Maddy

8am: I wake up slightly disoriented in a hotel room in New York. Hotel rooms are so freakin dark. I’m here just for a night to visit my cousin who is in town from the west coast. Last night we saw Sweeney Todd (loved) and ate cheesecake (also loved). 

9:15: My cousin wakes up and I run downstairs to get us coffee. We lay in bed and talk for an hour and half. 

10:45: I realized we’ve been talking for an hour and a half and I need to get up, dressed, and to the train station. I 

11:10: I say goodbye to my cousin and head out.

11:20 I’m waiting for the subway to Penn station when my doctor calls to go over test results from a recent appointment. My train pulls up as I pick up, and I tell her I’ll need to call her back. Her voice sounds hesitant, I am freaking out as I get off the phone. 

11:24: there’s a couple carrying a designer dog on the subway, and another woman starts asking them about the dog. I try to listen to their conversation as a distraction. They call their 7 pound cavapoo “a real city girl” which makes me laugh. I send a message to my closest friends, they send a flurry of support and reminders that everyone always feels terrified when they get Pap smear results.

12:10: I’m on the train, I have acquired a bagel. I finally get through to my doctor and everything is fine. My friend texts me “this is why we get regular Pap smears.” I’ve been self-employed since 2020 and I feel both proud and grateful that I make enough money to buy (not amazing) health insurance through the marketplace. Every December it is an annoyance to deal with it, but paying for and using my health insurance is one way that I remind myself that being a full-time freelance journalist is a real job, not just a side project. That said, I also feel really lucky because what the fuck with this country and its healthcare.

12:30: my heart rate has returned to normal and I open my email to do some work. Someone has emailed about dietary restrictions for a tour tomorrow, so I deal with that before sifting through contracts (that are extremely late coming through, not a good sign for when I will be paid) and information from new clients I’m trying to add to my rotation.

1:20: by the time my train arrives in Philadelphia, I’m feeling anxious about the beginnings of a sore throat. This anxiety is probably related to the Pap smear anxiety, but I feel the need to make sure i don’t have covid or the flu. I had a similar sore throat a few weeks ago that I ignored and which turned into an ear infection and a fever. I have some travel coming up and I don’t want to get sick, so I decide to go to an Urgent Care on my way home.

2:30: The urgent cares costs $155 for me to be told that I’m fine and that I should take some ibuprofen. Whatever I said about health care, I take it back. 

2:47: I arrive home and lay on my couch. I can’t tell if I’m middle-of-the-afternoon-on-a-Friday tired, or sick tired. I reheat some dal and rice and take a very hot shower.

3:15: I sit on my couch and scroll, caught in a loop between trying to do some of the things on my to-do list, and being tired. I decide to nap, and I sleep for three hours.

6pm: I wake up, disoriented and hungry, but feeling much better. I eat leftover chicken (glamorous) and watch a couple of old episodes of Gilmore girls.

10:15: I’m lulled back to sleep by Lorelai Gilmore’s dulcet tones. I drag myself off the couch and into my bed. What a wild Friday night.

Maddy is a freelance food journalist and the founder of Tiny Table Tours. You can find her @awomanwhoeats.