What to do this week(end): January 8-14

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“Sea of Light” by ITHACA at Lightscape. Photo: Liz Ligon

Happy first week of 2022 everyone! Anyone else just refusing to take down your Christmas tree, no matter how many loose pine needles you keep tracking all over the place? Based on the unofficial research I’ve been conducting on my nightly walks, on which I’ve been known to longingly stare into a brownstone window or two, I can see that I’m not alone in my reluctance to let go of that last vestige of Christmas cheer. It’s getting a little weird in my place, tbh, and not just because I spend 30 minutes every morning obsessing over whether the sore throat I’ve woken up with every day of my adult life because NYC apartments have heating systems from the Victorian Era is actually Covid. Let me bring you up to speed in case you spent the holidays in the woods somewhere: everyone has Covid, and also everyone is absolutely done with this pandemic. “New year, new me” unfortunately feels more like “new variant, decidedly NOT new mental health fallout from another winter lockdown that I thought I wouldn’t have to do again.” Sigh. 

Did you all at least get to do something fun to ring in the end of 2021? My boyfriend and his son and I spent New Year’s Eve at the Lightscape exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which closes this Sunday, and then we had a big dinner at home and watched old episodes of Community before shooting off confetti guns I had leftover from Lunar New Year 2019 into Fourth Ave. It was the best, under the circumstances. This first work week back has been roughhhhhh though, right? Time for a weekend to bring us back from the brink?!

Given the Omicron surge, I can’t promise you loads of parties and public events to attend over the next week, but if you made a New Year’s resolution to start reading or knitting or playing guitar or whatever again you’ve got the perfect opportunity. You could try a new recipe — I made this tofu and tomato dish for dinner the other night and it was great then and for lunch the next day — or get take out from a restaurant not in your neighborhood, like we did when we drove out of our way to pick up Win Son earlier this week. South Slope institution Sidecar is closing at the end of the month after 15 years, so now is a good time to stop by and bid your adieus. If the snow actually sticks around, consider a trip out to Governors Island’s Winter Village for a spin around the ice rink this weekend, or take a gander at some of the other ideas we posted in our January Culture Calendar last week.    

There’s suddenly lots to watch if you’re laying low, including Don’t Look Up, which I was entertained by but didn’t love, and C’mon C’mon, which I definitely did and which is now streaming on Apple TV +. Admittedly, it doesn’t take much these days, but I’m irrationally excited for the return of Search Party’s fifth and final season this weekend. And if you need a pick me up, or want to weep uncontrollably and wonder whether it’s too late to start an org that connects rescue animals with special needs kids, among other things, I can’t recommend the new season of Queer Eye enough. I also dug two excellent podcasts I listened to recently: The Line and Unread, which are ostensibly about Navy Seals and a Britney Spears uber fan, respectively, but both so much better than that description suggest. Failing all that, you can obsessively wait for the next Wordle to drop every day like I’ve been doing. 

Number one on my list this weekend? Dealing with the tree while I can still bring it to Mulchfest. It’s time. Here’s hoping you find whatever motivation you need to get you through the post-holiday, mid-Omicron slump. At some point, 2022 is gonna get good, it has to.

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