We went out to dinner with four friends from our political activism days — Sarah, Michael, Julia, and Susan — tonight. It was lovely.

While we see Sarah with some frequency, Michael and Julia have been away from D.C. for nearly the past two years — first in London and now in New Orleans. It was great to hear they’d be returning home in September. (I’d been prepared for them to say they were leaving for good.)

And while I have seen Susan and Phillip and their kids more recently than I’ve seen Julia and Michael, it must also have preceded the pandemic, because we were indoors at a restaurant.

Once upon a time we saw each other several times a week, so it was especially nice to find ourselves in a single location in real life again.