The Party Circuit

(Source: Richard Thompson's awesome Cul de Sac — yesterday's shows how we got in this situation.)

Yep, Alice's spell worked. What was supposed to be around 1" of snow was 4" by the time we got up and about 2" more before the sun came out in the afternoon and started melting everything (about 11" in the Basin). And it's just the first of three storms that are due to hit us this week.

On the other hand … this past weekend. We had stuff going on! Actually went out Friday and Saturday!

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Monica, along with pretty much all other state employees, was furloughed on Friday. The Neighbor — who we've kind of met (Monica more than me), but since her dog doesn't like ours and ours has just started to go with that and they now bark at each other across the street, we've barely talked with — decided to throw a furlough party. In the process of also inviting her friend The Author — who we kind of cyber-met a couple weeks ago — she realized we were all connected and decided to host a gathering where all sorts of people could finally meet, including her college friend The Other Author. Thing is, The Author had an event planned for that evening. So he invited us all to join his party. And The Neighbor just moved her party to the following night.

The Author and his wife are outside of town in a house with a casita designated for working visitors — writers, graduate students — and proved a place to write, hospitality, advice, and a party at the end of their stay. Their current guest, The Biographer, was wrapping a week's visit. A few years back, he'd considered writing about some artists he'd met in Northern California; hearing about their childhood art teacher and his tremendous influence, grew interested in him. So the book turned more into a biography of The Teacher (/Poet) and a look at what makes a successful and influential teacher. The Teacher, who lives nearby, was also at the dinner — the writer and his subject, together.

A dozen or so other attendees; I only realized over the course of the evening how intimidated I should have been, most of them published authors. It was a fun, welcoming group, also mostly transplants, and we enjoyed good conversation over wine and moussaka. After, it was a reading by The Biographer and then The Teacher, and some conversation between them, insightful and touching. We get spoiled here in Santa Fe by how star-filled our night sky is, but outside of town, finding our way to our car with only the starlight to guide us, we're reminded how much we're missing here.

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GCNM's Adoption Clinic was Saturday at Teca-Tu. Normally monthly, it'd been canceled the last couple times; we hadn't made a few more before that, probably since August. A year had passed since Cheyenne first appeared at one and we were eager to show her off at her healthy 62 pounds. And it was quite an event, with 13 greyhounds (including one lurcher) at one point. Which proved to be grueling; after two hours, of the eight or so remaining, only two were standing.

Cheyenne's buddies that she stays with when we're out of town were there, but the aptly named Sweetie, a wonderful grande dame, is ailing and may not be around much longer. Her person was pretty occupied, so I wound up getting to handle her for most of the afternoon. The good news is that there's a new addition to their family: the also-aptly named Kissy, here moving in for the attack.



There was time for a few tacos, some resting up, and then off to The Neighbor's party. Where The Author and his wife were, but also a whole host of other folks. Again, mostly transplants (including another Nutmegger) from all sorts of backgrounds, we found a few common connections and had a great time with the appetizer dinner and good conversation.

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Sunday brought chores, but also a quick visit out to the dog park before sunset. Nothing like last weekend — where Cheyenne kept finding new dogs to play with, and, and one point, decided to run alongside and overtake a bicyclist on the other side of the fence — but still wore her out pretty well.


(Actually from last weekend.)