WHO WE’LL BE AFTER THIS
Quarantine has reminded me how fun it is to talk on the phone
My grandparents used to make spontaneous phone calls. They were also people who stopped by the neighbors’ house unannounced — something I can’t imagine anyone I know actually doing. Whenever I read a magazine offering tips for “unexpected guests” like “Always have frozen cookie dough in the freezer in case of company,” I think, “I cannot fathom a universe in which my friends would do this.”
But I’ve seen us all become a lot more grandparent-esque in the past couple months in our communication styles. Like my grandfather, to whom it didn’t seem to occur that someone would ever be…
THINGS I MISS
Why it’s possible to feel nostalgic for something that’s terrible and sad
In Regular Times, walking home through the East Village on the first warm evening of spring would be like swimming upstream. Groups of people would drink spritzes and rosés in the open-air bars on St. Mark’s Place. My neighborhood would normally be a noisy, multi-block fashion show of tourists and NYU students debuting their warm-weather ensembles.
But last week I took a walk around the East Village on a lovely, springy night and heard birds and the rustle of trees (debuting their new green leaves). It felt romantic even though, or maybe because, I was alone. It was nice to…
THINGS I MISS
The best part of my apartment was always coming back from outside
I bought my canary-yellow bar cart a little over a year ago, during a time when my days looked fairly similar to how they do now: I was home for weeks on end, rarely venturing outside.
I’d devoted a month to the project of freezing my eggs, a decision I made after my last breakup, and the recovery from the egg-harvesting procedure involved a lot of sitting on my couch. I was in pain and felt dizzy, so it didn’t feel safe to stray very far.
I’m not a homebody; it’s unusual for me to spend that much time indoors…
THINGS I MISS
Effortless interactions are hard when everyone is wearing a mask
At my local wine shop the other day, I clumsily followed the list of procedures to buy a bottle of wine: Present the bottle to the cashier; sanitize hands before swiping card; use a sanitized pen to sign; put the pen in the “used” jar; bag your own bottle. “Too many rules!” I exclaimed, laughing at myself. The cashier gave me a stern look and grimly reprimanded, “These rules are very important.”
Just two months ago, I was buying wine from that same cashier and he let me use a paint pen to write a birthday message for my friend…
THINGS I MISS
When we don’t have the big plans to look forward to, it’s time to focus on the small pleasures
This reminds me of ending a relationship. There’s always that moment after a split when you look over your calendar and realize how many plans aren’t actually going to happen. There’s the concert we won’t be attending together at the end of the month. There’s the weekend trip we can’t refund. There’s the movie coming out that we’d been looking forward to before we stopped being a “we.”
In the harsh moment when you realize that the year will look very different than you imagined, the calendar looks sad and empty. The year suddenly seems endless, hazy, and full of…
THINGS I MISS
Turns out, having a sense of certainty about the future was always a luxury
Recently I watched a Broad City episode in which people were lined up outside a bakery for a macaron/churro pastry combo. It made me laugh — over-the-top pastry trends have been such a thing in New York City for the past few decades — but the scene also felt jarring. I realized I was worrying for everyone standing in line: They weren’t respecting social distancing!
“Imagine going out without a mask,” I think, only to remember that I was doing that last month. “Imagine not sanitizing your hands when you walk through the door.” …
Things I Miss
My phobia of flying has been replaced by something bigger
In my old New York City life, the one that no longer exists, I used to watch planes fly one by one, in a stoic parade on their way to JFK Airport. I’d wonder about the people inside: some going home, some landing in a foreign place, some who would soon be sitting at a deathbed, some about to get too drunk a wedding, some who’d sleep alone in a hotel on a lonely business trip.
I miss doing that. Now, when I see the occasional plane (I counted only three yesterday), my shoulders tighten. Nobody on that plane gracefully…
Great Escape
An illustrated guide to being somewhere else when you can’t be somewhere else
Even New York’s die-hard defenders want to flee the city come summer. When popsicle-colored dreams of warm afternoons watching kids run through gushing fire hydrants fade, we’re left with all the obligations and dress codes of regular life — plus the added challenge of enduring tropical subway stations. An air conditioner always breaks, a promise of summer love goes flat like a soda left out in the sun, ambitious walks home are overwhelmed by packs of tourists and layers of sirens and an unexpected rainstorm. …
But have you tried Coffee Meets Bagel?, married friends suggest when I complain about the bleak landscape of online dating. There are good men out there, the internet assures me after yet another male artist I trusted with my admiration has come out as a sexual predator. Call your representatives, my phone reminds me, and my brain reacts, “Sure, one more time,” only to mentally step back and realize it hasn’t even been a year of phone calls yet.
