The last time IÂ âwent outâ
On March 11, my friend Gaby and I decided to get a spontaneous drink at Burnside, a bar where Iâve had drinks maybe 276 times since I moved to New York. Burnside has many great qualities, but in particular I like its emptiness. I dislike crowds in general (unless itâs the Pitchfork Music Festival), and especially when Iâm trying to catch up with someone in relative quiet.Â
I got there around 5:30, and as anticipated, nobody was there. All day weâd been reading about COVID-19, and talking about COVID-19, so what we did was talk about it some more. I had learned a friend of mine was waiting to hear if sheâd been diagnosed; Gaby was thinking about going to the grocery store that evening to pick up food. I had gone earlier that day, because I live across the street from one. I remember that we discussed it as a potentially very bad situation, but not one that would morph into disaster for at least a few weeks, or longer. We really believed that. We also talked about her work, as well as my work, and the bar was surprisingly full by the time we left. (I could recall more of what we talked about but Iâm particularly hungover at the moment, hence why Iâm blogging.)Â
Anyways, I got home, and sat down to watch television in my semi-drunk state, when that barrage of news occurred â the NBA being suspended because a player got sick, and Tom Hanks announcing heâd caught it â within 10 minutes of each other. I do not think Iâm alone in saying that this is when it became suddenly ârealâ for me â not that I hadnât taken it seriously before, but this was a tipping point where it became very clear how society was going to be impacted. All of a sudden, all our measured predictions seemed completely inane, and I had the drunken instinct to run back out to my grocery store to pick up some more nonperishables, including a (still unopened) bag of frozen chicken nuggets. The next day I learned my friend had indeed been diagnosed, and because of the steadily worsening news my dinner plans were canceled that Friday, as well as a birthday party I was going to on Sunday. From what Iâve learned about my friends whoâve had COVID-19, thereâs a 100% certainty I wouldâve been exposed at that birthday party.Â
Now itâs a month later, Iâve been at my girlfriendâs for all but a couple of days, and the sheltering in New York is going to last until at least May 15. Every now and then Gaby and I text each other with some variation of âremember when we got drinks?â Weâre mostly kidding, and trying to stay positive, but yes, all of the time.Â
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