Candace in Wonderland

Today, Candace accompanied me to the college algebra class I teach. She chose to wear her pink, camouflage print snow boots, her blue jeans, and her Tinkerbell shirt with the quip, "I'm all about the glow." Natalie fixed her mid-length hair in the usual fashion with a large pink bow. We brought a backpack for her with some snacks, books, and coloring materials, and we arrived five minutes early to sit her near the back of the classroom (it's a large lecture hall) where she had some freedom to roam, so as not to cause much of a stir. Some of the time she was kneeling down coloring so I couldn't see her, but once in a while, as I was mechanically demonstrating the proper procedure for finding an inverse function, a pink bow on a blonde head would pop up just over the chairs in a new location in the back of the room. I purposely finished a little early so I would have time to hurry her over to her preschool class, but after lecture, some students came to me and asked questions, so I didn't get to Candace right away. When I was through answering questions, I scanned the back of the room for Candace, but I didn't see her. I called her name once, but she didn't respond. I called her again, and when she didn't respond the second time I became worried she had followed the crowd during the exodus at the end of class into the hall and was wandering around lost. I started walking towards the back of the classroom when up stood a groggy-eyed little girl, behind the last row of seats. "I fell asleep," she explained.

We then hustled over to the preschool class in a nearby building on campus. As we approached her classroom, I noted that we were two minutes late. In true Carroll form, Candace reassured me, "It's good if we're late because then we're on time!" Hmm, paradox...