Guten Erev Shabbos

4:35 PM - Just got home from work and shopping. It's like landing in another galaxy. Preparing for Shabbos and my guests. A taste of preparation for Olam Habah. Thinking in and out the day, week, life. With every breath, athought - some I am privy too, some are deep underground.

5:03 PM - Been negotiation with guests about early or on time Shabbos (there's no such - permitted thing as a late Shabbos). We're going in the end with on time, always a good way to go to the extent that such a thing exists..  So far I made salmon - broiled with a lot of spices and some oil spray.  Chicken soup is sort of on the way to being done (water boiling, veggies in, not chicken). Cholent's been up for a while... Cooking is a funny (not ha-ha) business.

5:27 - PM All the ingredients are in the soup and the water is boiling for the matzoh balls. Like life sometimes, everything is boiling, but something's missing.

5:55 PM - Plan - no writing till all chicken's in the oven. Sometimes you just have to wait till the oven is filled.

6:06 PM - The chicken is flavored with unmeasured dollops of various spices and sauces and yes it is in the oven.  The kugels need to be put in in a bit.  Drinks need to be bought.  And then there's the laundry.

I wish I felt more fulfillment from these kind of activities.  Or maybe I don't. Fact is that if I write a little poem or even just a turn of a phrase I feel more satisfaction than from a day of shopping, cooking, cleaning, building, jet-packing.  You name it, if I consider it creative it pleases me, f I see it as technical work then it's just just just passing time.

6:52 PM - Time to put the kugel in.  Haven't looked at the chicken in a while.  Hmmm.  I wonder what she looks like. Time to work.

7:05 PM - Chicken looks good.  Flame lowered.  Kugels in. Chulent was overflowing, fixed. Matzo Balls being reheated.

7:14 PM - Almost. (Counts.)

7:16 PM - Going to be radical and wish everyone a good Shabbos and sign off now.

May we find some level of shalom on this Shabbos.