Heavyweight Check In 4

I loved living in Brooklyn, But when Oggi was born, 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:08.160 Emily kept going on about Minnesota. She's from there originally, 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.639 and wanted Oggi to have family around a back yard 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:17.160 a sandbox uninhabited by rats. That summer, during a visit 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.000 back home, Emily showed me all that Minnesota had to 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.119 offer by taking me to the state Fair. At one point, 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:28.240 Emily pointed out a large, wobbly Hasidic man who appeared 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.960 to be wearing a tractor tire threaded through his belt. Loops. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.680 You see, she said, sweetly, there are Jews in Minnesota. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:48.080 The Minnesota offensive continued along. Emily looked at photos of 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.040 houses online with hedges to trim and fences to mend. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.560 Having never owned a house, none of it made sense. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.800 In Brooklyn, we lived across the street from a Chinese takeout. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.960 A man named Albert brought our garbage to the curb 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.039 and once a month vacuumed the building hallway. What could 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.360 be better than that? But then Emily fell in love 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.399 with a house in Minnesota, a small enough place painted green. 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.400 In the photo, I could see a garden hose out front. 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.319 I am not going to water the lawn, I said. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:28.480 I hate those guys, guys who water their lawns. She asked, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.440 you know what I mean, I said, wearing shorts, waving 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.000 to passers by like they're in a David Lynch film. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.200 And then we put in an offer. It was like 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.080 a bad dream. Surely I couldn't be leaving New York. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.520 Surely something would happen, something would keep us from going 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.960 through with it. When I told my boss Alex about 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.800 my wife's plan, I prayed he'd put an end to it. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.000 Forbidding it outright. All this plan was missing was a 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:09.840 good forbidding. You can work remote, he said. We moved 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.480 at the end of January during a polar vortex. That 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.200 first night in my new home, the rooms were bare 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.079 and cold. I can't feel my feet, I said, from 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.280 under the blankets. Spring will be here soon. Emily said 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.600 she'd been saying it all day. It was always about 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.560 spring being here, and oh how great that'll be. You've 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.480 never smelt paeonies so fresh, never tasted hot dish and 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.160 tater tots until you've had them warm to perfection under 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.840 the Minnesota sun. That first night was so quiet, the 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.080 noise in my head so loud. Without Brooklyn to drown 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:52.760 it out at our bedroom window. I looked out onto 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.200 the street, desolate under the street lamps, everything covered in ice, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:04.840 glistening like knives. Quietly I wept, Spring will be here soon, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:17.760 Emily said, and sure enough she was true to her word. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.440 Spring is here, or what passes for spring in Minnesota. 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.200 The april snow has almost melted, and I can just 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.520 about see the sidewalks. It's time to put away my 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.320 long John's and roof shovel and whether I can smell 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.520 them from behind a facial mask or not, get ready 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:45.559 for the paeonies to bloom. 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.880 It's like the best time of the year. I love 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.040 the spring. All the buds are staring to come out, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:52.800 report me. 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:54.440 So. 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.160 Now that the weather is getting nicer, my dad and 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.720 I have been taking walks together. I left Brooklyn about 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.320 a month ago. I moved back home where I grew up, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.960 twenty minutes north of Manhattan. And so my dad and I, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.640 when we're off on these walks, we invented this game 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.200 sewer Stones. We pick up rocks and the object of 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.279 the game is to bowl them into the sewer drains. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.360 Mago maya. 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:28.560 Boom? Is that too? To one? 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:34.400 To one? Hold on hold on. Is this a game 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.680 that you guys played when you were a kid, So. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.080 It's a lot like a lot of the games we 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:40.320 used to do when I was little. 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.640 All right, yeah, yeah, let's see it. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:50.560 Let's see it. Very nice. Do you find that you're 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:52.599 doing like a lot of the stuff that you used 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:52.920 to do. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.440 I feel like I'm just like a kid again. The 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:02.120 other day I found a pair of my dirty socks 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.480 on the floor in the dining room. I looked at 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.919 them and I was like, are those my sock? Like 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:10.159 I feel like I'm. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:17.600 Regressing, Yeah, exactly. Are your parents happy to have you back? 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:18.600 Uh? 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.720 Yeah, yeah. My mom offered to cut my hair. She 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.479 used to cut our hair when we were kids. Like, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.600 I have these really distinct memories of her kind of 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.120 like laying this towel out on the floor, this like 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.840 ratty green towel that we never used otherwise, and like 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.280 bringing a chair into the bathroom and she still has 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:45.360 that ratty green Towelochie, you're. 0:05:45.200 --> 0:06:03.440 Really going at this pretty quick. I'm winging a little bit. Whoops. Sorry. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.880 I think my mom is happy to be taking care 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.360 of us in this way that she hasn't had to 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:11.640 in a long time. 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:13.720 You want me to put my head down more. 