The office of the future, or where you do your personal/professional work, has probably changed dramatically since the beginning of the virus. I think a lot of people have invented new workspaces, or new types of desks, for themselves. We have found out that working remotely means that you better make yourself comfortable.
I made myself comfortable a long time ago. I don’t like a formal office. I like to switch places all the time. As long as I have my iPhone, I can work at my dining room table, my club chair, or even my bed (my favorite). I love the flexibility of working on the spot.
That’s why I copied and pasted this story from the WSJ for you. The new normal is not to be normal at all. We all recently learned that whatever “works” for us is the best choice.
The last thing I thought the pandemic would impact is the desire for a college education versus the cost. All of a sudden young people are rethinking the college system. We all had a lot of time on our hands so I guess everything is being re-evaluated. Young people are looking at their lives and are wondering if they want the same things as they did before the virus. A combination of Covid-19, plus the last four years of the political turmoil, has us all questioning life desires. Read the WSJ story.
The photo below is from a Forbes article, but the headline and story is from a recent issue of New York magazine. I wanted to make sure you can read this development.
This businessman was one of the biggest names in the world of finance. I constantly read about him all throughout my business career. He was frequently quoted in The NY Times and WSJ about mergers, acquisitions, banking, government, art, medicine, and education. He is currently chairman of the Museum of Modern Art.
It’s was very disappointing to learn, at the beginning of this year, that Black was connected to Jeffrey Epstein. To think that Black supposedly paid Epstein $158 million for business advice is just too foolish for me to believe. I know that you’re innocent until proven guilty, but Black has a lot of explaining to do.
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Apollo CEO Leon Black Paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 Million The billionaire will resign as CEO from the private equity firm after an internal inquiry revealed he paid Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017.
In the wake of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest and suicide, there was a bounty of speculation parsing out how the financier without any real paper trail in finance earned the lavish fortune that allowed him to prop up his predatory lifestyle. According to the results from an internal investigation at Apollo Global Management, a partial answer can be traced back to the massive private equity firm’s CEO Leon Black. Between 2012 and 2017, investigators found that Black paid Epstein $158 million for a “variety of issues related to trust and estate planning, tax, philanthropy, and the operation of the Family Office” — in addition to a $30 million loan, of which only a third was paid back.
The investigation, conducted by the law firm Dechert at the request of Apollo, came after the New York Timesrevealed in October 2020 that Black had paid Epstein at least $75 million for his financial services. The review by Dechert boosted that number up to $158 million, while determining that Epstein had provided Black with “legitimate advice” on estate planning and other tax matters. On the day the investigation’s findings were made public, Black announced he would step down from his role as Apollo’s CEO by July 2021, but will retain his title as chairman.
Black’s bankrolling of Epstein through financial services and loans came after his release from prison for his 2008 conviction on a charge of procuring a child for prostitution — a deal that was notoriouslylenient, allowing him out of custody for six days a week on work release. And though the Dechert inquiry stated that Black believed Epstein “served his time” and deserved a second chance, the year after he stopped providing funds to Epstein, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ attorney general alleges Epstein was trafficking children to his private key in the territory.
While many Epstein associates have been tarnished by their connections to the convicted sex offender, Black is one of his former friends who had yet to face any material consequences for associating with Epstein. In addition to the chairman title he will continue to hold at Apollo, Black remains the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art
You can use this photo anytime someone bothers you!
I haven’t seen this ex client in so many years. He is a well known entertainment litigator. The minute I saw his Facebook post, I knew I had to share it with others.
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This fact makes me sick. Most of us ignore social injustice. Tell me what I can do?
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If I knew him then, would I have known?
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This movie makes you think about about letting certain people get away with horrendous crimes.
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This movie makes you think that certain people are so good that the world is a wonderful place.
Doug Emhoff’s Ex-Wife, Who Remains a Friend, Was ‘So Excited’ to Attend Biden-Harris Inauguration Kerstin Emhoff attended the inaugural events with her children, Cole and Ella, whom she shares with ex-husband Doug Emhoff
“We All Could Use a Vacation After That”: Jared and Ivanka Are Planning Some Much-Needed Time Off After Wrecking the Country
Billionaire Ron Burkle offered Javanka the use of one of his vacation homes at a private ski club, but, with COVID protocols and the spotlight, the property objected. So they’re heading to Florida—where else?—instead.
Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo gets canceled by CEOs, sources say
Some CEOs are denying interviews to Maria Bartiromo as she gets ready to try out on Fox News’ opinion lineup. Sources say Bartiromo’s noncritical Trump interview and controversial political statements make her too risky to be associated with. Fox News rejected the claims, sharing a list of Bartiromo’s sit-downs with the Goya CEO and healthcare bosses. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Microsoft won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccine for employees: Leaked audio
Microsoft at this time doesn’t plan to mandate vaccines for employees returning to the office. An exec said at an all-hands meeting the company encourages vaccination, but won’t require it. Insider obtained a recording of the meeting. Microsoft did not respond to a request for more information. Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
According to Vice, 10 of the workers affected unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546 in Skokie, Illinois. However, they have yet to negotiate a contract with Instacart, according to Vice. Instacart notified the union of the planned changes earlier this week. In the letter, Instacart said it planned to stop using in-store shoppers at Kroger-owned stores, which includes the Mariano’s store in Skokie, in Q1 and Q2 of this year, but no earlier than mid-March.
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Covid-19 Kindled Washington, D.C.’s Luxury Market. The New Administration Could Make It Even Hotter
Michael Stock’s Beaux-Arts Revival-style home on Washington, D.C.’s Embassy Row is asking $5.5 million. CESAR OLIVARES
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The pandemic lit a fire under the city’s high-end home market. Real-estate agents say it could become even more competitive, as President Biden appointees descend on the U.S. capital
For many years, Michael Stock said he never considered selling his handsome Beaux-Arts Revival-style home on Washington, D.C.’s prestigious Embassy Row—not even when representatives from a nearby embassy stopped by with a case of wine and an unsolicited bid of interest.
Then the pandemic happened, sending the local luxury real-estate market on an unstoppable hot streak. The rise in prices, combined with the promise of fresh demand spurred by an incoming presidential administration, proved too good to pass up: Mr. Stock listed his home, which he bought in 2008 and spent years restoring, for $5.5 million earlier this month.
Like many other cities whose luxury housing stock is dominated by single-family homes, Washington, D.C.’s market has only benefited from the Covid-19 crisis, as buyers—often spurred by ultralow interest rates plus the desire for dedicated home offices and large gardens—move to larger homes. As a result, the D.C. real-estate market is pricier than it has been in years, according to local agents.
Mr. Stock listed his home after seeing an upward shift in the local market. PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Now, with a new administration taking over the White House, those agents say they are busier than ever. “I’m on meetings and showings all day long,” said Daniel Heider of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, noting that he’s already shown Mr. Stock’s house to a couple relocating to the area to serve in President Biden’s administration.
“We didn’t know where we were going to be when Covid hit in March,” said Robert Hryniewicki. The luxury agent with HRL Partners of Washington Fine Properties said he is currently handling a bidding war for a Massachusetts Avenue Heights property priced at $5.65 million. “But after April, it really took off.”
The median price of a home sold in Washington, D.C., was $641,300 in December, a 1% increase from the same time a year prior, according to data from real-estate firm Long & Foster. The volume of sales was up 16% during that same period. The number of signed contracts in December was 731, up 40% from December 2019.
In December, there were just 1.7 months of housing supply available in Washington, D.C., down 12% from the prior year.
The ultra-high-end saw even more of an uptick. There were 72 transactions priced at $4 million and up in the capital region in 2020, compared with 53 in 2019, according to Washington Fine Properties. There were eight sales priced at $10 million or more, compared with zero the year before.
Coe Magruder, a 67-year-old hedge-fund and asset-management entrepreneur, is one of the many beneficiaries of the hot market. He sold his Massachusetts Avenue Heights home, a redbrick Colonial formerly home to the embassy of Swaziland (now known as Eswatini), for $4 million in August after receiving an unsolicited offer, he said.
He said he and his wife Denise Magruder had already relocated to Vero Beach, Fla., and were planning to do some work to their home, including a paint job and a redo of the bathrooms, before listing it for sale.
The market wouldn’t wait. Mr. Hryniewicki, the couple’s agent, soon had a client for whom the house was perfect. Mr. Magruder agreed to a single showing and threw in a caveat: The buyer would have to meet the fixed asking price of $4 million, or he would continue with his plans to spruce up the property and list it publicly later.
Within a week, a contract was signed for $4 million. Mr. Hryniewicki said the home sold for a notable premium over what it might have sold for prior to the Covid-19 crisis.
Being home with their two young children amid the pandemic made real-estate developer Michael Rocks and his wife Dana Rocks, who was pregnant with their third child, rethink their space. In November, they listed their four-bedroom Tudor in the leafy Wesley Heights neighborhood to move to a larger home in McLean, Va., where the children could each have their own rooms and a bigger yard.
