Thanksgiving Eve; snow

Got woken up (out of a wonderful sound sleep) this morning by a phone call. The person mentioned that it would have been a great morning to sleep in. That made me curious, so as I staggered out of bed, I pulled open the blinds -- and the ground was covered with snow, and it's still coming down pretty good. It's beautiful, but I do not want to drive in it. The first ground covering snow each and every winter is one of the most dangerous drives of the year, even if its only an inch or two. People seem to forget how to drive in the snow since the previous winter, and there are always a lot of accidents.

That said, because of the phone call I now need to leave the house early. It was about the wrestling tournament this weekend, and what I needed to bring for the team to eat.

Now, going to a grocery store the day before Thanksgiving is always a terrifying thing. Everyone and their mama realizes at the last minute that they forgot something for the holiday feast, so the store is insanely crowded.

But going to any store the day after Thanksgiving is even worse. The number and grouchiness of the shoppers on that day of the year is legendary. A local legend is the Wal-Mart TV riot a few years ago, when there was a small riot in a local Wal-Mart store over low priced televisions, when it turned out that the store did not have enough in stock. Shoppers were punching each other out and breaking store windows over those stupid televisions. Good grief! The husband of one of my friends was there, and he said it was a very uncomfortable place to be. I can believe him whole heartedly.

So, of the two choices, I need to go out today to get my two boxes of granola bars for the team.

I wonder how much snow we'll have on the ground by the time I have to drive home from work at midnight tonight?

parent teacher conferences

Spent the day at Bill's parent teacher conferences before going in to work. It was sort of weird, knowing it will be the last time for this son. It will be strange not hearing the teachers complaining about not knowing what to do with him because he is bored in their classes. That complaint came today from his AP Calculus teacher. "I don't know what to do with him. He's bored in class, and whenever I give them time to work on their math problems, he finishes right away and works on stuff for his other classes instead." I asked if he was disruptive to the other kids, and the answer was no. He is getting a 96% in the class, so he understands the material. I told the teacher I did not understand why there was any problem, if that was the case. Eventually, the teacher agreed with me.

Bill is taking a good college prep curriculum this year. He has AP calculus, AP American government, AP second year chemistry, British literature, fourth year French, physics, and a year long independent study in architecture. Hopefully the colleges he applies to will look at that, and see he has a high GPA while doing two varsity sports. He doesn't have community service, which most of them seem to want, other than through his sports programs (teaching soccer to little kids, etc.) but he does work part time, so hopefully that counts for something?

I honestly don't know what half of these colleges are looking for.  Why does Michigan want an admissions essay on the differences between beauty and logic? What is that supposed to show?

I will miss Steven's conferences this year because they are at night, while I am at work. But he seems to be doing fine in school this year. He loves English this year, because the teacher lets them pick out the books they read. He did a fantastic book report, filled with original computer drawn artwork. I was amazed when I saw it.

Where did these fantastic and talented kids come from? I hit my math wall with graphing quadratic inequalities, and Dan didn't even make it that far. And I don't have a bit of artistic talent, though it does run in Dan's family. Is it because we encourage and expect them to do well in school? Is it because we encourage Steven to draw and write? I look at my sons, and it amazes me that I grew them under my heart, held and cuddled them as babies, hugged them when they got skinned knees, encouraged them to go out for sports even though they didn't think they could, watched them growso much. And even though I had no idea of what I was doing when it came to being a parent -- my own mother sexually, physically, and emotionally abused me -- but somehow my kids are not completely and totally screwed up. In fact, they are awesome. How did this happen? How did I somehow stumble into not screwing them up since I had no idea of what I was doing? The only thing I went by is always letting them know how much they are loved, because it is the simple truth. Maybe love is the answer?

My children are the greatest and best part of my life. After my own horrible childhood, I was so frightened of having any children of my own. But I am so happy that I did!

Dune dissection chapter three

Dune chap. 3: Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness."
~from "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan

As Paul waits in a nearby meditation center, the Lady Jessica and the Reverend Mother talk. Jessica remembers her own testing with the gom jabbar, and she is goaded into anger by the Rev. Mother.

The two exchange words because Jessica had given birth to a boy rather than the ordered girls. She did it because having a son had meant so much to Leto. The old woman scolds her; an Atreides daughter could have been married to a Harkonnen son and ended the old feud.

It becomes clear in the old woman's words that the Bene Gesserit have a very long-term view. She states that all of mankind's most important parts are mere flotsam in the tides and times of history, and what matters is breeding humans according to their plan.

The current civilization is balanced on a tripod with the legs being the Imperial Household, the Great Houses, and the Spacing Guild and its monopoly on interstellar travel. With the political storm brewing on Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit only hope at this point to salvage key bloodlines.

The Reverend Mother tells Jessica that Arrkais is bad, but perhaps not that bad, as it has been visited by something she calls the Missionaria Protectiva.

