I'm not sure what's going on - are the planets and stars in some weird state of flux? Is everything misaligned? Maligned?

Last night I felt frustrated after class and started to cry. I stopped myself ButI should have played the Madonna greatest hits CD on the way homeinstead of the new Elliot Smith because, of course, that just made me melancholy.

This morning I woke up at 6 a.m. and, feeling anxious as I have for much of this week, couldn't go back to sleep. So I went for a run and tried to clear my head.

It helped, a little.

But then, watching the news this morning (children taken hostage/killed/emotionally scarred for life in Russia, disaster in the apocolyptic state of Florida, election crap, etc) I wanted to cry again. And I did, in the bathroom, for a second. That's all I could allow for however because there's work to be done, things to accomplish, places to go, people to see.

Then I learned that my uncle Herman who'd been fighting cancer for the last few years, died. He and my aunt - my father's sister - were married 25 years.

Herman was a fabulous person who played a merciless game of Monopoly - even against, no especially against 12-year-old girls.

Really, I think I just need to take an hour here or there and let it all out with a good sob.