M, the friend who was our last guest before people stopped going to each other's places - it was March 15th, the eve of New York City's shelter in place - came over from Brooklyn today! We had negronis and nibblies, and gave him some sourdough starter to take home, and a donut peach we picked up at a farm market on our way back from Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Just like old times! And, since we arranged to sit rather far apart, we were unmasked.What an unaccustomed pleasure! (March 15th is four and a half months ago!!) I've seen two friends in person these last months but always masked. (The exception were the friends who took us to the Rockefeller Preserve six weeks ago, incidentally also the provenance of our sourdough starter.) It's actually pretty disconcerting to sit on adjacent park benches with a friend, her voice and face muffled by a mask. Online you can't be with people but at least you can see them smile! (Goodness knows how we'd all be faring without the real comforts of FaceTime, zoom, etc.) So being able to be with someone and see him smile was quite the treat!
Reflecting on the weirdness that we can see the expressions on the faces of people we care about but only when we're not physically with them, M named what's still missing: "I miss seeing stranger's faces."