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:17.040 Do you enjoy it? 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:17.440 Yeah? 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:24.480 I love this. This is looking really good. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:24.880 In the back. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:28.400 We've come so far from Oops. 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.560 Do you want me to go even shorter? Back here? 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:36.720 Maybe a little? 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.960 It was already pretty short, but I kind of just 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.440 wanted her to keep cutting. I just wanted to let 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:46.960 her do that. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.599 Jonathan, what have you been up to? Well? 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.480 Thank you for asking. Sure, A good portion of my 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.960 day is given over to trying to keep my three 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:19.239 year old entertained. And I am just shameless. I'll do anything, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.840 And I invent all these different characters like robo Papa 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:29.760 Papa yes, and like when I start talking to him normally, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:31.280 he'll be like, no, no, no, I don't want to 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.880 talk to regular Papa. I want to talk to robo Papa. 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:40.360 Are we gonna am I going to purchase robo Papa. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:44.120 If he doesn't get his fuel, he gets brain damage. 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:51.680 Emily hates it so much TV is. You know, we 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.679 try to keep it limited. So we're trying to teach 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.600 him that, you know, there's other ways to keep entertained, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.760 you know, like old timey ways. So the other day 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.800 we built this puppet stage. 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.960 Welcome boys and goals and goals and ladies and man 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.440 gentlemen to the puppet job. 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:18.440 Yeah, and Emily pulled out this puppet Johnny that I 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.760 made when I was eleven years old. I was so 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.440 bereft of friends that I made this puppet name Johnny, 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.400 and I totally forgot about him, like it had been 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:33.559 you know, it was like forty years Oh no, no, no, yeah, 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.440 no no. I thought that it brought back memories of 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.199 like just loneliness and. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.880 Wait, wait, you made a puppet and you named it 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:47.680 your name. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:48.880 Does it look like you? 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.280 Emily would argue that it does look like me, and 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.440 she kind of brought Oggie on board. OGGI, do you 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:00.319 think this looks like Papa? Nou? How does it looked 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.199 like me? Looks like unique? 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:04.600 Like Papa likes Hey? 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.600 Yah, Yes, Papa doesn't have any hair, but if he 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:08.280 had hair, he. 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:09.200 Would look just like this. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.880 So the play was basically Johnny and Swipey. Swipey is 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.000 this other but that we have a raccoon? Okay, we're 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:30.280 gonna see a play between Johnny and Swipey. It was 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.200 really hard to get off the ground because Aggie is 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.560 like he was just really over directing me and everything 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:37.480 I was doing was wrong. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:45.680 Oh, it's one of those typically hard to work with directors. No, no, no, no. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.960 It just ended up devolving into this like big dance 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:56.800 party and Aggie made us all dance dancing planks. I 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:58.280 don't know. It was just fun and it just seemed 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.400 like licensed, just too crazy things and like we still 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.160 haven't taken down the puppet, the puppet stage in the 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.840 living room. And it's nice that we actually have a 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.120 living room, you know, but we we didn't really in 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.040 New York. Things were just things were a lot smaller 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:27.880 and and so that's yeah, that's nice. You know. The 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:32.240 last time I visited New York was right before everything changed, 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.520 and the three of us got together for drinks. I 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:40.520 think was the night that the Gimblet offices shut down. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.079 And it was the last I didn't know it at 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:45.839 the time, but it ended up being the last day 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:47.800 that I went to a bar me too. 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.800 And there was something else noteworthy about that evening that 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.040 we've that we've since talked about. It was the last 0:10:56.040 --> 0:11:02.360 time that any of us shook hands with somebody else. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.280 someone that we ran into that evening at the bar. 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:09.839 You ever heard of award winning producer of The Jinks. 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.559 Can you say? Award winning producer of The Jinks Again, Award. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.640 Winning producer of documentary The Jinks. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.360 We happened to run into a former co worker of ours, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.040 someone who used to work at Gimblet, Mark Smirling. 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.640 You ever heard of crime Town? 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:31.560 You know? 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.400 Recently a doctor Anthony Fauci made that statement about how 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.720 we may never return back to shaking hands. Yeah, I 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.280 mean it's weird. It's weird to think that Mark Smirling 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.679 might be the last person that any of us end 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.280 up shaking hands with. Yeah, do you think that? I mean, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.800 were we the last people that he shook hands with? 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.240 Do you think, Well, there's only one way to find out. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.440 I'm looking across the room and there's Stevie or you 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:07.400 can't forget. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.760 The unforgettable, the unforgettable Stevie Lane. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.800 Yeah, So I got up, went over and shook your hands. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.840 Your hand might be the last hand we ever shake. 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.800 Lucky you. I could have gotten you all sick, right there? 