These Are The Days

Two graduations, time loops & nostalgia, a heat wave, happy & sad tears & a handful of great books...

We’re in a heat wave—I don’t have to tell you that. Most of the country is hot right now, but I will say that city hot is different than other kinds of hot…a friend yesterday categorized it as “proper chaotic/feral urban summer”—and she meant that in a positive way. She’s a long-time city girl, and this is just what she wants for summertime.

It was 99 degrees in our neighborhood this week. On Tuesday, I ventured out only once, in the evening, to the bodega for LaCroix, Gatorade, Coke, ice cream bars. I cooked strategically, using as many of the frozen leftovers I’ve been building up from recipe testing, turning on the stove as minimally as possible to make rice and pasta to go alongside pints of chicken tinga, spicy green curry, creamy black beans. I’m pushing electrolytes on everyone, and in a flash of brilliance, I put a sheet mask in the freezer last night—gamechanger!

They say the heat will break tomorrow, and I hope it does—the city feels stretched, taut, tense, and the Midwesterner in me would love a wild, loud thunderstorm to cut through the heat.

Both boys graduated on Monday, and my friend Brannon texted me because her daughter just finished her junior year—tell me everything, she said—it’s a thing, right?