The Party's Over

it is 1:30 a.m. in the holy city of zefat.  i just cleaned up after my ladies purim party.  yes folks,  i threw a party for women.  after a couple of weeks of do i or don't i, i finally gave in and called a party.  i advertised for weeks in the local email zefat line and got pretty much no response.  i met ladies on the street who saw my ad and seemed interested.  i had two ladies car pooling and i thought that i had a shot of getting in a crowd.

i think we were 12 ladies in and out tonight.  i guess you could call us the mighty dozen.  there was never a crowd at any one moment.  i made frantic calls on Friday to beg ladies to come.  i am not ashamed to admit that i played the cancer card as best as i could.  "after all, last year i spent purim in the oncology ward.  don't you think you should come to my party while we are all alive".  i think the rap went something like that.  one lady had epilepsy and i promised her medical marijuana if she came.  i actually have a bit that my son got for me last year.  thank goodness, i never needed any.

i had a few last minute drop outs, too.  one lady couldn't get into the van.  she was in pain and couldn't maneuver her body to get in.  another lady, who resides at a senior citizen's residence fell asleep.  one of my designated drivers called to cancel on friday.  she wasn't finished cooking for the shabbat and purim so she couldn't come out to party.  another lady couldn't reach the first designated driver tonight and i guess she couldn't jump into a cab.  a lady from efrat who started this whole party going, lost her ride to zefat so she cancelled.  it's not enough that i called to invite people to a party, provided heat and a clean place, live entertainment, and refreshments, too.  i have to get them here also.

it is so depressing that i can't get a crowd together.  a lot of ladies go to the chabad house in the old city. what's so frustrating is the fact that it was i, with another gal, who established the purim party at the chabad house many years ago.  there is a need for older ladies to party without kids around.  i can't stand partying with younger ladies, either.  no one really dressed up for the party except for me , my co party promoter, and one other lady.  i was dressed as a city clean up person.  i found a city clean up person's vest in the street and voila! i had a costume.  i safety pinned a large garbage bag to my vest and wore authentic work gloves. sorry no pix of me , as usual.

we performed our purim parody of the cold play song 'viva la vida".  we also did our white house skit about hu jintao, a newer version of 'who's on first'.  the ladies liked it a lot.  my friend played her keyboard for hours.  at one point she was playing disco music and one lady was singing in russian.  it was bizarre.  it didn't really go together.  it was a bit trippy.  at one point i thought i was going crazy.  i drank a bit of cheap vodka and felt much better.

a popular rabbi's wife came.  she was right in the spirit of things.  at one point we were all in the kitchen doing the 'twist'.  i seem to remember that they played the limbo.  i ran to get my sponger stick and it was great fun.  it was great to be able to move again.  i think the remedy helped my chronic fatigue.  i have been doing things non stop lately.  i managed to fix some cracks in the walls and repaint them lately.  i did a manic pesach cleaning job in all three bedrooms on thursday during the fast day.  i baked some non gluten sesame cookies and dairy corn muffins and cooked the shabbat meal, too.  i never really went to sleep on thursday night and got up and started cooking for purim at 6:00 a.m..

i had a decent nap this afternoon and  got ready to hear the megillah.  my daughter-in-law took my grandson to a party at his gan so i got stuck with my 2 year old granddaughter.  i carried her three blocks to shul.  she was pretty well behaved and finally got the hang of using the grogger when they called haman's name.  i came prepared.   she had a pacifier in her mouth and a package of sour sticks in her hand.  we actually arrived a little late but i couldn't see finding another reading.  i'll do better tomorrow.

i took my grandson to shul with me this morning to hear parshat amalek.  he played outside for most of the time.  it worked out okay.  i set up the living room on thursday and decided to use paper plates for shabbat.
clean up was easy.  i didn't want to be saddled with ton's of pots and pans and dishes before my party.  i made a simple meal.  i had piquant fish with carrots and potatoes, stewed chicken and packaged couscous.  i made an israeli salad and a cole slaw.  for lunch i made a chicken cholent.  i bought hamentashen.

for purim i made beef meatballs and sweet chili buffalo wings.  my daughter-in-law made a chinese chicken strips dish with peppers.  i have three packages of cocktail franks to make tomorrow.  i need to make a dipping sauce, i guess.  the kids want to barbecue so i am defrosting liver.  they love it here.  i don't really know how many people are coming.  i can always freeze the leftovers.  i bought pumpkin in bowl shapes to fill with lentils.  i don't know if i will get around to it.

i am pretty tired right now.  i opened the table leafs and put on a clean cloth.  that's all i could do tonight.  i am heading straight for bed.  i'm not even washing off the makeup.  i'm beat.  but it was a real upbeat zelda tonight.  haven't danced this much in years.  happy purim!!