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.600 Is it the same for you? Were we the last 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:27.920 people that you ever shook hands with? 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:29.600 Hmm? 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:32.360 It probably is. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.480 It seems like right after that things started to close in. Yeah, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:41.280 and you know my contact with the outer world, sort 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:41.880 of vannists. 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.000 Where are you right now, Brooklyn? 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:45.000 I'm in Clinton Hill? 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:46.839 Me too, I'm in Clinton Hill. 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.040 Oh my god, I might have seen you around though, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:50.000 I'm thinking about it. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.160 You guys should just open your windows and you can 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:53.079 yell to each other. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:55.960 Were you born in New York? Are you from New York? 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:00.080 Originally I'm a Jersey boy from South Orange, but but 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:01.840 I've been in New York since I was eight. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.360 Is there still an upsign to being in New York? Like, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.360 do you have moments where you're like, you know what, 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.160 it's still good to be here somehow. 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.000 Well, food delivery is a big plus, you know, although 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.199 we have to like use all kinds of toxic chemicals 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:24.199 to clean off the bag and wrappings. You know, living 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:25.959 in New York is it just. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.000 Is not the place to be during the pandemic. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:31.840 Oh, there is one magical thing. I can get a 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:33.040 parking spot really easily. 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:34.959 That's a plus. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.520 A thing I've really been missing about New York is 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:46.840 like being in a hurry and being like I don't 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:48.480 have time for a real dinner, and so you're like 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:50.800 getting a slice of pizza and eating it really quickly. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.720 On the street because you have some place you're trying 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.199 to get to. Yeah, Like I just really I miss 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:01.600 some places so much. Yeah, I don't know. I was 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.640 thinking about. The thing that I think I really love 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:09.680 about New York is like the feeling of being alone 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.360 around other people. Like I would be out by myself, ye, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.760 like on the train alone, or like walking home on 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.480 a Friday night and just passing bars and hearing like 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.760 the hum of people's voices and bars, like it just 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:24.440 made you feel like you were like a part of 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:30.040 something even if I wasn't with people. Yeah, And now 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.080 it's like instead of being alone with other people, I'm 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:34.280 just like alone alone. 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:34.880 Yeah. 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:39.520 Yeah, like everyone's gone, I can't do anything. And I 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.520 mentioned it to someone who is still in Brooklyn. Yeah, 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.400 and she was like, but don't you kind of feel 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.720 like proud that you're still here? And I was like, yeah, actually, 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:49.840 like I do, Like I feel like that's the thing 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:55.200 that feels like unchanged. It's that like there's like a 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:56.920 feeling of like when you're living in New York that 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.480 like everyone's miserable and like stressed out and in a 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.400 small part, but there's this pride in the fact that 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.000 you're doing that. Do you know what I mean? Like, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.200 like everyone's really unhappy, but you're like, I actually like 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.960 sitting at my computer till eight pm and then eating 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:13.920 a piece of pizza on a dirty street. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:14.360 Yeah. 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.400 It's like irrational and unquantifiable, but you just sort of 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.000 feel love for the place. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.680 Yeah. You know there's that cheer every night at seven 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.120 pm for healthcare workers. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.440 Yeah have you participated? 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:28.840 No? 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.840 I haven't, And it makes me feel bad because I'm like, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:32.920 I know it's a nice thing. 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.040 But then I mean, but you're probably like someone who 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.680 like when when you go to like a sporting event 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.480 of some kind and everybody starts like clapping their seats 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.760 and singing we will rock you like you're just like 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:45.000 I'm going to sit this one out. 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.040 That's true. And when I go to a show and 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.280 they say how's everyone doing, I just say fine. I 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:51.840 just like feel like I'm not going to be. 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.080 Like, whoo it's I don't think I've ever heard you 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:56.120 make that wu sound. 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.600 But last night when it happened, my downstairs neighbors started 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.080 blast sing that you know that New York New York song, 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:04.560 Oh that SNATA song. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.240 Yeah, start spreading the news. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.760 Yeah, that one and he was really like blasting it. 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.840 It was really loud and he was like singing along 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.800 and everyone on the street was like doing their cheer 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:17.960 and like people were getting excited about him playing the 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.120 song and we're like cheering, and it made me like 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:27.880 so emotional. Yeah, I don't know. It did give me 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.240 like a little bit of that feeling i'd been missing 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.920 of like here we all are in the city and 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.560 like I'm alone, but I'm I'm also with other people. 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:02.680 Do I know know when you're drinking