Don't Really Want Anything

Long afternoons appear most days.  Sunday morning, previously Me Time, has been absorbed to other open times since retiring.  On a chronic basis, I would start the day at the local Brew HaHa with a large porcelain mug of their dark roast blend, fortified with a dash of half  & half, shake of either Cinnamon or nutmeg, and sometimes a packet of brown sugar.  Then once it is confirmed that the table doesn't wobble, I would set down the mug and open up my weekly planning kit.  More often than not I would complete the plan before the coffee, leaving me with a few minutes to surf the web on my tablet.  Next stop most weeks, the Target Store.  I rarely bought anything but started at Mens Clearance, then Mens, then onward to kitchen ware and small appliances.  On the way in I would look at the weekly ads that they posted on the entrance, but even on sale, other places had better prices.  Then home.  Often later in the day I would go to a different store:  Boscovs or TJ Maxx for clothing, Shop-Rite or Trader Joe's for groceries, Total Wine for tasting and maybe purchase, Cabelas to see what fishing gear they had on sale, or the New Castle Farmers Market for a haircut and tour of the Chinese discount store.  I needed very little, wanted a little more, but rarely indulged except if there were a really good deal on shoes in my hard to find size.  Retirement has not changed my needs but it has largely obliterated my wants, so much so that my presence in any store other than periodic grocery shopping has plummeted.

Not that I ever found puttering around the stores a disheartening experience.  It was a diversion from work, how I might take some of what I earned out of storage and convert it to tangible goods or satisfy the few wants that I had.  Now it's different.  I just don't want anything and don't seek out a prompt of what I might want but don't realize yet.  It's better this way.

Learning Mah Jongg

Our branch of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offers a series of classes, some at a university level, as my class on vaccinations taught by a retired university biology professor, some at the pitch the political hardball level, and some better classified as recreation.  I try to nurture a new exposure, with the likely false hope that it will become an interest.  Woodcarving did not.  This semester, it's Mah Jongg.  I am not the only male in the class, but we are a small subset.  I guess a college version of this might be a good place to pick up girls, the matronly version is not.

To my surprise, about 30% of the class were people like me who have never played.  Being mostly 60-somethings and beyond, we watched our mothers play but never got invited to learn.  It may have skipped a generation since we are rediscovering this past-time, not as homemakers looking for an evening away from our kids but as empty nesters.  Amid my high school Facebook chums, there is a renewed interest, all pursued post-menopausally.

I bought a card, paying a dollar extra for a big print version.  I assumed there were a series of cards published by the Mah Jongg organization but it turns out all cards each season are identical.  So why not just have a library and lend the cards when they are needed?  It makes money for the association and is definitely more convenient for each player to have a card.  The appropriate hands and sequences are many and they are diverse.  Fortunately they are subdivided into themes so that with a weekly session, people can probably get familiar with their options in the first quarter and as new cards replace the old each year, the broad themes should remain even if the details of each tile sequence vary a little.  The tiles have a complexity that exceeds playing cards but of similar concept.  The rules are few, mostly protocol of who goes in which order.  A single Roberts Rules Parliamentarian in each foursome should suffice.

I played my first game, following my own card.  I got sets of four, some jokers, but not the same sets of four that my card options specified.  There are some multipurpose tiles that I do not fully understand yet.

I don't really know why this game generally attracts women, as the strategies are gender neutral.  It may be like cooking or teaching where the bulk are women but the head chefs and principals are predominantly men.  Or maybe it's a place to not have men.

Menus

When I invested in a kitchen remodel a couple of years back, it was with the intent of having it as a Kosher work space, relatively uncluttered with what I need when I need it.  Food preparation and cleanup afterwards has become a form of recreation, though more event to event than the steadier stream of challenging my skills than originally intended.  I go from birthdays to yom tovim to Thanksgiving.  Rosh Hashanah approaches so preparation begins, with a slight calendar advantage of the main dinner occurring on a Sunday evening.

Some things are traditional.  There is wine for kiddush.  Challah for motzi is usually round.  After buying one for many years, they have gotten expensive and are not that hard to make, though sometimes tedious.  I made my own last year, better than what I buy.  Infusing raisins into the dough has become traditional, and maybe adding some honey to the batter adds to the tradition.  Apples covered with honey also starts the meal.  Apples have gotten rather expensive the last couple of years.  I only need one for this ritual, but the price has deterred my using apples as an ingredient, particularly for apple-walnut pie which I make a few times a year, but it being milchig, it is not suitable for Rosh Hashanah.  I have made wonderful pareve apple cakes for dessert, though honey cake, known as lekach, is more traditional, and rather easy to make.  Appetizers are a distraction, so I plan to make soup instead.  I could use a mix, maybe premade stock with noodles, maybe a bean soup that I start from scratch.  Have a few weeks to decide.  Making soup is usually straightforward and mostly forgiving of misjudgments of what to put in it.  I usually make a salad, often an Israel salad with cubed tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers but tabouli may be better.  I have a mix for this and can add the produce.  The entree is still open.  A large whole chicken occupies a lot of space in my freezer, obtained free with a discount coupon, I forget if Thanksgiving or Pesach.  There are lots of ways to make this but roasted whole usually comes out well.  It takes a couple days to defrost.  Half turkey breast is another option, usually available in the Empire section of Shop-Rite.  And then there is beef but this has become prohibitive in price.  I don't think a family Rosh Hashanah meal is the best forum for an expensive brisket.  My wife makes a rice kugel each year.  And vegetable is traditionally a carrot, known as mirren in Yiddish, which when converted to Hebrew brings a wish for bounty in the new year.  Sometimes I make them glazed, sometimes Moroccan with cumin and parsley.

A small adventure to which I look forward each fall.