home for Purim

The savvy among you will immediately get the association with 'For Your Consideration' - the rest of you should go rent it.

Yes, it's Purim, and last night I played piano at Havurah for their annual fun-fest. It was great to see all the little kids, and the parents who also got into the spirit of things (there were many bottles of spirits being appreciated).

Many memories, of course, of Purims past, in my little home town in upstate New York. It's too bad that my boys won't have those rich memories of the all-consuming Jewish experience that I had.

At any rate, it's now Sunday morning, and I am all alone in the house. It's a rare thing. Karen is in San Diego for a law conference, and, since Ben moved out a couple of weeks ago, that leaves me and the animals.

I made myself a strong mug of coffee and that went down just right.

I am playing a set of jewish music with friends at the Cedar Sinai home this afternoon, and spent an hour playing thru the playlist that Ed sent earlier this morning. Should be a fun program - we are doing it twice: once in the Rose Schnitzer auditorium (that has a wonderful, familiar piano) and then across the street, at the Robison nursing facility, where the audience is a lot more 'lower-key'.

My fingers feel very nimble, which is good, considering that the next big concert is March 11th, a very public event that is part of Jewish Arts Month, and the group only has one major rehearsal scheduled!

But I digress.

After playing wildly in my empty house, filling it with music, I let the silence creep back in, then went out onto the back porch, where I sat quietly for a while, finished my coffee, and watched the birds and squirrels, trees, and flowering shrubs. It's spring, and there was (naturally - it's a Jewish holiday!) a full moon last night, which means that I slept erratically.

I am home for Purim, and alone. For today, that's OK.

A friend of ours, who is selling his house and needed a place to crash for a while, is temporarily moving into our freshly-cleaned and furnished basement room tomorrow, so my time alone is coming to an end.

I should be working on taxes, but I am listening to the Yiddish Hour on KBOO (Liz is hosting today - she is in the group that I'm performing with this afternoon). It's all OK.

Happy Purim, y'all.