Life in the Fast Lane

This evening I attended a March of Dimes event honoring our local congressman. As a former employee of the guy, I'm a little biased, but I certainly can't ignore the work he's done--as a congressman, as an attorney and as a doctor--for children and families across this country.

There was an amazing video of a family whose son was prematurely born. It recounted the struggles, the surgeries, the healing and the way the March of Dimes was there through it all.

There was also a "Taste of the Town" with the best local chefs featuring their favorite dishes, and I ate my face off. It may surprise some of you, but there are quite a few nationally renowned chefs hanging about in this town, and they can cook some freakishly good food including several dishes featuring superbly cooked duck, my very favorite luxury.

The crowd was fun, young and drinking and betting on auction items heavily. I almost won a fantastic painting in the silent auction, but was outbid by Rhoda by $25. Oh, Rhoda. Why did you circle that table? That painting would have looked amazing in my dining room.

All the fun, good food and wine still didn't add up to the best part of the evening. As I was walking out of the nicest hotel in town, a woman was standing about 10 feet away from the valet guy with a load of aluminum boxes filled with what I assumed to be food.

As I walked toward her wondering if she had some of the amazing duck with Arkansas-grown greens and cranberries in one of her aluminum trays, I noticed a raccoon walking up behind her.

When I say "walking up behind her" I mean about a foot behind her...outside an extremely nice hotel...smack in the middle of downtown.

Seeing the raccoon, I said, "Ma'am, Ma'am". She didn't hear me. Louder I said, "Ma'am, there's a raccoon behind you". She turned, saw it, and moved away saying, "Shoo, shoo." The raccoon backed away for a second then came back up, jumped on top of the aluminum trays sitting on the ground and began pulling them down and digging in them.

I...am...not...kidding.

Cars were pulling up, people were walking by, a woman was yelling "shoo" and yet the raccoon was completely undeterred. It took my crazy mother walking directly up to it clapping saying, "Git. git" before it moved back a few steps.

I guess she did have some of that duck.

L.