What I Already Miss
Going to movie theaters with squeaky seats (Angelika, BAM, Spectacle)
Going to movie theaters with non-squeaky seats (Film Forum, Quad, Regal Battery Park)
The assumed drink-and-recap after the movie
Rushing to play tennis with Paul on Friday mornings
The grumpy bartender at Spain on 13th Street
Any dinner conversation that keeps going after the check is paid. (Also, signing the check, for some reason?)
Sending someone in the office a dumb Slack message and then seeing the look on their face as they read it
Planning trips (especially ones that include swimming off the coast of somewhere with Ryan and the possibility of getting a tan)
Therapy on Thursdays + Gray’s Papaya on 72nd afterward “as a treat”
(One hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and sauerkraut and a regular Coke)
Wandering around somebody else’s neighborhood
What I Don’t Miss
Feeling guilty for deciding not to go out, ever
When TSA agents yell about what to do with your laptop and shoes
Buying things from companies I don’t respect when I’m being lazy
The L train during the morning rush
Although I guess it does have its charms
What I Won’t Miss
Cooking every. single. meal.
(Cooking three times a week = reasonable. Three times a day? Excessive)
Missing my friends while simultaneously feeling burned out on texting/FaceTiming/Zooming with them
Not knowing if my chest pain is anxiety or a Covid-19 symptom
Avoiding natural physical contact
Bang-trim purgatory
The phrase “panic buying”
The infinite loop of people feeling pressure to be productive and people telling people not to feel pressure to be productive
Being indecisive about anything happening more than a day in the future
Worrying about whether I’m adequately worried
What I Won’t Forget
Who was supportive without reservations, to me and to others
That I joined the DSA last Thursday not as an overreaction, but out of meant-to-and-should-have-done-this-earlier moral clarity
Related: Anyone deemed “essential” during this crisis deserves to be treated that way every day and my role in this is not a passive one
That “culinary improvisation” is actually not one of my skill sets
To figure out why so many male leaders start wearing baseball hats when shit gets real (exhibit A, B, and who could forget C)
To be grateful for the kind of stability that sometimes bores me
That New York is New Yorkers and nothing else
Graphic by Lorenza Centi.
