Everything's Quiet On Pesach Day

 So it's the second Passover during our modern plague times. For the past years, pre pandemic, we've been hosted by Joey's parents, and have had a grand time. They have about 30 people, and we go through the hagaddah Joey wrote a few years ago, in honor of his departed grandfather, and share tales of growing up in the US, Israel, and South America. A few years ago, one of Joey's cousins allowed as to how his proudly Sephardic father derisively called Ashkenazim "gefilte fish eaters." I LOVED that, and have taken to calling my homies GFEs, as in, "Waddup, my GFE?" In fact, I can certainly do without that strange food -- although with enough horseradish it is at least edible.

Last year, we participated in a Zoom seder. Today, we have the Ds, their men, and the beautiful grandson coming over early, on account of the baby's sleeping schedule, and will do our own abridged seder. We ordered in from Shaddai, a great Lebanese place, and I go fetch the food at noon. Wifey also ordered a flourless chocolate cake from comically expensive Joanna's marketplace. Food tragedy nearly ensued.

The cake was ready for pickup at 4, and we forgot. No problem, Wifey said, they're open until 7. So we rolled up a t5:40 to fetch the cake, and they were CLOSED. Apparently during the pandemic they close early. Luckily, they let me in to pay the $60 for the cake. Otherwise, I would have had to compete today with countless Karens, all vying for their Passover meals. It would have been awful.

So we'll sit around the table, and kvell at the baby, and it should be a tensosity-free day. After the kids leave, Wifey scheduled a Zoom cocktail party with Edna in Atlanta -- no seder for her this year -- Marc is post surgery, and their kids haven't yet been jabbed. So we'll talk Moses over the Zoom.

Tomorrow night, we have dinner plans with Joelle and Kenny and their boys -- probably an outdoor restaurant at the Falls. I'd like to say I keep kosher for Passover, but I don't. But at least I DO feel a bit guilty with each bite of leavened bread -- for a moment. I guess I'm the clueless son from the 4 questions.

That said, we WILL share the hard core schmurah matzo at our seder table -- one box from Chabad of UF, and one from Chabad of Kendall. It's the ultra pure stuff baked only for the holiday. Years ago, on a tour in Crown Heights, I got to visit a bakery -- it was positively Dickensian. My friend Nechama's father worked there. It was something to see -- the flour and water are only allowed together for seconds, lest micro levels of leavening happen before the very hot oven stops it. Ah -- tradition.

So I plan to at least reflect on my Bob Marley-esque view of the holiday. I'll try to emancipate myself from the mental slavery we all endure -- thankful that I'm not a REAL slave, with chains, and whips, and all that Charlton Heston/Cecille B DeMille stuff.

And I'll hope for emancipation from this damned virus. It'll be REAL nice to all be together again next year -- at Joey's parents' house with lots of people.