Proof of life

Folks, it's been Real Quiet here for a few reasons - I've been slamming through some work that needs doing by early June to keep my "ok also I will end this summer PREPARED for the coming year" course on track, and it also turns out that the several articles I read about digital nomadry back post-vaccine when I was daydreaming about working my day job from afar were entirely right in their assertion that "maybe you want to do this somewhere other than Greece, on account of the wifi, she is a-notta-so-good." 

 But as much as any of that, it's also that in the wake of the latest utterly senseless and brutal slaughter of human beings in Texas, I have had a real hard time feeling like posting about Gosh Islands Sure Are Certain Ways. I had a dim memory of a gun-related mass killing happening in my first month abroad back in 2016, but had to go back into the archives to see which one it was. (A good feeling, that.) It was Orlando. (Do you remember which one that was?) Needless to say, what I wrote then is true now: it feels strange and impotent to be so far from home when things like this happen, but increasingly these events stir up infuriatingly helpless feelings, knowing that our country is populated by just enough cultish monsters who prefer to sacrifice hundreds-to-thousands of human beings to the altar of But I Deserve A Very Cool Gun to ensure that nothing will ever happen. I hope I'm wrong, but given that horrible people across America continue to feel this way in the wake of multiple murder sprees at elementary schools, I... am not optimistic. Regardless, it remains important to do what you can to fight the tide even in these mid-fascist times, and so... you know, there's that donation sidebar to the right, to which I'm adding Everytown (please reach out if you know of a better, more efficient, or more-targeted organization) and hope you'll throw them some bones if you're able.

I will, eventually, get back to the main business of this blog (documenting transnational stupidity on my part and marveling at, like, "did you know they have sandwiches in Italy, they just call them different things, pianos I think") in the coming days, since I know it's helpful to have an escape. Thanks for hanging in there while I get myself sorted. And be kind to yourselves and others (save fascists) while we endure whatever these coming months entail...