Coe Magruder’s Massachusetts Avenue Heights home sold for $4 million last year before he could put it on the market. PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Little kids have a lot of energy they need to expend,” said Mr. Rocks, 35, who became a father of three in December. “They want a jungle gym, and since they couldn’t go to the playground we wanted to create something like that for them in our own yard.”
The Rockses hosted one open house and about 12 separate tours and received four offers over their $1.795 million asking price, Mr. Rocks said. “What was shocking to us was how many offers there were,” he added. The house went into contract for $2.022 million just four days after it was listed.
While they reveled in the success of a quick sale, the flip side of the market was trickier; the purchase of their new home in McLean required winning a three-way bidding war. “Everything is just so expensive and in such limited supply,” Mr. Rocks said.
Michael and Dana Rocks sold their home in the Wesley Heights area of D.C. for $2.022 million, just four days after listing it. PHOTO: HRL PARTNERS AT WASHINGTON FINE PROPERTIES
Real-estate agents project the market will become even tighter in the next few months, as Mr. Biden continues to roll out new appointments.
Neighborhoods expected to be especially in demand include fashionable areas like Kalorama and Massachusetts Avenue Heights, which are known for drawing Washington high society, including major political donors, lobbyists and wealthy elected officials, as well as billionaires like Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. In these neighborhoods, a short drive from the Capitol, high-end classic homes are clustered together on tree-lined streets. ADVERTISEMENThttps://
Despite for a heavy security presence in some pockets, designed to protect residents like Jared Kushner and first daughter Ivanka Trump, the Kalorama neighborhood was quiet on a recent Sunday. A few walkers with their dogs paid little attention to the security as they passed.
Michael and Dana Rocks with their children.PHOTO: LISA ZIESING FOR ABBY JIU PHOTOGRAPHY
Mr. Stock, 44, leads a nonprofit that trains peacekeepers and military forces in troubled parts of the world. While his home is close to the one owned by President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, he said the security is basically discreet and somewhat reassuring. “You couldn’t find a safer block probably anywhere in the country,” he said. “Sometimes, when there are people over for an event, I don’t lock the door.”
During the last presidential transition, administration officials like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway all bought homes within the same tiny area.
PHOTO: SANNA MANDER
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
How do you think the luxury real estate market in D.C. will change in the coming months? Join the conversation below.
“This current administration threw everyone in the housing market for a loop,” Mr. Heider said. “There were people coming from New York and Palm Beach, who were extremely wealthy and that upper bracket market went on fire,” Mr. Heider said.
It isn’t clear if Mr. Biden’s cabinet will be as affluent, or if those Trump administration officials will leave D.C. following President Donald Trump’s departure; as of now, none of their homes are publicly listed for sale.
As for the recent riot at the Capitol, Mr. Heider said he expects it to have little to no effect on demand for homes.
“Obviously, a breach of the Capitol building is not something to brush off, but Washington has been home to protest after protest for decades,” he said, though he noted that the curfews imposed because of the riot were inconvenient for residents. “This summer, there was looting and businesses being set on fire and it didn’t impact the real-estate market. It’s just part of living in Washington.”
The Trump Administration
After Donald Trump triumphed in the 2016 presidential election, real-estate agents reported a significant bump in interest in high-end homes in Washington, D.C., as some of President Trump’s wealthy appointees relocated to the district.
Some of the transactions included those by:
PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kellyanne Conway
In 2017, Kellyanne Conway, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, and her husband, attorney George Conway, purchased a roughly 15,000-square-foot mansion in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights area for $7.785 million, according to records and people familiar with the deal. The eight-bedroom house dates back to the 1920s and had previously been owned by Moeen Qureshi, once the acting prime minister of Pakistan, who first listed it for $22 million and then dropped the price several times.
PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Steven Mnuchin
In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin paid $12.6 million for a nine-bedroom mansion near Rock Creek Park, also in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights area, according to records and a person familiar with the deal. Built in 2001, the property spans about 16,000 square feet with a wine cellar and a media room.
PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rex Tillerson
In 2017, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his wife Renda St. Clair bought a four-bedroom Colonial Revival-style home in the Kalorama neighborhood for $5.5 million, according to public records, which indicate the couple still owns the property.
PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wilbur Ross
At the close of 2016, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Ross paid $10.75 million for a gated limestone Beaux-Arts mansion in Massachusetts Avenue Heights, records show. The property, which dates back to 1927 and sits on over an acre of land, was formerly owned by philanthropist Adrienne Arsht. The house had been on the market for $12 million, Zillow shows.
PHOTO: SHAWN THEW/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner
During her father’s administration, presidential adviser Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner rented a house in the Kalorama neighborhood from a company controlled by Andrónico Luksic. Mr. Luksic’s family is the wealthiest in Chile and controls a mining, banking and industrial empire worth billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company had purchased the home for $5.5 million in December 2016. It wasn’t clear how much the couple was charged in rent.
Ana Thue is currently a student at Emory University getting her degree in Physical Therapy. She hopes that one day she’ll become a physical therapist for dancers. She is a ballerina.
BUT that’s NOT why we are talking to Ana— it’s because of where she lives—It’s a TINY HOUSE — that means a house that is under 400 square feet And the trend to live in a TINY HOUSE is HUGE AND Ana is part of that trend—
Lois Whitman-Hess and Steve Greenberg of “Lying on the Beach on Camera” talk with Ana and get a look at what it’s like to live large in a small house.
In addition to being an author and public intellectual, Fran Lebowitz is also a prolific Amazon reviewer. Here are some of her most helpful one-star product reviews.
Garlic Salt (Three-Pack)
Are we this lazy?
We can’t chop garlic? We need to flavor salt?
Salt is a flavor. You understand?
Salt is already a flavor. We’re flavoring a flavor.
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Welcome Mat (Seventeen Inches by Thirty Inches)
I don’t like welcome mats.
They set an expectation that a guest in my apartment will actually be welcome.
Which isn’t always the case.
Instead of “Welcome,” it should say “O.K. Fine. You’re here. I’m here. Let’s get this over with.”
And there should be another mat for on the way out that reads “You see? Was this really necessary? I think a phone call would’ve sufficed.”
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Ultimate Foodie Cookbook” (Hardcover)
I despise the term “foodie.”
I mean, how is this a personality?
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Do you also like air? Water? Shelter?
Hammer (Sixteen Ounces, Craftsman)
What are we hammering?
Why do we, as humans, feel this need to put holes in things?
See, this is why I love New York. Everybody rents.
I’ve lived in my apartment for thirty-five years. I’ve never made a single hole.
There’s nothing hanging on the walls.
Even if I die here, I’m getting that security deposit back.
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Rubik’s Cube (Hasbro)
You finish it. Now what?
Congratulations, you have a slightly more attractive cube.
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Portable Cement Mixer (Ryobi)
Thank goodness it’s portable.
For when I need to mix cement, on the go.
You see, this is the problem with society. We’ve become so fixated on this idea of multitasking—getting multiple things done at once—that we can’t even mix cement without texting and eating a sandwich.
If your job is mixing cement, just focus on the cement, O.K.?
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Lunch can wait.
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Crayons (Crayola, Sixty-Four-Count)
You never see something written in crayon and think, Now this I gotta read.
The crayon is the tool of children and idiots.
If the Declaration of Independence were written in crayon, we wouldn’t be a country today.
No one would take it seriously. They’d go, “What is this, a placemat?”
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Selfie Ring Light (with Tripod)
People have this need to be constantly filming themselves.
I don’t understand why.
They think that something interesting might happen. They don’t want to miss it.
Let me clue you in—nothing interesting ever happens.
Maybe ten truly interesting things happen per year.
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None of them in your apartment. Five-Piece Drum Set
The people who bought this product shouldn’t be reviewing it.
Their neighbors should be.
They’ll give you the honest review.
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Amazon Echo Show 8 (Smart Display with Alexa)
I often think, There aren’t enough things spying on me. Let’s add another. But this time let’s cut out the middleman.
I mean, it’s truly something. People are intensely private.
And yet they will put a robot in their kitchen.
With a camera. And a microphone.
And talk to it.
Geniuses.
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Dry Shampoo (Pantene)
No.
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Coasters (Set of Five)
Listen, just by their name, they’re telling you they don’t do much.
They hold your drinks. That’s it.
Don’t expect anything more.
They’re coasters. They coast.
And, by the way, I endorse this as a general life style.
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Paper Shredder (Amazon Basics)
Do you work for the C.I.A.? No?
Then let me save you some time—keep your documents in one piece.
Trust me. No one is rooting through your garbage. No one cares.
Once you learn that, everything in life will make sense. No one cares.
About you. Or about anything.
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” by J. K. Rowling
I’ve never read “Harry Potter.” I never will read “Harry Potter.”
