To Market, To Market

A sweet supermarket story, my latest diversion, good writing news, & an easy recipe

I went for eggs….

Today is Day 265.

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Hi everyone, and welcome to my new subscribers. So happy to have you all here <3. I’m grateful for the support and the thoughtful notes you send me after reading my posts. It’s a lovely feeling of connection at a time when connection is everything.

Before I tell you the supermarket story, I want to share some really good writing news and then talk a little about what clears my head at the end of the day.

First, my writing status & the good news

After October 7, I put aside the book I’d been working on for years because the original no longer felt “right,” though I couldn’t tell you exactly what was off. It was a hard decision, but not exactly bad news. I just knew that I wanted to tell a different story in what feels like a different world. I write every day, and in that work, I’m trying to give myself the grace and patience to figure out what comes next.

Now, to the good news. For the second year in a row, I received two Simon Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) for pieces that appeared in Jewish Action magazine in 2023. One was truly holy work to write because of what it taught me about helping others through grief and loss. I’m grateful to the women and men who trusted me with their deeply personal stories of widowhood for the article. You can read it here.

My Latest Distraction

It depends on your perspective whether this has been time wasted or spent, but I’ve lately slid into the rabbit hole of short, animated knitting and crochet videos. Here’s one of my favorites, produced by a crafter who knits husband-and-wife frogs. She features them walking outdoors or making one another breakfast in bed. They are adorable.

I know you won’t judge me for this. They are, really, a balm after reading the news, which seems to get worse with each refresh of a webpage. One friend told me she’s finding solace in cat videos, which are the kind of entertainment she would’ve snickered at a year ago. So that made me feel better about the frogs.

Maybe you’ve taken up pickleball or are reading Amish love stories (they’re a thing and they are very kosher). Perhaps you’ve begun to make your own lox.

Anyway, the point is this: I think we should embrace whatever healthy distractions we need right now.

Now, about that market story.

For the past 18 years, we’ve hosted a shiur at the beginning of the summer. People walk from all over town to hear our rabbi speak (he’s a wonderful speaker) and then they hang out and eat cookies. It’s a special opportunity for us to bring holiness into our backyard while doing something meaningful for our shul.

I usually start baking for the event weeks in advance, filling the freezer. When our boys were small, this was perhaps ill-advised as the supply would be steadily depleted — one snuck whoopie pie here, a nibbled espresso brownie there — until I finally noticed. With many other things on my plate the past month, I began baking only yesterday morning. But Miro and I had done the shopping on Tuesday and I was strangely confident all would go according to plan — until I realized I’d forgotten to buy eggs.

It was chicken soup-hot already by at 10 am. I entered the store shvitzy. Also a little cranky with myself for being disorganized. I did not meander about in my usual talk-and-smile-at-everyone-in-the-aisles kind of way, didn’t swap salad recipes with anyone in the produce aisle as I’ve been known to do. The store was packed, so I did smile when I said Excuse me! as I navigated through the crowded aisles. Otherwise, I kept my head down and focused on getting what I needed.

I pulled up to the register behind a young man who had only a dozen or so items. I thought I’d be out of the store in a flash until he divided them into three separate orders, nitpicking about this and that in his dialogue with the cashier after he paid for each. But as the saying on my refrigerator magnet goes, “Be kind. You never know what people have going on.” I figured he had something going on.

The cashier was patient until the third order, when he shifted to beleaguered. He put the “Lane Closed” sign up and gave me an “I’m sorry this is taking so long” look with a matching shrug. I shrugged back and said, “Not to worry!” Kvetching wasn’t going to help matters.

When my turn came, he greeted me kindly and seemed relieved. Then he scanned my six dozen eggs, which came out to $8.99 a piece. I thought, “Oh, goodness. Here we go again.” I was afraid to say anything, but he noticed on his own. I apologized, figuring he’d have to get someone to override it. But $8.99/dozen wasn’t something I could let go.

To my surprise, he announced, “Don’t worry. I AM the manager. I can do the override myself. WE ARE GOOD.”

I replied, “We ARE good. And that’s perfect.” I was grateful to see him returned to equilibrium. Happy to be finished with the shopping, too, so I could return to the baking that awaited me at home.

I thanked him and paid. As turned to go, I said, “Have a beautiful, blessed, easier day!”

“Wait!” he called to me, waving the receipt. “Thank YOU so much for saying that, sweetie.”

The world may be burning, but we still have the power to make small, lovely, meaningful tikkunim. Let’s seize the chance whenever we can.

Reading & Resources

Once I finished The Count of Monte Cristo, I returned to the stack of books on my night table, which included some book sale finds and a few titles from the library. I’ve been blissfully book busy. Up next is Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds. Here’s a quick review of my recent reads:

• I loved Meir Shalev’s My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner so so much. I learned some interesting Jerusalem history from Sarit Yishai-Levi’s The Woman beyond the Sea, but couldn’t find love for the characters.

• I read Sandor Marai’s Hungarian classic Embers, a somber look at friendship that is powerful and heart-breaking. But the last 30 pages felt like one long speech.

• Really enjoyed Amy Kurzweil’s graphic memoir Flying Couch about the women in her family, including her survivor grandmother.

• Kent Haruf’s Where You Once Belonged was unsettling and unresolved. But I adored his novel Our Souls at Night, which I read years ago. I highly recommend that.

• A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917 by Amy Ephron is the third book by one of the Ephron sisters I’ve read this year. Inspired by this Katherine Mansfield’s short story, this short, evocative novel has a punch of an ending.

And a few other things:

• As of this writing, I’ve baked 18 (because chai <3) kinds of cookies, cakes, and bars for the event at our house this coming Shabbos. These lemon bars bars are a new addition to the dessert buffet. Easy and tasty.

• When I think of the Yellow Pages, I recall sitting on the thick Bronx edition so I could reach the seder table in my grandparents’ apartment. It came to mind the other day and I wondered, "Why yellow? It’s an interesting story. Funny to think that we now just ask Google for whatever number we need.

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Please like this post and share it, too. Drop me an email and let me know what you’re reading and how you’re decompressing at the end of a long day. Salad recipes are appreciated as well. Or one for cookies.

Wishing you a meaningful, peaceful, restful Shabbos.

Love,

Merri