Friday, June 11, 2021

Transformations


My daughter texted yesterday that she had the day off today, and did I want to hang out. This, as you well know, puts me in my happy place, a spontaneous wander around the city with my girl. She texted me again an hour later and said "I did a good thing at my job!” She then shared that a corporate partner whom she's been cultivating since before the pandemic began had just committed to a very generous sponsorship package to feed New York's hungry. My girl is loving her job right now, even though her millennial brain tells her she's been too many years at one place. Many of her friends have skipped from job to job since graduating college, some have returned to grad school, but she's doing work that helps to secure people in need, has moved up steadily through the ranks, and has a super supportive and fair minded boss, a gift indeed. Not only that, her nonprofit agreed to let her work remotely from another city while her love is in grad school. And when she does come back to New York in a year, she'll only need to go into the office two days a week, and work from home the other three—this is the new protocol at her company. 

My son's fiancee also learned this week that the entire staff of her company will continue working remotely, so now she and my son are figuring out where they can set up office space for her in their one-bedroom apartment. One can't work from the kitchen counter or the couch and coffee table indefinitely. Meanwhile, my husband learned that everyone at the museum who took a one fifth cut in pay during quarantine by going to a four day work week, will be reinstated to five days as of July 1. All scientific staff will return to the building full time soon after. As for the magazine for which I edit, they have now put out more than a year's worth of issues with everyone working remotely, so I can't imagine they'll want to keep paying massive amounts of rent for their Brooklyn open concept office space, industrial cool and airy as it is. 

The city is being transformed in more ways than how people work. Restaurants have spilled onto sidewalks and out into the street, and the change looks to be permanent. Here's a picture of a Mexican restaurant on our block that is now mostly street side dining. The second picture is the view from where the man and I sat inside our favorite neighborhood place when we escaped our dining table co-working situation for a midday lunch earlier this week.

 
 

The kettle's whistling, and I've just run out of steam on this post. I need to go get ready to meet my girl anyway. Here's one last photo, taken by my daughter, of a woman going grey. My husband likes the silvering, and jokes that he's responsible for each and every one of those strands. I like that he likes the gray, but sometimes, I tire of it and color over it with perfect assurance that the change is only temporary, the silver always returns.


14 comments:

  1. While I type this you are probably with your daughter and her pup. Just thinking about that brings a smile to my face. I love the transformed city too. It's a lovely way to reshape the future of our restaurant experiences. It looks lovely.
    About gray hair... I started to go gray very young. It runs in my family that way. I dyed my hair once, and thought about it for a while after that. I figured if my hair goes gray, it goes gray. And so it did. My hair is silvery white now. I learned to live with it, and then I learned to love it. I see your photo and know that you will be beautiful either way.

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  2. Oh man, I LOVE GREY HAIR! Did you know that it is a trend. young women intentionally dying their hair grey and it looks amazing!

    Girl and dog- such a darling pair!

    I am liking the changes that covid brought actually, given us time to rethink how to do things and why. I like wearing masks - no colds caught every couple of months breathing cold germs on an elevator.

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  3. The thing about letting your hair go silver is that you can wear colours that didn't work before, even with gray. Or so I have found. Very freeing.
    Lucky you with your daughter. We are just coming out of a complete lockdown, and this morning my fave coffee shop has tables out on the street in front. Yes! Now, if I just had the daughter. I envy you your proximity.

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  4. it's a shame that our culture lets men age gracefully, gray hair and all, but women are supposed to look eternally young. embrace the gray, it's a badge of honor, you have survived and persevered to be where and who you are.

    it will be interesting to see what changes are permanent, where it all is in another year. hope you had a grand day with your girl.

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  5. I love grey hair now. I didn't used to. People look at me and I confuse them because I have such grey hair and I like that. People, including me, like to pigeon hole people and they're not sure what to do with me. I act immature but I have the grey hair of a granny:)

    I'm glad you're daughter is doing so well. It seems that things will be different for a long time, if we ever go back to how it used to be.

    You're such an amazing photogrpher. I am envious. We are only just starting to come out of the lockdown this month. We may have to make our way to Whyte Ave for a walk and something to eat.

    And that last photo of you is lovely. You're a beautiful woman.

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  6. It appears that all the gray I will have is a stripe across the top of my head. I was hoping it would all go that color instead of my boring brunette.
    Your daughter and Munch are so cute together.

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  7. I know without a doubt how absolutely wonderful it is to be able to spend time with a daughter/friend. It's like shining all the silver, it's like watering all the orchids. And Lady- dang but you are beautiful. My husband and I are both flying our gray and silver hairs and I look at him and I love him all the more. I don't know how he feels about MY hair but I sure do know how I feel about his.
    Grateful that I have gotten to love him long enough to see them, a bit amazed at how handsome I think he looks with them.
    And I know I have earned my silver. And I wear it with pride.

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  8. You are a gorgeous woman! I love my gray hair and have never thought of coloring it. My Grandmother went gray at a young age and I always loved her dearly so I do not have any negative notions about gray hair!

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  9. I think the grey looks great. I am almost entirely grey these days, when I actually let my hair grow out. (What little I have -- LOL.) It's a little scary how the pandemic has transformed working. It probably would have happened anyway, over time, but I wonder what all the owners of these office buildings (and the businesses that depend on them) are going to do?

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  10. I still can't quite accept I'm going grey. It suits you.

    My partner is still working from home every day, that's taken some adjustment. And now the new Delta variant is taking hold in the UK I have the feeling we may go into some form of lockdown again.

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  11. That is a beautiful photo of you, and Munch is always cute!

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  12. How good to read about the positive aspects that home office has brought about. I think we have been lucky, not like some women who had home schooling and home office all at once in a small space.
    I welcomed the opportunity and have been given the option to work from home until retirement.

    I always wanted to have at least one or two fat dramatic streaks of grey hair but as a lifelong blonde person, it's all just a mix now. I envy you!

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  13. I would truly love nothing more than to continue a hybrid work schedule. It just makes so much more sense in terms of being better for life/work balance, environmental health (less cars on the road!), and mental well-being. We're going back to the office full time, 5 days per week, as of July 1 and I'm having a bit of a hard time with it, to be honest.

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