http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/nyregion/metropolitan-diary-the-life-cycle-of-one-new-yorker.html 2016-10-03 02:31:11 The Life Cycle of One New Yorker A young mother measures the passage of time in the exchanging of phone numbers. === Dear Diary: It was my second night living in the city and it showed. Tables cleared, I was dancing at Son Cubano in the meatpacking district with fast friends, my bright red swingy dress announcing my out-of-towner status in a sea of slinky black. Spilling out onto the cobblestone streets after closing, I found myself giving out my number with shameless abandon, too flush with a newcomer’s overconfidence to care. Eight years later, another bar, a different world. It’s 2 p.m., and I’m in Brooklyn, seated at a cafe in my beloved Cobble Hill. I’m holding my 6-week-old daughter as I attempt my first mom meet-up. I bumper-car my way through new faces. Labor, bodily functions, breast-feeding — we have surface conversations about the most intimate corners of our lives. Eventually we file out onto the sidewalk. Sober and achingly vulnerable, my throat gets thick as I turn to the woman I’ve been talking to. “Can I get your number?” I ask.