Do you know why this is?
Because I’m not twelve. O.K.?
I’ve had people—adults, mind you—tell me that I need to read this.
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“You need to read it.” No.
Eat. Sleep. Breathe. These are things I need to do.
Then there are the things I want to do. Which are not many.
So there are things I need to do, and things I want to do.
And I can tell you—“Harry Potter” is not on either list.
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Metal Detector (Ace 300)
If you see an adult using a metal detector, you know something has gone terribly wrong.
He’s lost something. And I say “he”—you never see a woman with a metal detector. It’s always a man.
So he’s lost one of two things. His wedding ring. Or, more likely, his mind.
And he’s listening for beeps. He’s shut out the rest of the world. His friends. His family. He’s only focussing on . . . the beeps.
This is what happens when you have a country that’s obsessed with material wealth.
This is the last domino of American capitalism.
A man with a metal detector, looking for buried treasure.
If you are not familiar with what a “meme” is, I copied and pasted the explanation above. “Memes” are used by millions of social media users every day to express a point of view, or just to be funny.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders became the subject of a “meme” during the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris last Wednesday. He attended the event with a casual look. TV viewers, across the world, felt Bernie was definitely one of the main attractions because he sat solo in a folding chair wearing mittens made out of recycled materials, and a warm winter jacket. Everyone else was formally dressed.
I don’t think any of the “memes” were meant to be disrespectful, so I hope no one takes it that way. This is just a way to give Bernie the attention he deserves. It’s not easy to compete with Lady Gaga or JLo. In fact, Bernie’s “meme” became so popular that Topps decided to memorialize the Senator.
Topps is releasing a limited edition of Bernie trading cards capturing some of his most memorable moments at the inauguration.
The following pictures do not come from the Topps collection. I found them on various social media sites. Creative folks inserted Bernie sitting on his folding chair in hundreds of iconic settings. Here are a few.
Now you know what a “meme” is.
The New York Times has a page one story on this today too.
IVANKA TRUMP APPARENTLY THINKS SHE’S GOING TO RIDE THIS INSURRECTION OUT AND BE PRESIDENT ONE DAY
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When Donald Trump was improbably elected president in 2016, his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner,were among the last people on earth one would consider qualified to work in the White House advising the leader of the free world. But being Trumps and Trumps by marriage, the duo obviously saw themselves as eminently equipped for the jobs, thanks to inflated professional titles given to them by their fathers over the years and chart-topping delusions of grandeur.
As Michael Wolff reported in Fire and Fury, though friends warned Javanka of the risks of getting into politics, “balancing risk against reward,” they “decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.” (Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when the couple had a serious conversation deciding—as though it was actually a possibility—that she would be the one to ascend to the Oval Office. “It’ll be me. I’ll be the president,” we assume the first daughter said in her whisper voice, touching Jared’s face in a gentle way so as to not break it.)
Of course, out here on planet earth, Ivanka was never, ever going to be president, not even if Trump turned out to be only one quarter of the unhinged sociopath the world has been forced to endure the last four years. And now that he’s incited a fascist mob to attack the Capitol and overturn the results of a free and fair election, the first daughter’s chances are about as likely as her father appearing on 60 Minutes this Sunday to tell the nation that he realizes the error of his ways and wishes he could take it all back.
The Trumps, though, have never had a firm grasp on reality, an obviously inherited trait that did notskip a generation and was passed down from father to daughter. While Ivanka appears to understand that the insurrection situation is not ideal for her brand—hence her furious attempts at damage control, including the decision to delete her tweet calling the violent mob “American patriots,” the first daughter still seemingly believes that she can salvage this whole thing and that the unintentionally hilarious plan she struck with Jared is still on track. According to the Daily Mail,Princess Purses had plans to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20 in an effort to “save her reputation” and her “promising political career,” which she believes is a real thing that exists.WATCH NOW: Lilly Singh Takes A Lie Detector Testnull
The report goes on to claim that Trump told his daughter it would be “an insult that she would even want to engage with the crooks [who] are trying to bring him down,” which checks out, and that he supposedly told her that “her presence at the inauguration will cost her thousands of supporters and would be the worst decision she could ever make.” Ivanka, according to the story, believed that attending the inauguration would come across as “being a good sport and [would] gain [her] future supporters.” According to a Daily Mail source, Ivanka made clear she “has to protect her own political aspirations.”
