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Good nyc summer to you, and thank you for reminding me about the Cloisters, which feel closer to me upstate than they did when I lived in Brooklyn, even though they’re not. I have never been, I should go. At the moment I am heading to lower Manhattan, against my better judgement, to see a few gallery shows before they close. Atypically I have made plans with no one so that I feel no pressure to stay in the city if the heat starts to get to me. This is our first full summer after 20+ years in SF and I am deep into ‘How does anyone live like this? How did I ever live like this???’ territory.

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This summer is really bad. It hasn't been like this the last few years. But it's bad everywhere except a few pockets of the US, and definitely bad globally. I kind of had a freakout the other day when thinking about the possibility that is going to be the norm. We just keep reaching record temps every year.

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Empty New York gives me such chills! Staying behind on long weekends always felt like a secret treat... also, I love the shorter, more photo-filled format. I'm not sure I would have noticed a change if you hadn't mentioned it. You paint such a vivid picture either way.

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I was actually thinking how interesting it was that the empty streets didn't bring me PTSD from Covid times when it was super eerie and sad. My god, are we just trying to block those years out of existence in our minds?

On the shorter written format, I never noticed that on the Substack editor it gives you word count and reading times when you click on that icon on the lower left corner. Super dumb and specific, but the 650 college essay word count is so ingrained now that every time I hit 3x that word count in these newsletter, I get self conscious like, are all these words necessary??? 😂

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I don’t think I’ll truly start processing Covid times for another decade or so… too big to handle. And yeah, had no idea what the college essay length is but that’s hilarious. Congrats on being out of its grasp

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I visited the Cloisters last time I was in New York. Paradise.

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That's amazing. I feel like most tourists don't make it up there as it's a bit of a hike.

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I love the photos! Beautiful light and such a good reminder of how wonderful the cloisters are. I need to take Oscar.

Also, I don't know why I bother reading your newsletter without a box of tissues at hand. "hanging on to the edges of childhood" wooof. sniff!!

Enjoy the rain today, even though it still won't break this heat.

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I would say all things considered, I think I’m handling this “last summer” pretty well. There have been a ton of distractions, but still! It rained briefly, but the humidity remain. So disappointing.

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I love everything you create. Photo essays are fun too. Loved this one. Thanks Jenna!

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❤️

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I've only been to The Cloisters once and really want to get back again. It was definitely worth the trek from midtown Manhattan (we came up via a train from Philly). Now, I want to find the photos that I took and I can't remember which year I visited and took them. Your shots are really beautiful.

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Thanks Tim. Trying to take advantage of city stuff. It's so easy to sleep on these places when you live here, which is a shame. We used to be so much better about it.

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