Sneaky

First, sneaky is the snow that snuck in sometime last night or early this morning.

But next, it's me...I got up early today to creep out of the apartment without disturbing my host family, who would likely panic and want to know 1) why I was awake so early? 2) why I was leaving the house with wet hair? 3) why was I leaving without eating an entire frying pan's worth of fried egg fluff with cheese and grease in it? (to each their own - I just like fruit and cereal sometimes)

I was doing so well. I had my laptop and my shoulder bag all bundled up and stuffed with copies of my paper-in-progress and dripping tomes with titles such as "The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics", "From War to Peace: Fateful Decisions in International Politics" and "America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq" that nearly scattered across the floor of the marshruka (van-taxi)as I stumbled into a seat. But I did not anticipate the presence of snowflakes that had been piling onto the ground while I slept, or the wind that blew small pieces of them into my eyes and hair.

It is quieter when it snows. I'm glad I saw it in the early morning before anyone else got to.

Sneaky is also Gosha, the American Home cat, who jumped into my lap suddenly when I was midway through a sentence about why America would benefit from increased participation in multinational conflict management. He pretends like he wants to hang out on my lap, but really I know he's just eying my sweater, which does handle double duty as a claw-sharpener.