that who knows?