Gets closer all the time - by Evana - arbiter of distaste

Hi, thanks so much for being here. This will be the last essay of 2023. I appreciate all of your support this year, and hope you continue to be here into 2024. xoxo. + I wake up and I’m dumbstruck with revelation. It’s simple. I’m just lucky. In twenty-four hours, I will leave New York for the holidays. There’s so much to do before the trip, but I let myself be languorous for longer than usual. I bike to East Williamsburg to see friends I missed all weekend because I was tired, hungover, or wanting to hide out. I nibbled a piece of toast to ease my roiling stomach while they tell me stories about the night I missed. After I give each friend a hug and a promise to see them soon, I have lunch with two poet friends. I find it incredible that I get to be friends with two poets who are in love with each other. Of course, they let me wax poetic about my life. They don’t judge me. One of them says, you treat New York like it’s Paris. I say New York is better than Paris. I walk with them throu

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• Emily Hu