Three Months Later, She Replied

After Rabbi Jennifer Anne Gubitz reactivated her lapsed dating app memberships and joined new ones in August 2017, she was intrigued by a three-month-old message on JDate from Matan BenYishay who had the screen name TzedekNerd (tzedek means justice in Hebrew). “Oh no,’” Rabbi Gubitz, who goes by Jen, recalled thinking, and quickly messaged him.…

Home Renovation for the Pandemic

Kristen Meehan’s home office is often a brown Adirondack chair on her front lawn, with hedges that make a halfway decent Zoom backdrop. “Every time I’m on a video call, people are like, ‘Are you in a forest?’” said Ms. Meehan, 31, who lives not in the woods, but in a four-bedroom house in Montclair,…

Shhh! We’re Heading Off on Vacation

Next month, Elena Gaudino will fly from New York to Las Vegas, rent an S.U.V. and drive to the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park and other desert destinations. The 10-day road trip stands in for her favorite annual tradition — Burning Man, the Nevada arts festival that was canceled this year because of the…