Rage Relief Kit #3: Dissociating in the Desert By Removing Yourself From the Group Chat

We're planning wars on Signal, y'all! On Signal. ON SIGNAL! But at Rage Relief Kit, we're all about relieving you of the pain, not making you experience it! So if you want to know what on earth I'm writing about (bless your heart if you don't know. Maybe you shouldn't click?), read here about how The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg got added to the Make America Go to War Again group chat.

Because we don't have a so-called "meritocracy" but a confederacy of dunces, I've been seriously considering spending most of this summer anywhere but in the States. Not that I'm Nostradamus and know what's going to happen this summer. I do know that unemployment is only going to get worse, the youth are disaffected, and the government workers no longer have job security, meaning there will be a lot of people, in the heat, with nothing better to do than burn everything down.

But I won't be joining my fellow "woke mob" members at our monthly meetings on how to turn immigrants trans or whatever they think we do. (We mostly just complain about Chuck Schumer while others do nothing because the woke mob IS NOT REAL.) But what is real is disassociating.

Sort of. Kind of.

It's not a strategy — it's a self-preservation tactic. One cannot be exposed to absolute nonsense 24/7 and think they can come out fresh as a daisy. We are being damaged spiritually, mentally, and physically by this constant assault on everything we care about by careless people who "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness ... and let other people clean up the mess they had made." (Shout out to F. Scott Fitzgerald.) So I went to Todos Santos, Mexico, with my friend Yesha Callahan and stayed at Hidden Leaf Baja, a gorgeous estate in Baja California Sur owned by a Black woman and Haitian Brooklynite, Katia Pierre-Louis.

Escape from New York

Pierre-Louis essentially left New York for Mexico in early 2020 to relieve herself of corporate burnout, and then COVID-19 happened. So she just stayed there, building a brand new life for herself.

“Living in Mexico full time gave me more of an opportunity to just live at a different pace and live a lifestyle than the hustle and bustle of being in the city–hopping on trains and having back-to-back meetings,” she told BET.com.

As soon as I got to Hidden Leaf, I felt the stress leave my body. I stopped worrying and started living again, enjoying the sun, the beaches, the Michelin-starred restaurants, the culture, and the people. I also finally used those seven years of "Peggy Hill Spanglish" I learned in school.

(Spanish is the only other language I kind of know. I also speak terrible, broken Portuguese. Hence, when I visited Paris for the first time in 2019, I kept saying "hola" instead of "bonjour" because that's what my American mind wanted to do.)

But I needed the sweet, sweet relief of Mexico because my current home of New York City is quite overwhelming at times. Especially considering I'm a suburban Midwesterner with a delicate constitution. My fear of filthy pigeons, rats, and roaches is real. I'm also a complete and total princess. I'm used to my old woodsy backyard in Hathaway Manor North, where there were rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, owls, blue jays, robins, and chickadees, turning me into a pint-sized Sleepy Beauty, singing to the animals.

Nobody wants to sing to pigeons and rats, yo. Nobody wants to dance with roaches.

But the only creatures I had to deal with in Todos Santos were speedy chipmunks, ants, and the occasional stray (or collared) dog. Much more my speed. We also went to Cabo San Lucas for a yacht day and saw whales.

Life. Complete.

The 10-year-old inside of me who was OBSESSED with sea mammals was thrilled. For the record, my favorite whales are orcas, but I love all whales, dolphins, porpoises, and many other sea creatures. Humpback whales? So cool. I rooted for the sperm whale in Moby Dick, a terrible book. Free Willy? Yes. Set Willy free!

Cue the Michael Jackson!

Lastly, this trip was why I took last week off, and why there were zero out of zero new posts on ANTISOCIAL. But I'm back now, and will somewhat return to normal posting, until I run away again. Possibly back to Todos Santos with the whales, chipmunks, and dogs, where I'll become Blaxican Sleepy Beauty, and dance the dance of the desert while the vultures circle and the coyotes howl. But they won't get me. They're my friends in this paradise I dance in while Rome burns.

Quick hits

• Read Yesha's Substack, where she gives up the richness of Black womanhood to become a mediocre white man. (I Identify As a Problem)
• DEI was good for business in Hollywood, and yet, they're ditching it to their own demise. Will the rush to appease harm the industry's bottom line? All signs at The Wrap point to "yes." (TheWrap)
• Americans were already spending more time at home pre-pandemic, but 2020 accelerated the trend, and now the "always online, never off" homebody is our way of life. (Fast Company)
• Is it RHOA or Love & Hip Hop Atlanta? I don't care. I'm just glad it's not boring this season so far! (Peacock)
• Did you know I'm on Threads and BlueSky? I'm also on Instagram. Gimme a lil' follow, eh?