I was going to write a bunch of posts to send myself off. Stories about all the people I met here. All the crazy things that happened. Bikes oceans mountains buildings basements rooftops. How wild it was. How I never really meant to end up here and the whole first year I felt like I […]
Tag: New York City
Sx
This year S was my best friend. I’ve had many best friends in New York City and most of them are still good friends. But the “best” part–or whoever’s number gets written down in the emergency contact space–is about timing; whoever happens to be circling with you in the eddy of New York City. It’s […]
This version of you is my favorite version
In the park I practiced handstands against a tree. People passed by with their signs, Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police, on their way to the protest. Someone in a full Spiderman costume asked if I could teach him how to do handstands. At the vigil people handed out candles and neighbors gave each […]
Characters
I took an intro to creative writing class with Sidney Offit a few years ago. He gave us an assignment. “Write the first chapter of the story of your life.” A student asked, “Does it have to be real?” Sidney shrugged. “You are all characters to me.” There is: a man on the first floor […]
Parents and guardians: keep your kids out of the bike lane
September evening, Manhattan dinner date. I put on a dress and took the bike route that led to the Williamsburg Bridge. It was a refreshing post-summer night and I was listening to music and having a GREAT TIME. The Williamsburg Bridge has completely separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians to cross. Pedestrians enter the bridge […]
A quarantine compromise
There are four of us in our apartment. When the pandemic hit, one of us went to live with his girlfriend. That left three. One, a hypochondriac (and I mean that in the best way possible). Two, a public health professionial. And three, a classic American turd (that’s me). One and two were pretty into […]
Dating vignettes: a pandemic
We met in early March (online!). I don’t date online very much and I was not feeling very optimistic. It is a bunch of people with mostly the same face asking if you want to go to a show. But then someone asked me if I wanted to knit at the library. And I can’t […]
The bike hug (for reference)
I thought I wrote a post about this a long long time ago, but actually I did not. The bike hug: a very slow bike crash that results in something more like a hug than an injury. Example: One day, in a far away land a long time ago. (Crown Heights! Last year!) I was […]
Experiments in social distancing (quarantine day: unknown)
A few days a week I run to the top of the tallest hill by my house. (Oh have I mentioned?–I’m a runner now.) The road that goes up the hill is quiet. There are few houses and no shops. A long long time ago glaciers inched across New York State slowly pushing rocks aside […]
Day 20: the collective, the enforcer
Welcome to our brand new world! In a matter of weeks a country of over 300 million people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and belief systems has put itself on lockdown. (Mostly.) While a giant Cheeto tries to sell malaria drugs from his pulpit, local officials and individuals enforce the greatest national feat that I […]
