Days are a little different right now. This weekend was my first spent outside our neighborhood. The city is quiet. The buzz it once had is now a very faint, low hum. But for a brief moment at 7:00 every evening, I see it sparkle again. Through the hands clapping, pots banging and our neighbor blaring her rendition of “God Bless America” out the window, I’m reminded that this will eventually end and New York will be here to take care of me.

Here she is: dystopian and yet still magic.