It’s good Friday and the first night of Passover. The last time I remember this coincidence, I was living in Chicago, and it was also a full moon and Friday the 13th, in 1992. That was the year of the underground flood. Thank God we didn’t have so many coincidences this year – who knows what would have happened. As it is, I knocked over a bottle of Passover wine onto my iPhone, and smashed the screen. A little earlier, I discovered, in my land line phone messages, a message from the furnace guy left last Tuesday, that the E. Wash house is going to need a new furnace. Since Tuesday was election day, the furnace message was lurking amidst the robo-calls reminding me to go vote for Rick Santorum – good thing I’m a registered Democrat, so I can’t do that in the WI primary – and it did make me slightly happy to know that the Republican party’s records are bad enough that they were wasting their calls on me.
Passover dinner was delicious – although I made the meringues in state of fear and worry, right after I smashed the iPhone. I broke a wine glass while I was cleaning up after dinner, and a platter and a bowl also broke when the platter slipped out of my hands and landed on the bowl in the sink. And even after washing there’s a big red wine splotch on the stripey kitchen rug – or maybe it’s more like a red-wine shadow. I did a meat meal, so we had hummus and matzoh crackers and vegetables and olives to start, then briskit and roasted potatoes that Joëlle made, and farfel stuffing and asparagus salad that Molly brought. And of course matzoh ball soup, with a vegetarian broth. I made an almond cake – it had more ground nuts than matzoh meal and that’s what makes a good Passover cake, I think. I frosted it with seven-minute frosting – whipped egg whites. Jane brought the matzoh butter crunch. The only thing that got completely eaten was Joëlle’s potatoes – but the only leftover that I don’t think we’ll finish is the stuffing.
And, I guess – it’s just going to be about money – and time. $200 later, I have a new iPhone 4s in my pocket, and I spent another $90 ordering a faceplate fix-it kit, and a new sim card and phone service, so we can re-condition the smashed phone. It took me along time to get everything moved over to the new iPhone – and it was pretty terrifying in that computer upgrade way – you know, when you’re wondering, “Am I doing the right thing or am I actually wiping out all my stuff?” The new furnace is going to be in the $3,000 – $3,500 range – but the bills were pretty high, even during our weird mild winter, and maybe I’ll get some energy tax credits – so I’ll end up saving a little bit.
