In praise of the good old-fashioned phone call

This week I had a bunch of phone dates with friends I haven’t seen in person in a very long time. The funny thing about it was that I felt like I was keeping in touch with them all the time; I like and comment on their updates on social media, and it’s easy to feel like you know what’s going on in someone’s life based on some Instagram updates.

I’m definitely an extrovert but I’ve never been much of a phone call person. When our social lives went on hiatus because of the coronavirus, I tried to busy myself with things at home: cooking, baking, writing, watching a lot of TV and movies and spending time with my husband and dog. I set up some Zoom calls with friends in the beginning, but after spending all day at my job on Zoom calls, I quickly started to get Zoom fatigue. Without realizing it, I sort of retreated inward, like I was preparing for a long hibernation.

This week, just doing some good old-fashioned phone dates made me realize how much I miss people, and how satisfying it is to actually talk to someone for an hour, to have a real conversation and laugh together and hear someone else’s voice and sense their mood and hear their stories. There are so many things that just aren’t conveyed in text updates or Instagram posts. And for the foreseeable future, we’re still limiting social plans, not traveling, and cancelling major events like weddings and parties and gatherings. I’m ready for the phone date to make a comeback.

What I’m reading

Our ghost kitchen future, The New Yorker.

What is a recipe, really?, Eater.

Master cleanse, Tablet. Why social justice often feels like self-help for privileged white women.

The Girlboss has left the building, The Atlantic.

The world, opened up, Zora/Medium. A beautiful essay from Roxane Gay.

In the Covid-19 economy, you can have a kid or a job. You can’t have both, New York Times. An op-ed by Deb Perelman, of Smitten Kitchen fame.

Reclaiming Indian food from the white gaze, Eater. I loved this essay so much.

The great regression, Curbed.

Cooking

This week I made these no-bake cheesecake bars for a socially distanced BBQ and they were so so good and very easy; I highly recommend them for your next gathering. Other things I made: my all-time fave corn salad, a riff on this pasta salad that I keep making every summer, and a very simple no-recipe caprese salad (just get the very best heirloom tomatoes you can find, and good mozzarella, and the only “cooking” was making a balsamic reduction for 5 mins)

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