It's snowing outside.  So quiet, the way it gets when the snow acts as a noise absorber and even the snow plows seem softer, easier on the ears.

We are supposed to get 5 to 9 inches tonight, on top of the 5 already on the ground.

I'm not complaining though.  At least not yet.  Tomorrow when cabin fever strikes my youngest, after another day out of school, then I'll grump and whine.  Right now though, its purty.

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I got a letter from Jay.  It seems he is in intense cognitive behavioral therapy and the AA/NA thing is a minor part of it.  Well, I am pleased.  They are forcing him to face some ugly truths.  And if his letter is any indication, he's not liking it, but he's not fighting it either.  He wants to stop being self-destructive.  He just didn't realize until recently he is worth the effort.  Here's hoping he hangs tuff, stays true, and comes out the other side stronger.

I know that's generic but his issues are much too personal for me to reveal here...and miles worse than the few I've blogged on.

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I didn't want to be one of those people who always talks about school.  But guess what?  I am.  Well, it just happens to be consuming so much of my time these days.  How can I avoid it?  It's like talking around the elephant in the room.

When I reply on an article which happens to co-inside with something I'm studying, I will often say something a long the lines of... I'm in a Masters program yadda yadda.  I apologize for those of you who have to read that more than once.  I'm not bragging, really.  It's just I don't want to come across as someone who actually knows something about these things so I make sure to say I'm learning it, studying it, and am by no means an expert.

Speaking of which.  I wonder if its possible to get kicked out of a Master's Program for incompatibility?  Not with the material, but with the mind-set.  I'm doing well, meaning 4.0, but fish out of water?  Me?  Like this ll.  Most of the students are great.  I'm a fairly friendly person (does everyone think that about themselves?)  But the instructors....well, I'm 40 years old.  I have opinions, life experience, and critical thinking abilities (occasionally).  And I don't appreciate bias in the class anymore than in the media.  The thing is, when I challenge an idea or assertion, they don't really have any snappy come backs, or an intellectual way to put me in my place.  Not because they lack the capacity.  Either it is restraint, or they just aren't used to dissenting opinions.  Who knows. 

 I know to pick my battles.  It's just hard to swallow anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-parenthood, anti-pretty much everything important in my life without at least a grimace, usually a verbal defense.

Our instructor last week asked me about living in Alaska.  Then proceeded to tell me how his daughter broke her back there and the Alaskan Dr told her it was fine, to take some pills and go back to work.  (I actually believe this...heh.)  I listened and then BOOM...outta nowhere he says..."And what about Palin?  She's about the stupidest thing on the planet.  My gawd her stupidity..." blah blah blah.

This is not necessarily a battle issue for me (I am not a Palin advocate, nor detractor, ambivalent pretty much covers it unless I think she's handled unfairly).  Except it wasn't the subject so much as the comfort level at saying such a thing in front of a room full of adults who "might" have a differing opinion.  That's what is really scary.  They don't believe anyone in an advanced education program could think any different.

Granted, I'm no Palin expert.  But I've lived in that state, where infrastructure is a nightmare...a large majority of it can't be reached by car, only by plane or ferry.  There are earthquakes every day destroying the roads in the interior, there is a native population with its own way of doing things, there is flooding every spring, massive fires every summer (which make the ones in the west coast look like cook fires), endless dark winters, the oil pipeline, the gas pipeline being built, fishermen, the Bering Straight (all kinds of issues there), weather, tourists, it goes on and on.

How can you be stupid and Govern that much chaos spread out in an area two and a half times bigger than Texas?  Like her or hate her, I wouldn't want that job.

And you know who looks really stupid?  People who quote Tina Fey the comedian and attribute it to Palin.  Palin never said she could see Russia from her front porch.  (This is one I hear all the time.)  Tina Fey said it.  You know, as part of a comedy routine.

So I spoke up, and the atmosphere turned as snowy, as bitterly quiet as the one rubbing against my windows right now................

 My cell phone is beeping, needs recharged.

My husband is hunting and the youngest is at a play date, so the house is quiet.

Quiet is something I love and don't get to enjoy much anymore.

When it comes though, its like an ear massage, a place to mindlessly listen to the keyboard click as I type.

Ah, Blessed Silence.