a different rabbit hole

Amidst a madly cluttered house (the same one I spent weeks cleaning!) and tons of food being prepared and eaten (two cakes and one pan of brownies so far) four members of our family are here and one more is due tonight. Life has been noisy and funny since they arrived and the house has grown smaller.We all drove up to Taos Ski Valley yesterday and had a decadent late lunch outside on the deck at The Bavarian restaurant at 10,500 feet amidst ponderosas and aspens, hot sun and soft breezes. Our waiter, in a white shirt with billowy sleeves (the same type that look so sexy in old swashbuckler movies) merely mentioned homemade apple strudel and we were on it. It was delivered with several forks, ice cream, whipped cream, and disappeared from the plate in seconds. We did not order seconds and drove off contented, talking about it and naps.

On another subject. For two nights my friend Susana Guillaume performed her one-woman show The Pinnacle of my French Ambition in Taos. It was fabulous. She is a writer and dancer who will be performing again in Santa Fe in September. This is the second in her series of one-woman shows. If you are anywhere in the area, try to catch it. I have written with her at various times and places on and off for more than a decade and always admire her funny and perceptive insights. Now she is sharing them with the public in these fresh and new shows.

So, feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland when she was squashed into the house that had grown too small around her, I will take a drink of something and hope to recover my ordinary size again before going to the tea party that will take place in some version or other when the gang returns from their day at the hot springs.

"She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself "Which way? Which way? holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing; and she was surprised to find that she remained the same size. To be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake."
                                                        Lewis Carroll
                                                        Alice's Adventures in Wonderland