House Sitting, Long Haul Flights, and Werewolves
23-30th March 2025
Hey guys,
The end of March - April can be a messy time of year. It is eclipse season and spring is starting. Stuff from the past tends to come up a lot, as if the slate has to be clean in order to move forward into a new season. This is definitely the theme for me this week.
I’ll tell you about how ALL MY DREAMS WERE DESTROYYEEDD, my flashbacks to long haul flights as a kid, and some media(s).
I hope the grace of god compels you.
Happy reading!
Now That I Think About It
Uncertainty can be very… uncertain. A few months ago I formulated a plan to go house sitting around the world. I got offered an amazing opportunity to look after a little cat in San Jose, California, not far from San Francisco. As I wouldn’t need to factor in accommodation costs, I had more freedom to look into making this a proper bucket list experience with trips to places such as Yosemite or Santa Cruz.
As I was planning this there started to be a slow drip of news articles highlighting Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Then, tourists from previously ‘friendly’ countries started being heavily questioned, their phones searched, and on a few too many occasions people ended up in ICE detention centres. There was also more and more evidence to suggest the USA was becoming somewhere it wasn’t wise to go at all.
Nevertheless, I persisted, with a bit of hope that I was just being paranoid. However the nail in the coffin came when I found out a British tourist who had been house sitting and volunteering was sent to an ICE detention centre for three weeks and sent home on a plane in handcuffs.
Turns out house/pet sitting is a murky area legally as some countries class it as work (providing a service in exchange something in kind) and therefore this breaches the terms of a tourist visa. I had no idea about this. In most countries, there is no work visa that covers house sitting but the house sitting websites keep this very quiet, choosing instead to sell much more of a ‘travel the world on a budget’ vibe (most likely to encourage more people to sign up to their membership).
Everything had been lining up for me to transition into this new pace of life and suddenly my eyes had been opened. Now that I had done my research I had a decision to make - lie at the border of a country descending into fascism, or cancel my flight. Guess what I chose.
So here I am, writing from a detention centre (kidding). No, now my travel plans have been scuppered. Something about me is I love a plan and without one I start to spin out a little bit. Luckily, wellness coach Kari Dahlgren taught me a tool which I use in times like this called the ‘Stop, Drop, and Feel’ method. It essentially involves sitting in your discomfort for a few minutes and letting the emotions pass through you, rather than reaching for things to numb or escape the situation. She’s a gem of a person and I find her newsletters extremely compassionate and accessible, especially if you have ever struggled with emotional eating. I will be using this tool as often as I can to try and live in the moment and making new plans for the future.
First Class On A Plane
Once when I was a kid we got bumped up to first class on a long haul flight. I remember the journey being very special and different to what I was used to. More space, more things given to me. However, something strange happened when the plane landed. The air stewards opened the curtain for us to leave the plane first, while those in economy seats waited for us across the hallway. As I walked past the group of people held back, my stomach dropped. An uneasy and shameful feeling washed over me.
As we were walking through the terminal my parents commented on how smooth the journey had gone and how much fun it had been to be treated as special. I was still reeling. What on earth was that? Why was I just paraded in front of half the plane like some kind of royalty?
I recently booked a flight (and then swiftly cancelled it, as previously discussed) and the memory of the economy class line came back to me. It still to this day makes me feel queasy to see overt displays of wealth and privilege. Especially when we are all much more aware of the human and environmental abuses required to become wealthy. While I understand it is normal to want to live a good quality of life, wealth at the expense of others is not wealth at all.
I know it is ridiculous to think that economy passenger are unhappy when it is a form of great wealth to be able to afford a ticket on a plane at all - but it is horrible that there is a comfortable part of the plane and an uncomfortable one. That a person’s quality of life can be impacted by something as fickle as luck or money. Competing with others for basic human rights is a lose-lose situation. It is a life of fear and battle, always looking over your shoulder thinking who is going to be the one to bring me down and leave me in the dust. There is no empathy, no team work, no compassion, in that way of living.
Do you know what I think is an indicator of wealth? Hanging around with people who care about the world, who care about themselves and therefore care about you. Once you have people who care, there is no fear, because you look after one another. Why are fighting when we there is enough for all of us?
Consumption Corner
☆ Je ne spoil pas ☆ (no spoilers)
Severance Season 2 Finale (2022-, Dan Erickson) ☆☆☆☆
This show does an amazing job at validating the feelings I had working in office jobs eg. this place is fucking nuts and I do not feel like myself here. The finale was good but I do not understand how it can continue into season three like that!
Last One Laughing UK (2025, Initial) ☆☆☆☆
Richard Ayoade goes to comedic lengths that I’ve never previously seen before. He is an assassin and so deeply hilarious it makes me jealous.
Queen of Shadows (2015, Sarah J. Mass) ☆☆☆☆
Deeply cathartic to read 650 pages of a woman absolutely owning every man she meets.
Logan (2017, James Mangold) ☆☆☆
EWWWWW THIS IS SO GORY (Hugh Jackman is a very good actor).
Weekly Stats
Vegan Colin (Vic) the Caterpillars consumed: 3
Epsom salt baths: 2
Times I had my patience tested by a man: 5
Times I thought ‘wow, wouldn’t it cool to be a fish’: every damn day
Is Henry the Hoover named after President Hoover??!!!: no (his name was Herbert)
House plants watered: all
Next Week On The Rickleverse …
I fancy writing a longer piece of my thoughts on weight, exercise, and the body. But .. we’ll see. Each week is a bit of a mystery now that I am in limbo.
Love you thanks for reading,
Rachael
