weekly wonderings – PopCult Reviews

Weekly Wonderings – September 28th, 2021

It’s been four days since we arrived in the Netherlands, and it still doesn’t quite feel real. We’re staying near the city center of Leiden in one place for the first month. Our bedroom window has a view of the canals and street below, the Dutch architecture. There are moments of disassociation where I get caught up in reading a book or watching a movie, and my brain is back in Tennessee. Then I look up and out the window and am reminded of where I am. It leaves me thinking, “When will this all feel normal?”

Weekly Wonderings – September 23rd, 2021

So, I’m writing this from the airport. I’m sitting in the Delta Sky Lounge exceptionally early for our 5:30 connecting flight. I can honestly say that I sat in our hotel room the last 24 hours with anxiety in my gut that we had forgotten something, and they would tell us we could not board. I realized I have so much insecurity still to overcome in my life, and when we are settled, I do need to see a therapist. This morning, as my stomach roiled with worry, I thought about people who just live life without this kind of worry. I think it is a combination of stuff from when I was growing up and the anxiety induced by our extremely class-stratified society.

Weekly Wonderings – September 8th, 2021

We have officially sold our house and moved out. We kept waiting for the closing date, and then early Monday morning, our broker told us it would be Wednesday if we wanted. We wanted it and spent the next 24 hours working harder than we have in a long time to pack, donate, and move things over to my sister’s place. This morning we went to the attorney’s office and signed the papers. We were in shock when we learned that because this was our primary residence and we’d sold no other houses this year, we would not be taxed on the sale. This is a life-changing experience because we doubled our money on the house. Because of the insane housing market, we sold it for 92% higher than we purchased.

Weekly Wonderings – September 1st, 2021

Well, the last week has clearly shown us we are in the apocalypse here in the United States. COVID cases are spiraling out of control, climate change is fueling wildfires and hurricanes that are devastating swathes of the country, abortion is all but banned in Texas, with liberals screaming at leftists instead of conservatives. I am fully convinced that America is finished in all capacities. It’s simply a matter of time until the people who live here come to that realization. On to the wonderings for this shithole of a week.

Weekly Wonderings – August 23rd, 2021

Just sort of resigned to give up on America and Americans at this point. I have noticed social media sentiments from people who always hovered in that centrist space, just wholly giving in to apathy. American media & power relies on the people losing their ability to imagine a different, better world, and they have certainly accomplished that. They’ve convinced people that a real revolution (not a Proud Boy hog LARP) is possible and that a thousand deaths a day from COVID and pediatric ICUs filling up is just the norm. So with our house being sold and waiting for the closing and everything else, I just have decided to withdraw myself from my usual social media spots. The weekly wonderings will be pretty much the only place I share my personal thoughts and ideas. Facebook is a worthless platform, so I suppose Twitter & Instagram will just be me promoting the blog until the world ends.

Weekly Wonderings – August 3rd, 2021

So I was gone for the last week as we had a friend visiting from out of town and my wife had the whole week off. It was good to talk to someone who had recently sold a house, and she assured us it wouldn’t take long. Flash to today, our house went on the market yesterday, and there are three showings already scheduled for this afternoon and evening. I suspect we won’t have to wait long, and I’m sort of hoping for a bidding war. It’s not that fancy of a house, but I can dream. I suspect by this time next month I will be in another part of the world. When everything is wrapped up, papers signed, tickets purchased, I’ll share details about where I am going.

Weekly Wonderings – July 19th, 2021

With each day, another piece of the moving puzzle comes into place. Landscaping, minor repairs around the house, roofing, pest control. We have maybe four significant pieces of furniture left, and they won’t be coming with us when we depart. Dresser up for sale and using suitcases. This will be the fastest closing these realtors have ever seen. The minute the house is sold, we accept the bid, etc., we are ready to depart. Just get the money deposited in our account, and we are off. One of our friends in our destination country has found a very promising job opportunity for my wife where she works, so if we arrive and one of us already has a job, that would be even better. These days the idea of leaving is more and more enticing. More on that in a minute.

Weekly Wonderings – July 12th, 2021

So our house is currently in the process of having things fixed and being prettied up to sell. We’re very fluid on a departure date in August; such is life with selling a house. However, the housing market certainly looks good for sellers. We saw a house sold just a street over for a good amount of money last month. From what I gather in just reading the news, the materials needed to build new houses have increased in price due to some trade decisions made during the Trump administration. As a result, prebuilt homes have much more value, so I think we picked a good time to do this. If we can get what we’re asking for (or maybe higher?), we’ll walk away with a more than comfortable amount of money to set up a new life in a new country. I am looking forward to when we reach departure day and just relax a bit, and experience a society where people are shown more value.

Weekly Wonderings – July 5th, 2021

One of the things I love about my wife is how we are very in sync when there is a big goal. With the move coming up, we have created a shared Google calendar to post milestones and deadlines so by the time we are boarding that plane, not a single loose end is left. I think, for whatever reason, we do an excellent job of pushing our egos aside to get things done. I don’t think we have a perfect marriage because no one does at the end of the day. There are always sore points in any relationship, but it is essential to recognize those strengths when you see them. I think it helps that we believe the same things when it comes to our fundamental belief systems. That’s why married couples on drastically different ends of the political spectrum make zero sense to me. How can one person believe that the planet is dying because of humanity’s actions and the other think no big deal? And they could have kids together?! I always expect those sorts of relationships to not be long for this world.

Weekly Wonderings – June 28th, 2021

We finally have our tentative moving date: August 18th. Things have opened up enough now that we can enter our new home country. We went through the calendar and made a list of checkpoints between now and then to have a clear map of where we are going and how to get there. There’s a lot of things to do. Some can be done right away; others will take time to get done. Overall, we are both very excited because it’s clear that things in the United States are not going well. As I write this, the Pacific Northwest is being swallowed by a historical heatwave. Residential air conditioning in that region isn’t equipped for that level of heat; I don’t imagine our air conditioning in the Southeast would stand up to temps in the 110+ range either. I don’t think we can outrun the climate collapse, but my wife and I are of the mind that we want to be somewhere where we can live out our lives comfortably for however much longer we have on this planet.