According to The Spark, I am 40% bitch and 69% pure. Hmmmm... Be sure to check it out and try the IQ test, too.

It rained today. Usually I'm not delighted about rain but today I was. It was a nice spring storm and we're very short on water around here after a dry winter that left us without adequate snow pack in the mountains. I walked in the rain and really enjoyed it. I breathed deeply and inhaled that dusty, ozone aroma that comes with the first raindrops. I love that smell.

There is a mosque close to where I go to school and I often see muslim women walking to the bus stop or picking kids up from the bus stop. They wear a wide variety of dress and veil styles. I saw one woman today wearing a white veil over her hair and pinned under her chin. Her face was exposed and her hand and wrists were visible. She wore pants under her dress. Yesterday I saw a woman wearing a floor-length dress (I don't know what they call those dresses), a veil over her hair that also covered her shoulders and went down below her bottom. In front, she had a black veil pinned to the other veil and only her eyes were showing. Her hands were covered by the long hair veil. At the mall, I saw a woman who was clad entirely in black from the top of her head to her shoes--dress with long sleeves, gloves, hair veil and a full face veil that covered every part of her face. No part of her skin showed. She wore a pair of glasses on the outside of her veil. The stems went through holes that looked like button holes so they could rest on her ears. She was walking along holding her young daughter's hand. The little girl looks like any other girl of the same age--wearing regular kid clothes. I wonder what that girl thinks looking at her mother--her future.

It is so hard to look at these women who are so very veiled. I know one Muslim woman online who converted to Islam when she married. She is very happy in her life, very intelligent, very independent. She chose entirely to assume that belief system and that lifestyle. But what about those women who don't choose that lifestyle and that belief system? And let's not even get started on the Taliban.

When you look at it from the man's point of view, what's not to like--you have someone to take care of your home, your children, your sexual needs. For intellectual exercises, you have your group of other men to talk with and argue with. What is not to like?

I'm not casting aspersions. I'm just curious. I'm sure there are many who look at the life I've chosen and go 'blech--that's not for me.' And that's ok with me--I'm happy with my life. I feel fulfilled, I feel satisfied, challenged, happy. I guess my question is do these women feel the same way when they take inventory of their lives? Living in this country, at least they have more freedoms than if they were living in a Muslim state. They can drive cars, be seen in public without an escort, go to college. Still, I have to wonder.

--L