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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and let's hand down a lighter note today. Inspired by a recent article in Gothamist, we are now opening up the phones on the question, what was the last fun thing you did before the pandemic began that you haven't been able to do during it, and what are you looking forward to doing once it's over? 646-435-7280. We're opening up the phones on the question based on the Gothamist article that you may have read. What was the last fun thing you did before the pandemic began that you haven't been able to do during the pandemic, and what are you looking forward to doing once it's over? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.
Washington Post recently reported that online clothing retailers are seeing a resurgence in general after it had really fallen off a cliff last year. Why you need clothing if you're not going out? With a growing interest in resort wear and swimsuits, those are optimistic buys. Are you already planning your summer vacation? What sort of calculations are you making? Will you go to a country that is doing well when it comes to keeping COVID cases down, trying to get ahead of the crowds? Whatever? What are your post-vaccination plans, or your I don't care if I'm vaccinated plans? 646-435-7280.
What was that last fun thing? There were so many good examples in the Gothamist story. Did you have one last drink at a favorite bar or restaurant that maybe is now even permanently closed? What did you have? Maybe you went to see a concert or a play? What did you see? Was it close enough to the beginning of the pandemic? That maybe for that last outing you even felt a bit scared to be in a theater or restaurant, and then you pulled back? Or the rules made you pull back? What was the last fun thing you did before the pandemic began that you haven't been able to do during it, and what are you looking forward to doing once it's over? 646-435-7280. We'll take your calls right after this.
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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay, to the phones for the last fun thing you did before the pandemic that you haven't been able to do during it, and what you're looking forward to doing once it lifts enough for you. Robert in Flatbush, you're on WNYC. Hi, Robert?
Robert: Hey, Brian. Wow, this is a real pleasure. I've been listening to you for a lot of years.
Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on. It looks like you have quite a story.
Robert: Yes. It's very surreal. Last March, my girlfriend and I then, were in Barcelona, Spain, and we got engaged right in front of Sagrada Família, and literally within 24 hours, the country went into lockdown. Our flights were canceled, the hotel was canceled. We had to quickly flee the country and come back to Brooklyn.
Brian Lehrer: They weren't just extending your honeymoon because they didn't let you out?
Robert: [laughs] I will say this, there were a few once-in-a-lifetime experiences because everything was closed down. We actually got into a restaurant called Tickets, which is one of the coolest restaurants in the world, and we walked right in because there were so many canceled reservations.
Brian: You didn't get COVID as a result, I hope.
Robert: No. My now fiancé and I, she said yes, have been holed up pretty much in Brooklyn since. She was working at the library, but they were pretty safe.
Brian Lehrer: Robert, congratulations, and thank you for checking in. Bonnie in Suffolk County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Bonnie.
Bonnie: Hi, Brian. My husband and I guess it was three days before lockdown, we went to an amazing Mexican restaurant in Midtown, and then we saw Mean Girls on Broadway. Which of course has closed since so I'm so glad we finally got to see it, and then we tried to get drinks, but actually, a lot of bars were already closed. It was a really scary time in New York City as a lot of people can remember.
We closed out this really terrible bar, which was the only one we could find. I remember our mojitos tasted like toothpaste, but we didn't care because it was the only one that was open, and we were like, "Oh we probably won't be able to do this for a few weeks." Of course, now we haven't been able to do it for a year, but just the scary feeling of being on the precipice of not really knowing what was going to happen next. We're really looking forward to going back out to eat, and going back to shows, and hopefully, going to bars that are a little bit better than the one we went to last, is exciting for the future.
Brian Lehrer: A phrase I've certainly never heard spoken before, "Our mojito tasted like toothpaste."Bonnie, thank you very much for checking in. Zachary, in East Harlem. You're on WNYC. Hi, Zachary.
Zachary: Yes, good morning? The last fun thing I did, it was actually two things in one. I work with the legal [unintelligible 00:05:41] voters of New York City, registering people to vote, and we just happened to be at Lincoln Center. This was back in February of 2020. It was right before the pandemic really hit. I was registering voters at Lincoln Center, and when I was done registering voters, I got to see a live performance at Lincoln Center. I think that was literally the last fun thing that I did, because a couple of weeks later, my office closed down on March 14th, and it hasn't opened since.
