NYC Pandemic Re-Awakening - April to Present

 May 21

Finally checked out the Lincoln Center Green, their re-imagined public plaza. It was a lovely place to chill on a beautiful day. A soft bed of turf is so much nicer than the usual cement and stone.

May 19

One covid silver lining is that attending long community board meetings for work is much more comfortable!

May 14

As I continue to mark the moments of re-awakening I want to note that I AM WEARING LIPSTICK! As the CDC loosens mask requirements and I am able to show off my face again, I am ready to bring out my best! #itsthelittlethings

Pandemic Life - February to March

March 27th

A year has passed and NY is re-awakening but these are a few more photos from February and March that I want added to my official pandemic 1st year record. At this point I get daily Facebook memories reminding me the craziness that was happening a year ago. It’s definitely helping me reflect on what we have been through and the changes we have made. Wow! Now just keep wearing a mask and being careful and we will pull past this!

March 9

Covid means smaller birthday gatherings spread over multiple nights! That means lots of safe in-person fun! So happy to be hanging tonight with my BID colleagues, without whom I never would have survived this pandemic! And doing it at Fanelli Cafe, which had offered us a place for cold beverages and fun all along the way, adapting as time went on. Yay NoHo and SoHo and surviving this thing!

March 6

Thank you for all the birthday greetings. I love hearing from everyone, especially this year, where our virtual connections are more important than ever. I spent my Saturday birthday volunteering at the Manos Que Dan, Reciben Bendiciones food pantry like I always do. After 8 months, the people there have become my covid family and yesterday they rose up and surprised me with a cake and some delicious Ecuadorian aguardiente. One covid silver lining for me has been befriending all these folks while working hard each week with them to serve our community during these especially dark times.

March 5

Oh how times have changed in a year! We sure didn’t know what was coming!! This year we had to take a few more precautions at my birthday drinks. #maintainyourdistance #wearamask #alcoholkillsthegerms

February 17

11 months... Ugh, remember when we thought we were just going home for two weeks... then two months... Now it seems silly to plan for the future, since I don’t know what that will look like. So I double mask and continue to live my new normal and hope that the vaccine will finally arrive in meaningful numbers and that enough people will take it. February in NYC is never great. Covid doesn’t help. But the blanket of snow that keeps falling a little more every couple of days sure is pretty and listening to kids play and laugh in it feels healing. And indoor dining opened up to 25% again this past weekend, so hopefully that will help restaurants survive. I don’t want to eat inside, but apparently others do. Meanwhile I still like the adventure of bundling up and eating and drinking outside. Stay healthy everyone. We’ll get through this!

February 12

With so many public celebrations being turned virtual, I was so happy that my favorite Chinese New Year tradition, when lions and drummers come out to bless the businesses in Manhattan Chinatown, still happened today. There definitely was a smaller crowd, but there still plenty of celebration in the air. Happy Year of the Ox!

February 11

Multi-tasking during a work Zoom... And now my Valentine’s Day mask is ready! Let the celebrations begin!

Pandemic Summer Vacation: Maine and Massachusetts

Beautiful Maine. Walks in the woods. Lobster rolls everyday. Cute roadside statues. Beaches. Time with family and friends. And a little politics added in. 🤩 You all know me. I can’t help myself.

Massachusetts; Boston, Lexington and Marblehead: thanks for stirring my patriotic heart. So many things made me think about our nations founding in comparison to where we stand today. Monuments, the nautical coastland and beautiful old buildings made for beautiful eye candy on this trip.

And now why I really went. Sure cool temps and walks in the woods are alluring, but the real reason I went was because LaGuardia opened a new terminal during the pandemic and I wanted to see it and experience flying in these crazy times. I also was curious to see how different states are handling Covid. In general most people were wearing masks everywhere I went. It was fun to see more outdoor eating setups, especially the ones on big front lawns and parking lots. Both MA and ME have limited capacity indoor eating and on my last day I ate inside, albeit alone.  I continue to hope the legacy of the pandemic is much more outdoor dining. It really livens up all streets. All in all, I had successful hopefully virus free trip, pumped a little money into the tourist economy, got to experience travel during Covid times and got to eat a lot of lobster rolls. Good times.

If you want to see more pictures from my trip, click HERE.

Life in the Time of Coronavirus

During the Covid-19 pandemic, much of my existence has been within a 3-4 mile perimeter of my home. I've been walking around Queens at 7am every morning getting exercise before anyone comes out, the covid-safe way. I've been able to get to know the area on a very micro level and have been documenting it all in my walks. Now, these photos remind me how much has changed in such time. I'm happy to have a photo diary to look back at. And it's been fun to be able to share the local NY experience of living in the epicenter zip code of the pandemic. The photos can't capture the swirling sound of ambulances that felt nearly constant for a few weeks, but they do show signs of survival and perseverance. 

I loved Jackson Heights before, but now I feel like the Grinch as my heart has expanded multiple times. I feel so lucky to live in a place where the community was out there ready to respond to neighbors needs. You will see many photos of people standing in lines waiting for food, but you will also see us volunteering putting together those bags of food. I also love all the signs and rainbows people put in their windows. We are #JacksonHeightsStrong and #NYStrong.

As time has gone by I got on my bike and then on the subway and got back into Manhattan, so my weekly covid story because a tale of two very divergent neighborhoods. Bustling diverse Jackson Heights with many essential businesses and lots of people getting through their days in attempted socially distanced ways and NoHo, where the residents and workers have decamped and thus most everything is closed and quiet. And then when the looting happened NoHo showed even more despair. Tomorrow June 22nd, re-opening begins, and I hope NoHo will be able to wake up the way Jackson Heights has and that we all will be able to find a new covid normal going forward.

But whatever happens, I'll be here, being present and doing what I can to help the city I love.

Click HERE to see my Facebook Album of Photos from the Covid-19 Pandemic