*Pre-Passover Syndrome...
Oy, this is something I'm already suffering from.
Symptoms:
-- clenched stomach muscles
-- new stray gray hairs
--an aversion to brown shelf paper
--continually consulting a calendar
--mental listing
--bingeing on nosh food
--anxiety... I want to eat all the food in the freezer
Like in most cities, Pesach is in the air. It's not even Purim yet, but I sure got a whiff of Pesach last week already when the supermarkets' Kosher aisles were half empty, the dry goods temporarily shelved elsewhere in the stores, and brown paper was lining the shelves.
It used to be the moment Purim was over that Pesach took over, but now Pesach seems to want to have even more of a head start!
And you know how it is with those Mishloach Manot packages -- before we buy goodies to package for others, we hit our own stocks of cookies and cakes and candies and other nosherai and think , "Good, if I give this to ______, it'll be a few less items in my cupboards that I have to get rid of before Pesach."
I had to smile the other night when I was shopping. The kosher aisles in this particular store had mainly been emptied with some shelves already housing paper goods and candy and cookies kosher l'Pesach. A very frum husband and wife were slowly walking down the aisle, presumably looking for where the Purim items were hiding. The husband aimlessly ran his hand along the brown paper lining an empty shelf, and his wife exclaimed in Yiddish: "What? You're touching the Pesachdik paper with 'treife' hands!!?"
I spoke today to a cashier in one of the predominantly Kosher supermarkets nearby and she told me that some years ago, the shelves would only get stocked two weeks before Pesach, so there'd be a mad flurry of purchases. These days, four and five weeks in advance is when the "matzah" ball starts rolling...
I'm sure I'm not the only Jewish female suffering from PPS. Maybe together with others like me, we should form a support group for this time of year. But then, come to think of it, who'd be available? The others will be busy assessing their cupboards and pantries, their cleaning supplies, their paper goods supply...and will then go on to recipes.
I'll still be eating my way through my Mishloach Manot packages...and then tackling the contents of my freezers!
We have some time to worry about Pesach.
In the meantime, I wish you a Freiliche Purim. And to those who celebrate Easter, Happy Easter.
