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cellioWell, two years ago I was getting ready for a wedding a few weeks later, and last year I'd been laid off and was in the midst of a job hunt, but this year I found a friend who would drive me down and we went. What a blast!
I didn't really know what to expect from the seudah, other than that it would involve copious quantities of alcohol. It was definitely not a frat party, though -- much more, err, I guess the word I'm looking for is "mature", even though it got quite silly.
There were about 25 adults and at least twice that many bottles of alcohol (maybe triple). Silly me, I had thought that this revolved around wine -- so I brought two bottles of wine (to cover me and Gail) and one bottle of scotch as a present for Yaakov. Most of the alcohol there was hard liquor, though we did drink wine too. (Needed it for the kiddush, at least.) I drank wine. I drank bourbon. I drank 22-year-old scotch. I drank quite a bit of a truly yummy root-beer liqueur. I drank more on Tuesday than I had in the preceeding year, I'd bet. (Fortunately, I remember how to drink from my college days, so I was also drinking lots of water. I was also inserting caffeine, though strictly speaking that's not a good idea.)
We sang songs, lots of them. I'm not sure what; there was a song sheet and I recognized some of them, but I didn't retain the knowledge. (As the day went on, Yaakov also didn't retain the melodies. :-) ) We sang Mao Tzur because there are as many Purim verses as Chanukah verses. A couple people shared so-called Torah insights (humorous, of course).
There was a vast quantity of food. I suspect Yaakov had about two pounds of meat per person (or per adult, anyway); either lots of people surprised him with contributions or he massively over-estimated. We never got to the 10 pounds of lamb stew, and we barely touched the huge pot of chili. Pity; they both smelled wonderful. But I was already full by the time they were ready to come out.
The "ham" was quite tasty. (Yes, illusion food.) I crave the knowledge of how to do that; it really did taste remarkably close to what I remember. (It was a veal shoulder roast.) There was also a haggis -- yes, real, kosher haggis. Who'd've thought? And it was brought in accompanied by a real live piper who was actually good. :-) (It was Yaakov's 35th birthday, so there was an extra reason to celebrate.)
I don't think anyone there (except Rivka, who went and took a nap) fulfilled tha halachic obligation (yes, drinking is a requirement unless it'll actually damage you!) of drinking until you can no longer distinguish between "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordechai". Periodically Yaakov (who was getting quite blitzed) and I had an exchange that went like this:
"Hey Yaakov, who's the good guy?"
"Mordechai rocks!"
"You need more scotch."
Gail had wanted to leave around 5 so we'd be back in Pittsburgh in time to get enough sleep before work the next morning. (She told me to go ahead and drink what I like and she'd drive. I owe her a big favor.) On our way out it occurred to me that perhaps leaving Silver Spring (on the DC beltway) at 5pm on a weekday wasn't the brightest move in the world (see, I was sober enough for that!), but it turned out not to be a problem. The HOV lanes kicked in at 2 people, and there were no delays in them. Aside from a bit of construction slow-down, the traffic didn't give us any problems.
We went down Monday night, getting to Seth and Karen's around 11pm. (We were aiming for earlier, but Gail's boss was being a pain and she was late getting home from work.) We hung around and chatted with them for about an hour, and then I figured we better head to Yaakov's because he was probably waiting up for us and I didn't want to be rude. I knew his shul's megillah reading would be at 6:30am. (Yeah, being polite to Seth and Karen also seemed like a good idea, but they seemed happy to keep talking even though it was late.) Well, not to worry -- Yaakov was up cooking, and Gail and I promptly started to help. It was about 2:30 when we got to sleep. Gail had told me around midnight that she wasn't getting up for a 6:30 megillah reading; by the time we went to bed I knew I wasn't, either. I assume Yaakov did, though I never asked.
We were woken up fairly early (7:30 or so) by Aaron, who is three years old and doesn't have a volume control yet. We were also sleeping in a room without a door. Around 8:30 we gave up, got up, and went upstairs to see folks. (Yaakov's parents were staying with them too. They seem like nice people.) After we had breakfast Gail and I helped cook while Yaakov and his father went out to deliver mishlach manot (food gifts to friends) and Rivka and Aaron went off somewhere for a little while. (Grocery store, I think.)
I didn't really spend as much time at the seudah talking with Seth and Karen as I had expected; oh well. With luck I'll get another chance to schmooze with them soon. Aside from them, Yaakov and Rivka, and one other guest, I didn't know the people there -- but there were a lot of people who were fun to talk with, some of whose names I might even remember some day.
Much as I enjoyed this, I probably won't make it down next year. It's a long trip for a short visit; for all practical purposes we could have day-tripped it and gotten more sleep in the process. But it's still a 4.5- or 5-hour drive (closer to 5 on the way back; we made more pit stops). I'd like to be able to attend, or maybe host, something like this in Pittsburgh, if I could find or create the critical mass of people who would actually sing and otherwise have fun at a multi-hour feast. I don't think I know any local Jews who would actually take Purim (or Purim afternoon, at least) off from work to do something like this. Gail pointed out that in two years Purim is on a Sunday, so we might be able to get people interested in that. We'll see; I don't need to do anything about this thought for at least a year and three quarters. :-)
Re: Haman and oncoming traffic
Date: 2002-03-09 09:11 pm (UTC)