A White House source denied that the first daughter will attend the inauguration, and while we’re sure she would like people to think the Biden inaugural committee has welcomed her with open arms, it’s not actually clear that she would have been invited, in light of both the armed storming of the Capitol building and the fact that the proceedings are going to be pared down compared to past years. Presumably, the daughter of the guy who sent an army to stop Biden from becoming president would not be on the A, B, or even C-list for such an event.
Still, it’s entirely believable that Ivanka thinks she should be invited, and that she’s going to totally ride this thing out and ultimately emerge unscathed, her prospects of a shot at the White House unharmed despite her father’s supporters literally smearing shit through the halls of the Capitol. Among other things.
I finally write about it in DigiDame. Everyone spends a fortune on weddings that eventually fade in my memory. I will remember every detail of this one.
The wedding of Rachel Heyman, 36 and Adam Joseph, 43, will forever be one of our favorite New York stories. Eliot and I are long time friends of the groom, Adam, and now we have the bonus of Rachael. We feel very fortunate.
We attended a number of other weddings with Adam. He is the first cousin of our two godson’s, Philip and Brett Sklaw. Adam often told me he was born to be married. He was looking for the right woman. There were a few attempts, but that’s to be expected when you are looking for the perfect fit.
We are so proud of this awesome couple. The pandemic didn’t stop them from getting married on one of the most important nights of the year, New Year’s Eve. They picked the most romantic spot ever, the balcony of Rachel’s childhood apartment in the best city in the world. NYC, the city that never sleeps, is now home to the most creative wedding ever. The New York Times covered this storybook dream come true.
Rachel Jennifer Heyman did some quick-fire swiping on the Tinder dating app at her apartment in Manhattan one Saturday evening in January 2019 with her friend over glasses of wine, a variety of Trader Joe’s appetizers and reality TV.
“At points we would take each other’s phone,” she said, and swiped right for each other while sitting by the fireplace in the duplex Ms. Heyman shared with another friend on the Upper West Side. “It was easily a night of 50 to 100 swipes. Not that I’m liking all of them.”
Ms. Heyman, on and off dating sites for a decade, said she let potential matches “marinate” a couple of days before reaching out to Adam Seth Joseph, whose “warm smile” on the photo he posted caught her eye.
“We had this great normal banter,” said Ms. Heyman, 36, a clinical social worker, is the director of the opioid treatment program at the Center for Comprehensive Health Practice in East Harlem in Manhattan. She graduated from Binghamton University, and received a master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. “It was familiar, with no crazy red flags,” she said. “I loved that he was a special ed teacher and close to his family.”
Mr. Joseph, 43, works at St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, Queens, where he is a special-education teacher for P.S. Q23 at Queen’s Children Center. He graduated from SUNY Old Westbury and received a master’s degree in special education from Touro College.
“We understood the challenges of each other’s jobs,” she said.
But, the connection fizzled after two weeks. He was caught up in moving into his new co-op in Oakland Gardens, Queens, after a couple of years of staying with various friends after a tough breakup.
After losing touch for two weeks, something tugged at her while she was a mentor at a girl’s leadership retreat at the Main Idea at Camp Walden, a summer camp for economically-disadvantaged girls in Denmark, Maine.
“Camp makes me happy,” she recalled thinking. “These girls make me happy. Maybe, I was allowed to be happy. I reached out.”
That also gave Mr. Joseph, the boost he needed, and in mid-February, the day after he moved into his apartment, they met at an Upper West Side bar.
“I felt seen, and beautiful,” she said, as they walked over to Bar Veloce, after the first bar was too crowded.
Later when he asked if he passed the first level of the date, and she said yes, they went for sushi at Momoya across the street.
“It was the best first date I had ever been on,” he said, and they had a quick good-night kiss outside the 72nd Street subway.
After he began to walk away, he recalled, she shouted, “‘wait, wait, wait, one more.’” And, they had another quick kiss.
“I was honestly floating at that point,” she said.
They began dating and by the end of 2019 they spoke about getting married. She agreed to “change ZIP codes” and move to Queens after her lease was up in June 2020. But as the coronavirus pandemic set in, she began living there in March.
On Aug. 1, he proposed in a small park along the Hudson River in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
On Dec. 31, around 6:30 p.m., Shawn A. Cammy, ordained by American Marriage Ministries and her brother-in-law, officiated at a ceremony incorporating Jewish elements. About 150 friends and family watched on Zoom, as they married on the Upper East Side apartment terrace of the bride’s parents. Only immediate family attended in person.
“It ended and began the year on a sweet note,” she said.
