Good company

New friends, old friends, and everything in between!

The last few weeks have been a little difficult for me.

I get into these “grey cloud” moods that tend to last anywhere from a day to a few weeks. They’re typically triggered by a series of unfortunate events—the L not running, a bad date, stress, things like that.

As someone who at one time had two different therapists and a psychiatrist, I’ve gone through extensive evaluation to determine that this just happens sometimes, and it’s not indicative of a greater issue or anything we need to be super serious about. Everyone has bad days, and I need to come to terms with that.

My friend Evie asked if I wanted to go with her and her friend Jess to the Mets on Thursday. I love hanging with Evie because she always has a good idea and an even better attitude to bring with her. The first time I went to the Mets was last year, and I felt that it was such a fabulous event that everyone should be going all of the time. That was the last time I had been, and over 365 days later, I was clearly overdue.

The serendipity of the night began when Evie and I were on the 7, figuring out how we were going to find Jess, when she literally walked straight into our subway car. For the rest of the ride, Jess and I realized we had way too much in common to not be friends (both copywriters, both from the Tri-State area), so the night ensued seamlessly.

It should go without saying that I once again had a wonderful night at Citi Field. I have no idea to this day if the Mets won or lost. What I do know is that my hot chocolate, pretzel with cheese, hot dog, and a great time with the gals kept me warm throughout the night.

This weekend was special because it was the first time all 11 of my high school friend group would be together since 2023.

We are extraordinarily close, still texting in our groupchat every day, keeping each other updated on everything as small as a paper cut to as big as a house bought. The majority of us live in New York City, but we have a few in Denver, Tampa, and Boston that visit regularly, but never at the same time.

The agenda was packed—catch-up and pizza on Friday night at Grace’s apartment, day drinking on Saturday at Hartley’s in Bed Stuy for Hartley, Spritzenhaus in Greenpoint, and then the world would be our oyster.

These girls have seen me through a lot of different moons. Some of them I met in Kindergarten, so 2026 marked 20 full years of friendship with no interruption. We’ve played American Girl Dolls, mixed Smirnoff with Arnold Palmer, visited each other at college, and now plan trips for a time to reconnect. And the weirdest part is that it’s felt the same through it all. Even the friends I didn’t meet until high school—it all feels the same.

Spending time with each other is full of name dropping, reminiscing, and giving the headlines of what’s happening for ourselves now. Naturally, we’re all over the map in terms of where we stand in life. Ashley bought a house in Denver, Shayna lives with a boy (her boyfriend), Clare moved to Williamsburg from Murray Hill. Some of us are talking engagement ring shapes, some of us are talking pasta shapes. It doesn’t matter. When we’re together, it feels like it always did.

Hartley’s was a fabulous institution that I will frequent now. I’m not afraid of the A/C/E train. There was a one-year-old’s birthday party happening there (which was hilarious and genius, having your baby’s first birthday at a bar) who also happened to be named Sully (like one of our best friends), the bartender gave Hartley a cup for free, and I had two half-pints of Guinness (one full pint, I came to realize). We snapped pics in the late afternoon sun—a lesson we learned the hard way by not having a single picture of the 11 of us since 2018—enjoyed ciders, sang happy birthday to Sully, and added some college roommates and boyfriends to the mix, another really beautiful part of growing up with your best friends, getting to meet their best friends and people who love them just as much.

Spritzenhaus is an old classic, we go there a lot for work and it’s a nice change of pace from cramped, crowded bars where you’re getting elbowed in the face to a vast drinking warehouse that takes up a city block. Shayna worked her magic and got us a primetime table outside, where we set up camp for the foreseeable future. We ended the night with 7th Street Burger and the Masters reruns on one of our communal boyfriend’s roofs, sat around the fire pit, and did what we do best—laugh.

Needless to say, the grey cloud that carried above my head swiftly blew away. It’s hard to not say in your head so much when things seem to pile on. The best remedy for me is to surround myself with people who make me feel good, and the rest comes naturally.

I’m leaving for Barcelona on Wednesday, and since there was no Coffee Order on Friday (blame the grey cloud), I’m going to do a paid post on both Wednesday and Friday. I’m thinking Wednesday will be a travel guide, and still brainstorming for Friday. If you have any requests, holler…