how can you be optimistic when the world is making you a cynic?

It's chilly enough today for hats and gloves, so it's nice to see something like this:



This week is dragging on me already, even though it's just mid-afternoon on Monday. Could be because it's getting on the last part of the semester and all that entails (final exams! final papers! group projects!) on top of so many outside events (like... Easter, and family birthdays, and switching from full-time Masters study and part-time job to part-time study and full-time summer residency, and Orchid show, and Maple Fest, and the Cherry Blossom festival). I also have to write at least five pages a night this week on top of my regular work for my independent study project. Could be because I'm feeling the cumulative effect of being painfully disillusioned by so many people in my life over the past month or two. Could also be the effect of being surrounded by buildings like this:



Why is it that Frank Lloyd Wright worked with essentially the same forms and materials but managed to create warm, welcoming, comfortable spaces? This particular building is actually listed under the Wiki entry for Brutalism as an illustrative example.