“And He Was…”
Found myself thrown into an impromptu babysitting gig for a friend. Seems her chain of emergency back-up babysitters all came up empty, and I was her last resort. Needless to say, I’m a sucker for sacrifice, and since she’s one of the few people I’d do anything for, I said, “sure– what the hell.”
Her children were delightful. The baby boy is the most cherubic child I’ve ever seen, and he was an absolute hoot. Give that kid a napkin or a paper towel and he’s dancing around the room as if he’s doing a ribbon-twirling gymnastics floor exercise. The little girl is also a sweetheart, despite the fact that she threatened to pour root beer over my head. (I would’ve let her, honestly… I have no shame anymore.) She was playing an iPad game at one point, and when the obligatory in-game purchase opportunity appeared, she shouted, “I DON’T WANT YOUR GARBAGE!” Good girl. I did feel for “Fabio,” the virtual chef in her culinary game, though… he was trying so hard to teach her how to make an omelette, in his over-the-top stereotypical Italian accent (“Mama Mia!”) when she dismissively said, “Fabio’s a failure.” Damn, girl… that’s cold. I immediately thought of one of my favorite moments from Wes Anderson’s first film, Bottle Rocket, in which Anthony (Luke Wilson) visits his grade-school-aged little sister shortly after his release from a “nervous hospital.” After the visit, Anthony tells his friend Dignan (Owen Wilson) that his little sister thinks he’s a failure. Dignan replies:
“What?!? She said you’re a failure?!? What has she ever accomplished with her life that’s so great, man?”
Brilliant.
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So anyway, in a moment of respite (shortly after the baby boy went down for his nap) I snapped the above photograph on my phone– an homage to both Julie Blackmon and The Talking Heads, I guess.
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