I have completely forgotten what life was like before the pandemic. The past comes in waves, small little spontaneous memories of movie theaters and mask-less outings.
“Oh! Remember that time we went to that concert?”
“It was a whole lifetime ago.”
So when I mention “The Best Burger in New York,” I’m not talking about an actual NYC burger, but rather a nostalgic “How I Met Your Mother” episode of the same title. Over quarantine, I enjoyed completing my lifelong goal of eating a burger while simultaneously watching the episode. It was a fantastic evening.
Ah, the events we look forward to these days. The number of times I have Googled “fun things to do inside with friends” or “2020 activities” or “inside entertainment — anything at all, please help” is too many to count.
My friends and I had to be extra creative with our plans, which prompted us to explore a series of random indoor events. This included playing the terrible game “BeanBoozled,” where you spin a little cardboard wheel that determines which disgusting jelly bean flavor you have to try. Would not recommend it.
Scrolling through my camera roll jogs memories of these small moments, from taking my dog on walks by the local elementary school to putting googly eyes on fruits to turn them into “fruit friends,” as inspired by the show “Miranda.” Pineapples are my personal favorite — they are particularly luxurious and feisty.
Clearly, things got weird in quarantine.
A pretty common conversation topic these days is how oddly fast the weeks go by, day-to-day events blurring together without distinction.
Most of my camera roll photos are of baked oatmeal and Instagram recipe screenshots I’ll probably never look at again. It doesn’t exactly make it easy to remember what I actually did that day or if anything notable happened.
Hopefully one day soon, we can go to the movie theater and restaurants and concerts and festivals and the dentist’s office. It all sounds wonderful. Maybe I’ll even get to try the real best burger in New York, wherever that may be. But I don’t know if it can live up to watching “How I Met Your Mother” while eating soggy takeout fries.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
