Rising through the fog

I love when fog envelops the city and the building tops peak out from what appears like a cozy snow-coloured blanket; only the blinking, moving lights of cars hint at the activity below.

The fog feels like it’s in my head too… I have Covid! Wow I can’t believe I made it nearly three years without getting it. It’s not too bad, I just feel drained and the loss of taste and smell are freaky. But on the other hand my cooking tastes amazing! Covid is very distinct from the flu I had a few weeks ago, which was much worse. I could barely get out of bed for a week. I knew it was the flu because I’d felt that same set of symptoms before. Covid felt different, and sure enough when I took the rapid antigen test, it instantly showed two bars. I was surprised, because I’d almost believed everyone telling me that these tests don’t work, but for me it worked like a charm.

I just finished reading Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, that I found in the little free library box beside Local in liberty village. She writes a fictional account of a woman’s solitude in a small Italian town, as she strolls through the piazza, reflects on her aversion to treating herself well, and is thankful for her arm’s lengths friendships that don’t require full emotional investment. There is a tone of melancholy in the pages, and I keep wondering how autobiographical the book is, as the author moved to Rome, relinquished English, and totally immersed herself in Italian. The book was written in Italian and later translated. I love how she describes her experience of watching the sunrise one morning from the roof of her building. Normally too lazy to make it up that early, she manages in the winter when the sun rises a little later.

I wait as the golden light highlights a section of the jagged contours of the hills across the way. It all happens in a matter of seconds: the sphere, so precise at the start, emerges, perfectly round, like an egg yolk that then slips from its shell. It rises methodically, turning pale as it climbs higher, though I know it’s not budging, not even by a millimeter, that it’s just an illusion, fantastical. I watch until it’s no longer possible, until it becomes too painful.

JHUMPA LAHIRI

Ordering groceries from Voila is such a treat. I used to make fun of my friend Lou because he’s too cool for the grocery store, but now I’m sold. And it even remembers all your purchases so you don’t have to search for them again the next time. When you’re isolated, things being dropped off outside your door is a sign of civilization.

I’m so excited about my trip to Portugal and Spain this summer! I can’t wait to go to Lisbon, Porto, maybe the Azores or to Madeira, Madrid, and Seville (birthplace of flamenco). I went to a show at the Aga Khan museum recently that featured a dancer from Seville, Lakshmi Basile. She was on absolute fire!!