(sad people dance too.)

There was a huge, horrible earthquake in Chile today. "I'm feeling badly; it's not an attempt at decency." (Grammar glitch alert! To feel badly actually refers to literally feeling something -- say, with your fingers -- badly. So maybe they are burnt or something.) The world is an AWFUL, sad place. I usually find it extremely difficult to... reconcile this fact. And I wonder how other people do it. I'm not sure if I succeed or not - I think I might just carry it for most of the time. Does that count as reconciling it? I will say, it's a huge relief to come across people who think & feel similarly. Especially when they are brilliant, crazy articulate professors making an honest effort to do good and help other people. It makes me feel less like an insane, depressed, mood-swingin', existentialist weirdo, lol. To be understood so hard is kind of a miracle, I think. "Life is like banquet food for us lucky few," says Annie Clark. It sure is, and I'll never know how or why. Many people are far from lucky.

I got an e-mail from the sociology department yesterday: "BU School of Social Work--Optimists Wanted." I couldn't decide if I am an optimist or not. My friends would laugh at me for saying this, because apparently I'm Optimist of the Year Friend, haha. Well, I don't totally disagree. I am an optimist in that I hope for the best and believe that people are inherently good. I like this (from Wikipedia on optimism, lol): "Antonio Gramsci famously called for 'pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will': the one the spur to action, the other the resilience to believe that such action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity." Yes, even though that doesn't make it all any happier, yes. I say, do your best, and make use of the good you have - we all have (being nice is the new black! ;). And, for the love of God or whatever entity is watching us go up in flames and tsunamis from somewhere, LIVE YOUR LIFE! Don't wait, don't be afraid to change, and recognize that most of the time, people don't know what they're talking about, so come to your own conclusions about things. Everything!

All right, enough preaching. Preachsta22 I am not, lol. I will lighten this post up with arguably my best Spain photo to date! We went on a group trip to Sevilla, where it never rains unless we're going on a group trip there. In that case, cold & rainy times 2010. We visited a museum and mosque (I THINK!...) and an IGLESIA (church), but I'm not totally convinced it wasn't the same exact one we visited in Toledo because it looked, I don't know, EXACTLY THE SAME? *It's not clear.*

Right, so we ended up in a maze. It happens. And HERE is where I just had to go all Tyra Banks-that-week-on-ANTM-when-she-goes-behind-the-camera and kill it. Below, find my friends in forest explorer, movie poster mode (que ouaaaaais!):



Love it. So I originally set out to write a real downer of a post with maybe my favorite album ever, Rilo Kiley's The Execution of All Things, as the soundtrack, but I have since moved on to less heavy fare... some Jaymay, mostly THAO! I know - damn my undying optimism! I'm going with "Travel" from We Brave Bee Stings and All, a new favorite of mine from that wonderful album. Still weight but less weight, ok? Reconcile.

"But I took / a million looks / how they ate me up, made me heavy, and for what?..."



xoxo jbahz