Paul is then called in, and the Reverand Mother asks him about his prophetic dreams. He tells her of one he had the night before, set in a cavern where he talked with a girl with completely blue eyes.

Quote:
'You think I could be this Kwisatz Haderach," he began. "You talk about me, but you haven't said one thing about what we can do to help my father. I've heard you talking to my mother. You talk as though my father were dead. Well, he isn't!"

"If there were a thing we could do for him, we'd have done it," the old woman growled. "We may be able to salvage you. Doubtful, but possible. But for your father, nothing. When you've learned to accept that fact, you've learned a real Bene Gesserit lesson."

Jessica is shaken by those blunt words. Paul is even angrier when he sees his mother's reaction.

The Reverand Mother tells Jessica that she sees signs that Jessica has trained her son in the Way, and she approves of that, even though it is against the rules. She says Jessica must train him to use something called the Voice. She tells Paul that she hopes he will survive, but that the Bene Gesserit will succeed even if he does not, then she leaves, with tears running down her face.

bird feeders; holiday plans

I have all of the bird feeders up and running now. Our backyard is filled with cute little chickadees, and our front yard has been taken over by a big flock of gold finches again. The cats adore watching all of these quick and darty little birds through the windows. Its definately a form of high entertainment for them. They sit on the lambswool lined shelves under the windows and watch the little birds and make interesting "ick ick" sounds at the birds all day. I love the bright yellow and black finches. They are beautiful little birds. Last winter at any given time we would have between 12-14 of them around our front porch. When a friend came over he asked me how we got a flock of parakeets in our yard.

I talked to Dan about Thanksgiving again this morning. Because his business has been very busy lately, he doesn't want to do anything for the holiday, even something as simple as going out to breakfast. He says he just doesn't have the time or energy to deal with it. Last night I pointed out that this might be the last Thanksgiving we will have with everyone living under the same roof and that I very much want to do something. This morning I think I have gotten him to agree to a turkey breast (rather than an entire turkey) and traditional side dishes prepared here at home. So hopefully this will take place. It doesn't help that I will be working that night, so we would have to start cooking in the morning to have everything done before I would have to leave for work. I just hope we do something, as it might be the last Thanksgiving we celebrate with Bill living here full time.

productive day off

We are having a very productive day off. I am on my third load of laundry, and we did a load of dishes. Dan and Bill have been burning leaves all day (the windstorm brought them all down). I went through all of my CD wallets and separated the classical music from all of the rest, and organized it by composer.  We even managed to watch the UM/OSU football game, and were disappointed by UM losing like that right at the end.

It was a lovely winter day - sunny, and actually got above freezing. great day for football! Just not for Michigan football fans.

more college stuff

We finally got Bill's ACT scores back today. He did well, scoring a composite of 30. That will get him into most of the colleges on his short list (as usual the University of Michigan is still a question) and even get him very nice scholarships at some of them.  I am very proud of him, as always. It always amazes me that I contributed to the formation of such a wonderful person!

Got the new stereo sytem set up in my bedroom tonight. I am going to go through all of my CD wallets tomorrow and consolidate all of the Mahler, Bach, and Beethoven music I have. After I finish my Mahler Symphony Quest (since its been awhile, I am going to start right back at the fantastical fireworks of the First Symphony) I think I will start on a Beethoven Symphony Quest. While I love his Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth I have never heard some of the others. It is time.

Dan and I went out to dinner tonight, and to the bookstore. We picked up Bill a couple of books to help him get going on his admission essays. We also picked up a couple of books to help him get ready for all of his AP tests. The last year in high school takes a lot of time and work if your child is going to college!

It is less than a week to Thanksgiving, and we will probably be going to a brunch this year, since I am working that holiday. Cooking a big dinner will be too much, and we will be busy on Friday getting things ready for a big wrestling tournament our club is hosting, and busy all day on Saturday at the tournament. So I will have to check out the newspaper and make some reservations. Usually that's the weekend we start putting up the Christmas tree and decorations, too, and I do not know when we will have time this year.

I also have to start my holiday shopping soon. I know I can only get one particular gift for Bill through the internet...need to get going on that tomorrow...

A Friend's Dream Coming True

Tonight was kind of cool because it was the last night at work for awhile for one of my friends. He will be off for ten days, and will be travelling to New York City to see the huge Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He has dreamed of seeing it all of his life. He loves parades and has been a volunteer some years at the big Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit. Since he loves food, I made sure to tell him to go to Gray's Papaya for the world's best hot dogs.

It always makes me happy when someone's lifelong dream comes true.  It can be a serious dream, or a silly dream like most of mine. With everyone so crazily busy in life these days, it seems that most people do not take the time for their dreams, and they do not tend them, and so the dreams do not come true. I am happy my friend will be at his parade!!