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 […]
Tag: quarantine
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 […]
Past life
I miss my old life. I miss my friends. I miss the regulars at Sunday night yoga–how we would all help the teacher close down the studio after the last class and linger chatting at the door. I miss my writing class in the LES studio apartment with a drafty window. I miss the bike […]
Paradoxical thoughts
Today a kid riding his BMX bike on the sidewalk almost ran into me. I froze, deer-in-headlights and waited–hoped–for him to look up and see me (which he did). But in that brief moment I had a flash of a thought: please don’t look up. Please run me over.* I want this to be over. […]
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 […]
Telling a story: day 22
“All of [the transformative movements from the past] understood that the process of shifting cultural values–though somewhat ephemeral and difficult to quantify–was central to their work. And so they dreamed in public, showed humanity a better version of itself, modeled different values in their own behavior, and in the process liberated the political imagination and […]
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 […]
Day 19: routine
Now that I’ve finally started sleeping properly again I have fallen into what you could call…a routine. 6:30am wake up naturally, lie in bed for 15-30 minutes7am check news7:15am brush teeth wash hands drink water meditate (lol)7:45am clean any leftover dishes from last night heat water for tea sit in windowsill8:15am eat two brownies wash […]
Stay-at-home day 12: the backyard
It is nice today and all of the windows in our apartment are open. There are lines of laundry strung out between buildings, pigeons that fly too close to windows, stray cats, two kids playing soccer, a man directly below me doing tai chi in the sun, next door the neighbor tills a small garden […]
Anne Foster 