The Great Lulav & Estrog Adventure 2011.
OY VEY today was half hilarious and half painful as I went to Pico Blvd to get the Estrog and the Lulav. Last night Bill helped me build the sukkah frame, he got beamed on the head 2x.
I asked Cindy to come with me so I could use the car pool lane and we could then go find us some FOOD TRUCKS! We got to the area about 10:40a.m. Last year there had to have been 20 different tables with little boys hawking their wares. Not this year. Just 2. Both were over flowing with people pushing and grabbing... I circled back at Doheney and we pulled up to the curb. Cindy rolled down her window. They said $45. I had already heard about the embargo so was prepared for the financial investment. Last year I got a set for us and for our elderly friends the Halperins because they were only charging $15 each. Well the boys didn't have change so we had to circle the block to get parking. I check out the many open boxes of pretty scrawny yellow green fruit. Found one I liked and then couldn't keep the attention of any of the kids as they were scrambling under the table trying to get all 3 different branches. Cindy sits down at the cafe in front of them holding onto the precious fruit in a box. So I then go into the Kosher grocer to buy an apple in order to break a $20. I come out and the boys still have NOT put together the lulav... 4 teens and no one in charge. They are out of myrtle? So we wait... and we wait... many cars pull up and the boys keep telling everyone come back in 10 minutes. They get on their cell phones and ask for resupply, another couple of teens show up and they say that they will be right back. It is now 12:30... and the boys tell one man that he can go himself up to Chabbad and pick up his Lulav. So I ask him if I can walk with him, no because he is driving but he points out the building seriously a block and a half away across the street. Go in there he tell me. I leave Cindy with the estrog on my quest. Note if you will that everyone else around us are pretty frum dressed with hair covering and kippot. I'm taller than most, purple hair, and a bright green t-shirt that reads BAZINGA!... Cindy is Hawaiian looking and kept getting asked by others arriving if these items are kosher. I now enter the Chabbad building to see TONS of Estrog being examined detail by detail by several Rabbi. There are boxes of wrapped palm fronds, and willow but there aren't any boxes of myrtle. A kind young man approaches me and I'm very respectful and tell him the youths directed me here as I only need the lulav. I hand him my $45 by placing it on the table so as he doesn't have any chance of contact with myself. Those who are thoroughly Orthodox won't ever touch another woman outside of their own wife, some won't even talk to others so I figure it's all good. Now he is being barraged by at least 20 other people and he can barely make any progress into the building. Everyone has to speak with him, wish him Hag Samach, ask him how to tell if the palm is kosher, etc, etc., A line has formed behind me, all men and so we all wait... It is now 1:30 when he gets back to me, can I wait... I've come here from Ontario so I'm not leaving... Oh dear he is now fretting, eventually out of thin air some branches of myrtle appear. I'm all ready to grab and run but NO NO NO they must be examined to the leaf that none are broken and that this is a blemish free branch... His sincerity and concern for proper kosher was so admirable. I left there with the lulav to look down the block and the boys and table are gone. Cindy is sitting there in front of the cafe with the estrog!!! Sucess... we then drove to Wilshire Blvd. in front of the LACMA are about 12 food trucks. We got some lunch from Steel City Sandwich (Perogi and Jenny Craig french fries) and Dim Sum truck amazing chicken kung pow taco and shrimp dumplings! The drive home had us back just before 3:00 p.m. TIRED
I asked Cindy to come with me so I could use the car pool lane and we could then go find us some FOOD TRUCKS! We got to the area about 10:40a.m. Last year there had to have been 20 different tables with little boys hawking their wares. Not this year. Just 2. Both were over flowing with people pushing and grabbing... I circled back at Doheney and we pulled up to the curb. Cindy rolled down her window. They said $45. I had already heard about the embargo so was prepared for the financial investment. Last year I got a set for us and for our elderly friends the Halperins because they were only charging $15 each. Well the boys didn't have change so we had to circle the block to get parking. I check out the many open boxes of pretty scrawny yellow green fruit. Found one I liked and then couldn't keep the attention of any of the kids as they were scrambling under the table trying to get all 3 different branches. Cindy sits down at the cafe in front of them holding onto the precious fruit in a box. So I then go into the Kosher grocer to buy an apple in order to break a $20. I come out and the boys still have NOT put together the lulav... 4 teens and no one in charge. They are out of myrtle? So we wait... and we wait... many cars pull up and the boys keep telling everyone come back in 10 minutes. They get on their cell phones and ask for resupply, another couple of teens show up and they say that they will be right back. It is now 12:30... and the boys tell one man that he can go himself up to Chabbad and pick up his Lulav. So I ask him if I can walk with him, no because he is driving but he points out the building seriously a block and a half away across the street. Go in there he tell me. I leave Cindy with the estrog on my quest. Note if you will that everyone else around us are pretty frum dressed with hair covering and kippot. I'm taller than most, purple hair, and a bright green t-shirt that reads BAZINGA!... Cindy is Hawaiian looking and kept getting asked by others arriving if these items are kosher. I now enter the Chabbad building to see TONS of Estrog being examined detail by detail by several Rabbi. There are boxes of wrapped palm fronds, and willow but there aren't any boxes of myrtle. A kind young man approaches me and I'm very respectful and tell him the youths directed me here as I only need the lulav. I hand him my $45 by placing it on the table so as he doesn't have any chance of contact with myself. Those who are thoroughly Orthodox won't ever touch another woman outside of their own wife, some won't even talk to others so I figure it's all good. Now he is being barraged by at least 20 other people and he can barely make any progress into the building. Everyone has to speak with him, wish him Hag Samach, ask him how to tell if the palm is kosher, etc, etc., A line has formed behind me, all men and so we all wait... It is now 1:30 when he gets back to me, can I wait... I've come here from Ontario so I'm not leaving... Oh dear he is now fretting, eventually out of thin air some branches of myrtle appear. I'm all ready to grab and run but NO NO NO they must be examined to the leaf that none are broken and that this is a blemish free branch... His sincerity and concern for proper kosher was so admirable. I left there with the lulav to look down the block and the boys and table are gone. Cindy is sitting there in front of the cafe with the estrog!!! Sucess... we then drove to Wilshire Blvd. in front of the LACMA are about 12 food trucks. We got some lunch from Steel City Sandwich (Perogi and Jenny Craig french fries) and Dim Sum truck amazing chicken kung pow taco and shrimp dumplings! The drive home had us back just before 3:00 p.m. TIRED