Things that got me through This Week, 4/19 - 4/25: a List

Bliss.

- Baths at night in the dark

- Gentleness

- Sleeping in
 
- The Pad Thai, the Pad Thai, and ALL the leftover Pad Thai (we have only ordered delivery once since Quarantine began— and on April 17, the one-month mark of my return from London, we celebrated by ordering pad thai for oh: perhaps a family of 10?)

- Zoom (who knew?)

- "The Daily" podcast from The New York Times.

- Gratitude

- Deep breaths

- This blog

- Seeing new growth on the new Chinese Money Tree I was sure I sun-scorched to death. (A metaphor?)

- Not passing a single scrap of judgment on my sleep schedule, outfit choices, or lack thereof.

- Alec and Tati 

Alec (+Tati) in our newly painted room!

- Mom

- Marco Polo (I like to see faces and hear voices and be in contact, but sometimes doing it LIVE [say, on FaceTime] is stressful. Thanks Marco Polo. You’re an Introvert’s DREAM)

- Teaching! (Oh, the teaching.)

- Making over the apartment! (The Winter Palace is getting a GLOW UP. Hey gurl...)

- Hope

- Laughter

- Allowing huge, heaving sobs to just flow and leave me, and feeling lighter 


- Leanring a little more Hebrew, day by day!

- The new coffee maker and the (kick-ass) coffee it makes

- Unexpected mail (in the actual post) from my friends, all bursting with paper embraces and the closest thing to physical contact with others 

Amy's 40th Birthday Bash!

- One of my dearest friends, Amy Maiden's 40th birthday bash held on Zoom in AUSTRALIA. 


- Almond butter. I love you, Almond Butter.

- Therapy on the phone (even when, if not ESPECIALLY when, I was convinced I “didn’t need therapy this week” and then monologued about feelings for 90 minutes…)

- The discovery that my health insurance is waving it’s premium for the next quarter (the privilege, the privilege, the extraordinary privilege to even HAVE Health Insurance in this pathetic, broken country)

- A glorious, unexpected email from actress Ruthy Froch (Hodel in the National Tour of the Fiddler production I did on Broadway)

- The clapping and cheering for health care workers every evening at 7pm


- The homemade signs up in windows all over Astoria thanking Essential Workers, cheering on the downtrodden, and generally reminding us that we truly are in this together.
 
- Smiles from eyes, above face masks… (and the friendly "hellos" people are getting a bit braver to offer from below their masks...)

- Spring.

Oh New York. You're the best.