In which I'm prompted to update

Seriously, look at this sexy bastard. The rest of us didn't stand a chance.

Hey readers! Well, this time I'm actually posting twice within four years. It's still not as immediately after my first one as I'd have liked, but life invaded. Israel's crazy. Even right now I have maybe 90 minutes of homework and breakfast in 7.5 hours but this is important for me and every so often my immaculate time-management skills can take a backseat. I do wish I could've waited a little while to do a largely serious post (this is the equivalent of a sitcom dropping the "very special episode" where they learn about drugs on the second episode), but as I'm about to talk about, the world doesn't care about your schedule.

So today kinda sucked. I was in a foul, foul mood all day and can't even owe it to my usual school-stress because one week in I really feel I'm getting the groove of this whole deal of two-person classes. That and I've got great friends, I've already arranged a catchy cover of Frank Zappa's "Bobby Brown Goes Down," the nature renders me speechless

And Thursday we're seeing Kung Fu Panda 3 with my boys JK Simmy and B-ry Cran-Cran. This trip is so far everything I've hoped for. But today sucked.

It's been long enough (almost a third of my life, wow) that the pain ebbs largely. But I was thinking about Mitch a lot coming into this trip. He always wanted to do it and probably would've navigated the awkward first week of socializing far better than I have. (Getting there, though.) And then it came today and no matter how beautiful the historical site I was visiting was, nor how magical when a gazelle came bounding across ten feet in front of me, I just wanted to sleep.

It was hard being alone. There were people for support of course but for the first time ever on this day (and one of the first times ever in my life) I wasn't surrounded by people touched by my brother. Which really speaks to him. People always get inflated when they die. It becomes faux pas to accept their limitations. But I honestly think all the praises we extol of Mitch would still reach ears if he was here today. Look how "Keep Smiling" has turned out, huh. We have.

It's 11:57 PM in Jerusalem, which means it's changing from February 1st to Groundhog Day, maybe the single biggest increase in quality the calendar sees in a single two-day period. I'll watch the movie Groundhog Day on my room's TV and think of Mitch when Bill Murray punches Ned Ryerson. We go on, because he's still with us. I don't think he knows another way to be.

One last thought for the week's adventures: The movie "Pay it Forward" is absolutely horrible.