Fuck this year.

> All kinds of terrible things have happened this year.
>
> I am at MIA, with my mom and sister, about to board a plane to Rio. A few hours later, we'll be joined by my brother.
>
> I'll spend my birthday at a funeral for my grandmother, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack yesterday. She was supposed to be arriving in the U.S. this Sunday morning to spend the holidays with us. Instead, we have a few days there to do all the tedious and cruel legal shit that follows an unexpected death before scampering back to the U.S. to have a grandmother-less Christmas. After my last final, of course.
>
> I'm not a big birthday person. I don't ask for much. I would prefer, however, not to spend it in a cemetery in Niterói, giving my grandmother a place to rest next to her late husband.
>
> Repeat: fuck this year.

Of Election Results and Shame

The day after the midterms this year, I was in a weeklong meeting with people from a variety of different African nations. During these weeklong meetings, you tend to fall into a pleasant rhythm of amicable "ain't you tired of this thing too?" banter over a catered breakfast before spending the next 6 hours bashing your head repeatedly against a brick wall of language and document editing. The folks from Africa tell us what strange facet of America they've encountered via the airwaves the night before – "what exactly is it that the phrase 'G.O.P.' stands for? Who are they?" – or, "evidently, the issue of querying blood donors about polygamy isn't strictly an African problem! What is this 'Sister Wives' show I've seen?" – while those of us from the office try to provide answers and/or context.

The day after the election last month, our room was in a fairly distraught mood – not just because of the electoral teagasm, but partly because most of us in the room who live in the District aren't fans of Vincent Gray. The day before, he had given a smarmy speech with Marion Barry standing directly beside him. Gray ran a kind of unnecessarily divisive campaign against the incumbent, Fenty, who most people think did a pretty decent job (even if he came across as kind of an arrogant prick.) Gray made several insinuations that under Fenty, life in the city hadn't improved for all voters, and that it was time for a boom that would help the wards that were being left behind. Like I said, unnecessarily divisive from a racial standpoint, and demonstrably untrue from a spending standpoint.

This led of course to some of us explaining why Marion Barry was such an embarrassment to the city, and it may have even been implied that, for someone who had done very little to take care of his health, his longevity was fairly admirable if a tad irritating. This general subject of embarrassment then led to a comment about, sheesh, and now the teapeople will be representing the U.S. abroad, and their understanding of America is so dim that we have to wonder how they see the rest of the world.

"Embarrassing? You think you know embarrassment at your elected leaders?" asked one of the South Africans. Oh, right. Jacob Zuma now, Thabo Mbeki a few years ago. We nod and feel a little vexed to be making such a big deal out of a few teafolk. "And then there's L___!"

Indeed. Someone from Zimbabwe. She definitely has it worse, considering that Robert Mugabe is one of the worst people on the planet. Someone said, to alleviate the awkwardness, "I remember being in Zim in 1999, or so, and everyone was just so ecstatic because they thought…well, they thought he couldn't live much longer."

She answers, "Indeed, he is like your Marion Barry." After some more talk, she added a fairly somber thought – something to the extent of, "In Zimbabwe, you keep your head down and mind your own business. It's easy to die. It's very easy to die in Zimbabwe."

And that was all it took for us to realize that our problems are very much first-world problems. And this is in fact a helpful prism through which to view just about anything.

Example: My internet router at home needs to be powercycled more often than I'd like?

First world perspective: So, a box that gives me a fairly reliable and fast connection to the Internet from my expensive condo in a fairly posh neighborhood occasionally makes it so that I need to wait 30 seconds in order to get online with either my smartphone, one of my two laptops, or my ipad? It occasionally makes it difficult for me to stream some of the 600 gigs of media to a pair of expensive cherrywood speakers? Poor me. Life is SO difficult. I guess I'll simply retreat to the safety of my warm apartment, brew a pot of Peets coffee, and eat some of the abundant leftovers stored in my fridge, while I contemplate how difficult it is to be me.

Example: Drivers are so mean to pedestrians when it's snowing or raining!

First world perspective: Oh heavens! The well-paved streets on which I walk (safely at most times of day or night, I might add), to get to a form of public transit that, while flawed, is still better than the public transit in all but a handful of American cities, in order to get to my well-paid job in a building that is secure, where I have virtually all of the resources I need to perform the tasks assigned to me, are occasionally populated by inconsiderate drivers who occasionally fail to pause a complete beat at a stop sign for me to cross. LIFE IS SO UNFAIR.

It's kind of a big day for Fluminense.

Here's hoping that in a few hours, I'm crying tears of joy. Not like that other time.