Hi-ho readers,
The title is very strange, but I didn’t sleep last night, and it was a phrase I could not get out of my head.¹
Since I last wrote, I spent one more week at my mom’s and some glorious time at the beach, then I came home and made my first trip into Manhattan since March 11. Nothing exciting, just a doctor’s appointment, but something crackled in me. My doctors are all around the same 14th Street area, which is also where I worked before quarantine sent us home (and me into a new job that I have not yet visited in person). I felt like I was playing hooky, and wondering if I’d see any of my colleagues, before remembering that I don’t work there any more and that no one else is there, either. I have never seen the subway floors so clean in my New York career, and I scarfed down a Donut Pub cruller with great enthusiasm after my blood draw.
I recently ordered some personalized stationery, and was excited to write my first letter on it, through a pen pal exchange facilitated by Rachel Syme. The notecards have pigeons on them, and they are the frivolous purchase I’ve enjoyed the most over the past few months. I highly recommend Papier for all of your weird stationery needs.
I’ve made a cleaning schedule for my apartment, in order to have something to do every day besides work, which is sad, but whatever works. I’ve spread out the tasks into weekly, monthly, etc. and picked days of the week to carry them out. It’s amazing how much grime an apartment still collects with two largely sedentary people as residents. Also, if you have a cleaning product you simply can’t live without, I’m open to recommendations.
Media Diet
- What Is It About a Dyke at Summer Camp? (Shira Erlichmann / Catapult)²
- Almost Everything I Looked Up in a Week (Caity Weaver / The New York Times)³
- Marie Faustin creating a whole universe of a character with a single wig.
- Transit chimes by chord interval (Denise Lu)
- My friend Ciara Sidell appeared on NY1 (aka my dream) to talk about managing the Randall’s Island Park Alliance Urban Farm, and how they’ve responded to the need for food during COVID-19.
- On Caroline Polachek, Carly Rae Jepsen, & the Ecstatic Agony of Crushing (Aline Dolinh)⁴
- Mandy Patinkin deleting his wife’s spam emails.
Songs in My Heart (with playlist)⁵
- Insomnia – Caroline Polachek
- Walk Alone – Laura Marling
- breathin – Ariana Grande
- You Never Loved Me – Aimee Mann
- Tomorrow Tomorrow – Elliott Smith
- O Dreaded C Town – Frankie Cosmos
- Attack of Panic – Aly & AJ
Progress isn’t linear but I’m feeling better today! I hope you’re finding your motivation to get out of bed, whether it’s your cleaning schedule or your dog or getting ice cream.
See you in two,
Emily
P.S. here’s a laugh.
¹ Did you know that Hellmann’s is called “Best Foods” west of the Rockies?? WHAT??
² Mine was named Cass. She wore basketball shorts and was two years older. She’s since grown up into a full-fledged butch and played college rugby.
³ Part of the NYT‘s Notes from Our Home to Yours series. Caity is one of my favorite writers (previously at GQ and the late great Gawker (1, 2) and has successfully replicated a similar experience to my own, which is constantly Googling things while having text conversations with my friends.
⁴ I found this brand new newsletter, Artificial Devotional, from a friend and it was everything I didn’t know I needed.
⁵ These songs are about how I, more or less, experience anxiety!