home girl

fresh camo- notice the sticker still on the shirt 

Ben went hunting this weekend at our family ranch in Terryville, a place I appreciate for its fields of yellow flowers in the spring and piercingly bright stars at night…. and he appreciates for its deer and duck. He went with our good friend Mitchell—who actually knows how to hunt/is an Eagle Scout—so worry did not exacerbate my feeling of missing him.  I realized it is just not as much fun to stay home in your sweat pants on a Saturday night with a good bottle of wine and a movie when you are the only one doing it. Sure, Quimby was by my side, but I was still just a girl in her sweat pants with her loyal and loving dog.

Have you ever seen Fantastic Mr. Fox? It is definitely my favorite Wes Anderson film, with its existentialistic undertones and little philosophies on life. Below are my two most loved scenes (that I will spare you my rambling review of and let you digest at will):

Fantastic Mr. Fox and Kylie the opossum

FMF: [deep sigh]. Who am I Kylie?

K: Who, how, what now?

FMF: Why a fox? Why not a horse, or a beetle or a bald eagle? I am saying this more as, like, existentialism, you know? Who am I? And how can a fox ever be happy without, you’ll forgive the expression, a chicken in its teeth?

K: I don’t know what you’re talking about but it sounds illegal.

FMF: And so it begins.

Last toast:

FMF: When I look down this table with the exquisite feast set before us, I see two terrific lawyers, a skilled pediatrician, a wonderful chef, a savvy real estate agent, an excellent tailor, a crack accountant, a gifted musician, pretty good minnow fisherman, and quite possibly the best landscape painter working on the scene today. Maybe a few of you might even read my column from time to time, but who knows; I tend to doubt it.

I also see a room full of wild animals. Wild animals with true natures and pure talents. Wild animals with scientific sounding Latin names that mean something about our DNA. Wild animals each with his own strengths and weaknesses due to his or her species. Anyway, I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that might just give us the tiniest glimmer of chance of saving my nephew and letting me make it up to you for getting us into this crazy whatever-it-is. I don’t know; it’s just a thought. Thank you for listening. Cheers everyone.