Costumes Are Us

it is 8:30 p.m. on thursday nite in the holy city of zefat. zvi just went out to play basketball with his brother-in-law. apparently, there is a bunch of haredi guys who get together and play on a regular basis. who knew?

zvi was always a goalie in soccer. i do not believe that he ever played basketball in his life. my father up in heaven should be kvelling. when zvi was a young boy i actually took him to the local school yard to shoot some hoops. i was pretty good at it. he was not.

i was watching sahar until a little while ago until he gave me a shot in the mouth with the remote control. it is a miracle that he didn't knock out my front tooth. luckily, the bottle of arnica was nearby. it is way too cold in my house to apply ice. zvi took him back downstairs to his mom. poor guy wanted to know why his son is so violent.

i went to volunteer at the senior's today. my new thing is to dance for them. every thursday they have a half hour concert with a lovely russian lady and man. she plays organ and he plays guitar. they are totally out of sync with each other. it's hilarious. anyway, i got all the seniors to play marachas and tambourines. it was good fun. too bad, that i got winded easily. i'm really out of shape. after more than two weeks on the south beach, i only lost 2 pounds. i knew i shouldn't have all those carrots. oh well...

i get to see the homeopath next week. perhaps, she can give me a remedy to speed up the old metabolism. afterall, i've got to fit into my purim costume soon. i spent the entire day, nearly 6 hours, yesterday, creating a persian style crown for my nephew. i had bought an adult one in town and tore it apart. i hand sewed the pieces onto a large velvet kipa. i kept adding parts and more trim and even cut up a silk shirt for the colored stones.

i didn't really like how it turned out. i'm not a perfectionist but i know what i like. i had an old children's costume cape and i cut it down to size and added tons of trim. i'm still not satisfied with it. it needs for pizaz. i'm also struggling with the pantaloons that i bought for a small fortune in the second hand clothes store. i extended the waistband by adding some silver and white elastic. it still needs trim and a bit of a hem.

i also need to finish up the ballet costume for my niece. i think i should have just sprung for new costumes. i started remodelling a dress for a friend for the purim party. i haven't touched it in a week. the house is covered in bits of thread and trim and i need to make shabbat for the kids tomorrow and babysit too.

i do have a month to finish the dress but i'm anxious to get it done already. i love costumes. costumes is my life. i wanted to be a costume designer in my youth. i designed the costumes for our high school sing for 3 years. i won best costume award twice. i even beat out the seniors one year. i was going to be the next edith head.

i don't know how i lost sight of my dream. why didn't i go to fashion school? i don't really remember when it stopped being important to me. i always loved dressing up on halloween. i even won third prize in a costume contest at the waldorf astoria back in the day. i have always wanted to dress people for purim. my fantasy was a purim boutique called "costumes are us".

you can get everything for purim nowadays at the local toy stores. they even had obama masks last year. but my costumes are original. they are made from real clothes that i buy in second hand stores. i then mix it up with trims and wigs and costume jewelry. hopefully, i'll get some pix put on the blog this purim.

i bought a store made lion costume for sahar. it was relatively, cheap. it fit him just right. of course, he had no patience to wear it. i showed him how he looked in the mirror and he was quite amused. i want to create a small crown and attach it to the lion's head making him a lion king. we'll see. i don't think the clan will appreciate his being an animal. what could i do? the bumble bee and the mickey mouse costumes were very costly and there is no way that he would keep the headbands on.

i haven't even thought about cooking for shabbat. so far i defrosted a package of chopped chicken meat. i bought a lettuce and package of humus in town. i'll go to the local super with sahar in the morning and buy potatoes, carrots, and fish. i might even make some tomato relish. let's face it, my head is in purim and costumes.
i would love to dress sahar up as a chassid but the kids aren't into it.

i wish you all a shabbat shalom!