Early on in the pandemic, I feel like I was on the phone all the time.

And the only things we had to say to each other were like, when will this be over and how

can we see each other in the future?

And do you get tested regularly in these kind of conversations that were just going in circles

over and over and over again?

And then my mom called me at some point and she told me this story.

This girl that we know had gone to the spatula at party and for entertainment, all the

girls in the group had gotten on four wheelers and were just like zooming around, which to

be honest, sounds fun as hell, except that this girl flipped over the handlebars of her

four wheeler and lost her thumb.

Just like completely gone.

No thumb, can't use her phone, just like a huge mess.

And I told this story, which is not even that dramatic or that exciting, probably 500 times

in the course of two weeks, because it was just something that I could give to my friends.

It was some little nugget of absurdity that could make people laugh and give them a little

break from everything that's terrible in the world.

And I realized that the thing I really needed was gossip.

And not the kind of gossip that I was getting in early 2020, which was like dangerous gossip

about our friends who weren't behaving very safely or who were engaging in risky behaviors

or just like traveling.

What I wanted was gossip about like your co-workers sister.

Wait, what?

...