Down the Rabbit Hole

We woke up Easter morning, got dressed and were ready to start cheatin' on this glorious Sunday. Of course no Easter would be complete without bunny ears and a few mimosas, so we hippity-hop off to a restaurant called Soleil on Lake Travis 

to meet some friends for brunch and listen to the music of Bruce Smith (www.bruce@brucesmithband.com). We arrive and as soon as we park the car, a valet on a golf cart shows up to whisk us away to the restaurant. Wow!  We feel special (it must be the bunny ears) although we don't live in a mansion or pose for magazines or party in the grotto or share the same boyfriend. However, we do live together, call each other sista wives, pose for pictures for our blog, swim in our pool and take care of one hubby - doesn't that count for something?  We can pretend it does, right? As we hop into the restaurant we spot our fabulous friends Elaine, Rese, Kenneth and Christy sitting front and center waiting for us to arrive. We sit down at the table and Jenn starts pulling out ears and headbands of flowers and even brought a boutonniere for Kenneth, the only dude at the table, to wear.

She loves her props and uses any excuse to bring and share them (i.e. holidays, birthdays, baby showers, protests, music events, weddings, etc...). She's always ready to have fun and get people involved and says that props can make even the scroogiest of people put a smile on their face. As she pulls them out of her purse our table mates are excitedly deciding who gets to wear what - except for the dude - he only has one choice but is willing and able to put on the boutonniere and is appreciative that she thought of him. But we are with some fun and talented people so it's no surprise that they are on board with our craziness.  As our waiter approaches he informs us that because it is Easter they are offering a buffet only - all you can eat for $25.00 - and since we don't have a choice, we all opt to eat and get up and grab a plate. Surprisingly, it ends up being a damn good buffet. A few food items we ate: challah french toast, crepes, omelets made to order, pizza, fruit, roasted veggies, artichoke dip, ham, prime rib, oysters on the half shell and smoked salmon.  There was also a bloody mary and mimosa bar - how fun!! But we didn't do the mimosa bar because the southern fried chickie, Christy (check out her one woman show and her website @ www.southernfriedchickie.com ) wanted to order table service mimosas and heck yeah we were all on board because time spent walking to and from the bar making mimosas was time lost on actually drinking the mimosas. Come to think of it if we had done it that way, walking back and forth to the mimosa bar, we wouldn't really have lost time drinking them because we'd have taken a sip then another and another as we walked backed to the table and the next thing you know our glass would be empty and we'd have to turn around and do it all over again. It would result in us walking a not so straight line back and forth like the energizer bunny and never getting a chance to sit and enjoy the company we keep and ain't nobody got time for that. So, bring on the table service mimosas!

We talked, ate, drank, listened to Bruce Smith's music and laughed for three plus hours. Southern Fried Chickie even got up on stage with Bruce and tried to sing a few songs. Let's just say it was entertaining to say the least.

It was a perfect day and then the bill came - $312.00... what the what???  Turns out the table service bottles of champagne we ordered were about $42.00 a bottle and after five bottles and five buffets, the bill blew up. Are we mad? What were we thinking? We aren't  P. Diddy Bunny or Jay Z Rabbit who can afford to throw away money like it grows on trees. And then the reality sets in that, hey, we really aren't celebrity bunnies at the Playboy Mansion being served all you can drink champagne. Turns out that we are just a couple of middle class, hard working, pay check to pay check living, $1.00 Target bunny ear wearing, Black Box Wine Mavens.  But the damage was done so we forked over the dough (or in our case, the carrots) happily because, after all was said and done, we made the choice to jump feet first down the rabbit hole without thinking clearly. How can anyone be thinking clearly after two bottles of champagne let alone five? What? The bottle is empty? Well, yes of course, please bring us another. Silly Rabbits - but you know what? We're cool because life is too short not to view it through a looking-glass world, so we might as well enjoy it, and we must admit - damn... what a good time we had(ttered).