Reading one of my favorite blogs, Cup of Jo, awhile ago brought me to an excellent article on The Awl. The prompt was "what have you learned?" and readers answered with everything from the hilarious ("plastic grocery bags stuck in trees are called witch’s britches") to the practical ("two ice cubes is the right amount to immediately bring a fresh cup of hot tea down to a more drinkable temperature") to the deeply wise ("I’m smarter and more powerful than I believe I am"). Another notable entry made me happy to discover that I am, in fact, not the only person in the world who didn't know how to spell/pronounce segue properly. And it all got me thinking about what I've learned.

The first social outing (weeks and weeks ago now) since quarantine felt like an inching return to normalcy—a tip-toe towards the ordinary, towards days filled with spontaneity and people and summertime routines. As I sat in the backyard of friends who live the next town over, their twin girls napping inside and their tiny dog yapping and carousing happily around my feet, I tipped my chair back and closed my eyes for just a moment, my head tilted towards the sun. I could smell the chlorine from the swimming pool behind me—the water a dazzling, fluorescent aquamarine—and a fruity, yeasty scent drifting up from two glasses of Nectar Blender IPA sitting on the table. (This is Greenport Harbor Brewery’s latest summer release: a hazy-looking beer with a blend of hops, citrus, tropical fruits, and milk sugar.)