WNYC

It was my last day of vacation slash Jewish holidays before going back to work, and I had a bare minimum bar of moved-in-ness that I wanted to reach before I had to put on my Upper West Side work clothes vs. my moving into a new apartment work clothes.  I also wanted to christen the kitchen (greens gratin, enchilada casserole, mixed berry right side up cake) and I also wanted to break down the cardboard boxes that were cluttering the living room. It was the first day in many that I wasn't lifting a ton of heavy boxes, and I think I felt more weary for having slowed down than for keeping going.

I unpacked a box that I had labeled Ancestral Radio -- intrigued, but unsure what I meant 2 years ago when I wrote that. Turns out it was my mom's Sony boom box radio/CD player that used to play in the background in her big open kitchen/living room.  I plugged it in, turned it on, and it was already tuned to WNYC. I can't remember where I used it (I've stayed in 5 places in the two years since leaving Hoboken) but clearly I have already tuned in to local public radio. I left it on all day. BBC World Service, Brian Lehrer Show, Leonard Lopate, Fresh Air, The Takeaway, All Things Considered. I wasn't always in the same room with these shows, because I was working all over the house, but when I would dip in and join them, it brought me an incredible sense of home-being. I LOVE radio. With the exception of Jonathan Schwartz, I even love bad radio. Radio feels like company like TV can't. Radio can draw you completely in or can float to the background. Radio can be private or shared. Radio was all mine, all day.

(Hard to believe I've lived for so long without something I love so much.)