Brian Lehrer: Zachary, thank you very much. Diane in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hi, Diane.
Diane: Hi, Brian, thank you for taking my call. The last fun thing that my partner and I did in 2020 before everything shut down was, we went to see The Eagles in concert at Madison Square Garden on Valentine's Day.
Brian Lehrer: Romantic.
Diane: It was great, but at the time, I was chastising myself that I shouldn't have spent the money because I was about to lose my job. I'm so glad we went. We had such a fantastic night, and we went to our favorite bar afterwards and had drinks, and we didn't get home until three o'clock in the morning, but I wouldn't trade that for anything.
We were talking about it a few weeks ago because we sat next to a mother and her grown son, they had flown over from England for the show. We've always wondered about them, and we were sorry, we never exchanged contact information with them because we had such a nice time sitting with them that night. We just hoped they survived the pandemic and that they were okay.
Brian Lehrer: I'm just amazed to hear that The Eagles still exist.
Diane: [laughs] It was great, actually. They were really wonderful.
Brian Lehrer: I'm thinking of the guy who got married in Barcelona and the next day, everything was locked down and they couldn't leave their hotel. It's like the Hotel California you can check in but you can never leave.
Diane: Exactly. You never leave, right. We had a fantastic time that night, and I'm so looking forward to a concert again when it's safe of course.
Brian Lehrer: Diane, thank you so, so much. Jonathan in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jonathan.
Jonathan: Hey, Brian, thanks for having me on. The last thing I remember that was fun was going with my son, his buddy, and his dad to a Lucha libre wrestling event up in the Bronx, early March. It was exciting and it was surreal. Very semi-professional amateur, and it was a lot of fun. I remember being a little nervous hearing some people cough and get a little crowded on the line, but it was a really fun evening.
Brian Lehrer: What are you looking forward to doing next?
Jonathan: Something very boring, a nice dinner party with a lot of friends. Just sitting around and talking, and eating some good food.
Brian Lehrer: Whoever thought that something that "boring" would be something so to look forward to and so prohibited, right? Jonathan, thank you very much. Mark in Nassau County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mark.
Mark: Hey, Brian Nice to talk to you, a big fan. Just probably right in the week before the lockdown started, my husband and I and two good friends went out to eat to celebrate the fact that we were going to go to Spain for vacation. We went to Le Rivage in the city, and it was magical. Wanted to go there for such a long time and had not, and we were very excited about the prospect of going back and then lockdown. Not only did we lose out on going on our vacation to Spain, but we didn't get to go back to Le Rivage of course. We have planned with our same friends that when Le Rivage opens again, that we'll be back because it was truly a really fun night.
Brian Lehrer: Coming full circle Mark. Thank you very much and John in Harlem, you're on WNYC, Hi, John.
John: Hi, Brian. The last thing I did me and my partner we call it a good old New York city mess-around day where you just pick an avenue or a couple of streets or whatever it is and you just walk up and down them. You have a bite to eat there or drink there, go into that basement to do some dancing, whatever it is, just let the night take you where it takes you a very quintessential New York experience. I'm really looking forward to doing that again, with that same sense of freedom that we used to be able to do it.
Brian Lehrer: It's a good thing to point out some of those individual things you might be able to do now, but that sense of spontaneity makes it much, much harder. You have to plan, you have to have your mass, you have to know which place can have 25% capacity. All that stuff, right?
John: Right. The spontaneity is what makes special and quintessentially New York.
Brian Lehrer: John, thank you very much. You are all what makes this program special and quintessentially New York. Thanks for all your calls. As hopefully, we are nearing that point where everybody can do that fun thing that you've been having in the back of your head, or maybe in the front of your head that you want to do when the pandemic lifts enough to do it. Thanks for remembering those last things you did and for calling in with a little bit of optimism for the future, Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
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