Amy Lowndes (Iġri)

i saw amy with a flip phone on the M line and now i want one

1. A Standing Lunch Date - every Tuesday I get vegetable scallion pancake sandwiches from Vanessa’s ($3.50 at the Chinatown location) and have lunch with my 86-year-old drawing teacher. We spend an hour complaining, gossiping, and catching up before the evening class. It makes me feel like I’m not falling off the face of the earth to have something to come back to at the same time every week.

2. Going To The Opening of An Envelope - this is supposed to be an insult, but I’m trying to be the kind of person that shows up whenever someone thinks to invite me, no matter how far away or scary or lame or weird or scene-y it is. I think generally having a novel experience, and sometimes even having a bad or frictional novel experience, is better than not doing anything at all.

3. Drawing from Life - anyone can draw. Drawing has a low barrier for entry but requires a level of concentration and contemplation that can feel almost prayerful. You can beatify something with your attention. Things are made special because you care about them enough to sit and draw them. Draw a leaf, or a building, or your friend. Draw it carefully, and don’t be frustrated if it looks bad. Try to think of it as an artifact of your effort. If you feel ambitious, come to Spring Studio at 91 Canal for a figure drawing class (I monitor some classes here.) Thursdays are even pay what you wish.

4. Praying Mantises - Last week, my praying mantis Patience died. It was sad. She lived for ten months, which is normal for a praying mantis, and she was loved by all who met her. I think praying mantises are good apartment pets because they are interesting to watch, able to be handled, and you only have to feed them once or twice a week. Patience is my fourth praying mantis and I am convinced that they all had very distinct personalities. Maybe that sounds slightly crazy.

5. Shared Notes with my Friends - I love the shared notes function. My friend Jimmy and I have one for baby names, and another one for classic things we think of (like red apples and number two pencils and getting catcalled by construction workers.) The app alerts me when he adds a new one, and it’s a fun way to stay in touch without the immediacy and demands of text messaging.

6. Taking Pride in Your Work - My dad always told me to do whatever I do well, and that how you do something is how you do everything. I love when I meet someone who clearly takes what they do seriously. Once I went into a shoe store and the clerk guessed my shoe size immediately. Things like that.

7. Complete Surrender to my Radio Alarm Clock - my radio alarm clock is my favorite thing I own right now. There is something so nice about turning on the radio and listening to whatever is on. If I don’t like what is available on the three stations I know on the radio, I don’t listen to anything at all. I think generally we are exhausted from too much choice, and listening to something that isn’t algorithmically prescribed for me feels like being involved in the larger project of Living in A Society and not so much in my own iPhone world.

8. Good/Easy Manners - I have always been really obsessed with Emily Post. She famously wrote that ‘Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.’ When I meet someone who has good manners, who is polite and at ease with themselves and remembers little courtesies, it really makes an impression. I’m trying to have better manners.

Listen Without Prejudice to AM/FM radio!