Remember how we were all too busy? A month ago, what with work and life and everything those two dueling entities entailed, there was never enough time to catch up with all the people I needed to catch up with.
And I wanted to, I really did. I was finally going to have drinks with that editor. My college friends, a group of us who had spent a spring semester together in Italy 20 years ago, were definitely going to get together for dinner. It was not a question of would, but when. It had been so long! And sometimes, one of us would cancel at the last moment. I did! But there was so much else to do.
It felt like I could never keep up, never give the people I cared about enough time while also being able to save some of it for myself. We were all so damn busy. There were meetings, lunches, Pilates in a studio!
With people! In March, my calendar goes dark after a visit to the periodontist. A state of emergency was declared for New Yorkโall things must stop. Then something funny happens. My calendar picks back up again, peppered with things to doโall of them virtual. To be totally honest, the first online happy hour was awkward. We got better at it, though. Talking in front of our devices from our own homes became more normal, if not natural. Yes, I can talk! My calendar got full.
I suddenly had a standing video chat every Wednesday with the college friends from my study-abroad program. Two different online writers groups agreed to meet on a recurring, monthly basis. There was an every-Saturday-evening Zoom with my best high school friends; we commiserated about isolation and exhaustion and online workouts as some of our kids popped by to wave at the cameras. My parents, social distancing in Florida, and I started sending each other texts every evening, photographing what we cooked for dinner as inspiration and a way to share a meal despite the 1, miles between us.
