Hi!
The past week or so has been particularly busy so I thought I’d share some details and pictures.
Day 1: Purim is an unusual little holiday in the Jewish calendar. It has become a bit of a “Jewish Halloween,” with costumes (“fancy dress” in British, I believe), and adults often dress up as well as children.
People dress as characters in the story, found in the Book of Esther, or as any other characters they choose. This year, in addition to the story characters, our congregation had at least one Wonder Woman (who looked gorgeous!), several characters from Dr. Seuss, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, and so on.
I feel I’m getting too old to play one of the youthful ladies in the story, so I dressed up in regal attire and invented a character that could have been in the story, Queen Vashti’s Mother.
Along with my purple and maroon gown I added long (heavy!) earrings that, over the course of the evening, probably made my ear piercings large enough for gauges.
And a pair of glittery sequinned 5-1/2” platform stilettoes.
We, my spouse and I, met up with a number of our friends, among the couple of hundred congregants and children, and had a great time. I participated in the costume party but didn’t win anything. A couple of my friends took first place, however, so I was happy for them.
There was an after-party with live music and hors d’ouvres and we all ate, danced, and had a good time.
By the way, from a historic point of view, I did some homework and found that Rabbi Judah (Yehuda) Mintz-Ha-Levi, a Sixteenth Century Rabbi from Spain, had written a “Responsa,” an opinion document, in which he said that men should be allowed to wear women’s clothing on Purim in spite of Deuteronomy 22:5. While his opinion was not widely accepted among other Rabbis, it is very interesting that he took this position some 500 years ago.
Day 2: Pretty much of a recovery day, we did some work and in the evening we met up with my son and his gf, along with Eryn and her spouse, and four other friends and went to dinner.
Day 3: Saint Patrick’s Day. One of my women’s groups had decided to celebrate the day by wearing green and getting together for dinner. About 25 of us gathered and had a lovely dinner.
I had a pretty atrocious green skirt and top and, just for fun, I wore it with the same purple glittery platform stilettoes as the night before. The restaurant is one where you order at a counter and servers bring your meal to you, but you get your own plates, silverware, drinks and sauces. If you ever want to get noticed, just travel in a pack of wildly costumed women and make several trips back and forth to the drink, etc., area in an atrocious bright green outfit and purple stilettoes!
Day 4: Our regular evening trivia game at the gastropub with Eryn and her spouse and other friends.
While getting dressed I had one of those “bloat moments” in that the blouse I’d planned to wear didn’t quite look right, so I grabbed a new beaded green top I had hanging nearby and wore it instead.
We had a great time, as we always do, but it was a rather complex evening. In addition to our table, my son and his gf were there, as was a table composed of my guyworld best guy friend, his wife (who is one of my best girlworld friends), his twin sister (also one of my best girlworld friends), his older sister (who only knows me in guyworld), and his cousin visiting from out of town. The mix also included his daughter and his twin sister’s daughter. There was lots of wandering back and forth and lots of hugs from those who know me en femme. Life gets very strange sometimes in my world!
Day 5: My spouse and I, along with my son and his gf, went to a Kenny Rogers concert at the Saban theater in Beverly Hills. Kenny and his band put on a good show and we had a lot of fun. Afterwards, around midnight, the four of us had supper at Canter’s Deli, an historic landmark, on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Open 24-hours a day they definitely have great corned beef and pastrami!
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Originally Posted by Persephone
