Assorted thoughts from the train

Alexa, play "Young Folks"

I am writing this from a train between Boston and New York. To six different people today, I have texted: ‘going to pull into Penn Station on a train today, living like Serena Van Der Woodsen in 2007!!!!’ This is my third trip this month (two for work, one for hols), which would have felt like a wildly indulgent way to live, even in the Before Times, but now it just feels surreal. And a little bit risky.

It’s me, bébé!

Here are some quick questions, from someone who moved out of the States almost nine years ago, and only seems to come back at charged political moments (Oct. 2016, fall 2018, this week).

• Why are urban centres in America so soulless and empty?

• Why are the trains here nicer than British trains? No one takes them! Who are they making it nice for?

• Why is tax added at the end, instead of included in the sticker price? (This is so annoying.)

• Why do the officers who stamp your passport at the airport need a gun?

• Why is this kid behind me yelling so much?

• Why doesn’t the U.K. have as many water bottle filling stations as America does? Everyone has a water bottle! It would be nice to just have them around on the street in London, imo.

• Why do people crank the AC so, so, so much in the summer? It’s so hard to dress for.

Anyway, on illness but also everything else

The America I moved away from in 2014 feels gone, just gone now.

It’s a weird (bad) time! Even aside from the successive Supreme Court decisions. Aside from the fact that the airports just don’t work anymore. Aside from the bad summer weather. Aside from the school shootings, and the people outside of the U.S. making noise about how they want more of this where they are, and the lack of accountability for anything, and the general malaise and hopelessness that is so hard for everyone to shake because of course it is.

Aside from all of that, I think it would still be a weird time. Did we ever pause to process our collective pandemic experience? All the death and the chronic illness — and even if you avoided that, the year and a half we spent isolated from each other? Did we stop for a breath for even a moment?

And when did we just decide to stop having compassion for people who were just getting sick? And why are people still showing up sick to things and saying ‘oh don’t worry it’s not Covid, I tested’? I still don’t want your generic-brand cold!

Here is what I am wondering: How are we avoiding illness this summer? And how are we holding hope?

Some things I’ve gotten into since I last sent this newsletter in March

• The Unpublishable, a newsletter by Jessica DeFino, a journalist who writes about skincare and beauty from an anti-establishment/pro-climate lens. I’ve basically stopped using skincare since I started reading her, and guess what my skin is fine!

• Circe by Madeline Miller, a Greek mythology novel which is probably the best book I’ve read this year?

• A little magnetic whiteboard that we put on the fridge on which I write our grocery list throughout the week as we run out of things. Intuitive! Efficient! Easy!

• Roasting chickpeas in a lil bit of salt, turmeric, and chilli until they are crunchy and then putting them on salads.

• Speaking of salads, mixing harissa into my go-to salad dressing of tahini, lemon, and olive oil.

Some favourites of: she’s a 10, but

Mollie Goodfellow @hansmollman

she's a six but she's twenty-seven years old, has no money and no prospects, is already a burden to her parents and she's frightened

Parks and Recreation @parksandrec

He's a 10 but he bankrupted a city after running for mayor when he was 18

Rachel McCartney @RachelMComedy

She's a ten but she's actually two fives stacked in a trench coat

Viktor Winetrout @Cpin42

She's a 10 but she lures sailors to their death with her enchanted song

And finally, a cause I can get behind:

megan @chismosavirus

they should let you wear biker shorts to work