Marching with Grapes

Yesterday evening, the night before Adam's departure for DC. As we walked north toward Market Street Station, the brassy blares of a marching band sounded strangely close by. We followed the noise down to Broad street, and as we neared the small band of musicians, Adam realized that it was no ordinary band.

"Hey, it's a klezmer!"

"What's a klezmer?"

"It's for celebrating purim!"

"What's purim?"

"It's a Jewish holiday!"

"What does it celebrate?"

"I don't know."

With this insight, we joined the eclectic band of musicians-- among them, a tuba player, a trumpet player, an old grizzly-looking man carrying an adorable, wide-eyed hobbit-like child with a head of wild curly blond hair, and a young boy dressed like a giant grape with purple balloons attached to his body. A woman asked the grizzly old man what purim was.

"It's to celebrate the saving of the Jews from the Persian King!" he shouted over the colliding brass notes.

Were they saved by a bunch of oversized grapes? Anything was possible in the Biblical Age. We left the merry band at around 13th street and headed to the metro. It was time to go tango! The guest instructors this time, Adam and Ciko, were really great teachers with an intuitive style of teaching and learning. She was beautiful and sweet and he was charismatic and goofy. He also loved "that's what she said" jokes, so I liked him immediately. He was obviously a fellow "Office" fan.

I don't want to dwell-- this is what I decided, after all. Yet, whenever things like this happen-- a friend moves away, or you move away-- it's another reminder of the passage of time and how it will never return in the same form. As you lie in the present, you can't help looking both forward and backward at the things that used to be and the things that will never be again. That's all the dwelling I will do here.

 

  

  

 

  

 

 

Korean Compliment

"Wow, your skin is so white, it's like tofu!"

--from the Korean Romantic Comedy, "200-Pound Beauty"

Actually, they translated dooboo as 'bean curd', not 'tofu'.

Cause & Effect

Yesterday, as Adam and I were walking past a car at an intersection, it accidentally honked its horn, which made me scream out in surprise, which made Adam scream because he wanted to scream at the car too, which made the girl across the street from us laugh because she saw us screaming at the car.

Orange & White, Misty Light

It's 4 in the morning and the snow is coming down with a vengeance. I peeked out the bathroom window and watched amazed as the gusty winds blew gales of snow off of the rooftops and into the air lit dimly orange by the street lamps. Woosh! Woosh! Wow...the sky was strangely bright and in the distance, I could make out a faint sketch of the top of a city skyscraper blotting the otherwise uniform white with an eerie bluish light. There is magic in the air tonight.

What's the snow equivalent of "it's raining cats and dogs?" I believe it's something like, "it's snowing bunnies and polar bears." Indeed, the heaps of snow covering the cars and streets below are already a foot high and rising, rising!

Split Pea Soup Insanity

What would you wish you'd done before you died?

If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?

Watching Fight Club makes me want to do crazy things! Instead, this afternoon, I sat down at the bookstore cafe with a bowl of split pea soup. I LOVE split pea soup! Mainly because all the peas are disintegrated and all you taste is the delicious, savory ham flavor that has been infused into the broth during hours of simmering. After devouring the soup, I immersed myself in my current read: "Teach Yourself Persian". The craziness will come-- ain't no sense in rushing it.