Coyote Vs. ACME. Last Saturday, we saw Coyote Vs. ACME starring Will Forte, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, and a bunch of other people and Looney Tunes. It was a lot of fun and very cute. I appreciate that, even though the animation was obviously done with computers, they stuck to the classic look of the characters and kept them looking like cartoons. It reminded me a lot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? but it’s different. I think they go well together, like for a fun double feature. It was also nice to see Will Forte as the star in something. I’ve always liked him.
Of course, we spent the rest of the weekend peppering in some of the classic Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts by Chuck Jones. We also watched Fern Gully, Muppets Treasure Island and Rocky Horror Picture Show. 🎶 One of these things is not like the others… 🎶
I was a strange kid. I’m making a PowerPoint for a party we’re having with our friends soon, and it’s making me realize that I was a strange child. I was a huge fan of Fern Gully when I was little. I think I must’ve seen it on TV, or maybe in school. I definitely saw it once in school. And I would pretend to be Batty on the playground, running into poles and flapping my arms. Then I moved on to pretending to be the Genie from Aladdin. Robin Williams was my childhood. I also remember eating grass, though I don’t think that came from anything. I used to love being weird in order to make my friends laugh.
Then, when I was only slightly older, I started acting out The Rocky Horror Picture Show for my friends, teaching them the songs and assigning them roles even though none of the rest of them had seen the movie because, like me, they were eight. I remember using my friend’s wide southern porch to reenact the floor show. My friend’s dad wasn’t amused, but he was pretty lenient about it. I remember him telling me he didn’t like the movie and walked out of the theater when he saw it, and my reaction was just, like, “Oh, well that’s too bad for you.”
I moved on to pretending to be Jim Carrey characters, and my friends still mention this to me. One of my friends and I called 1-800-JIM-CARREY once and left a giggly message for him on an answering machine. And we also made what was essentially a tiny noose out of a shoelace and hung it high in her backyard tree, calling it “the Jim Carrey trap” just in case he flew in a plane over us and fell and needed to be captured. It made sense to us at the time!
There are lots of other stories, but I’ve just been nostalgic lately because Luis and I have been rewatching things. I didn’t even mention the time I had a plot to steal my friend’s pull-string Roger Rabbit doll when I was five. I guess you could say I’ve always been obsessed with movie characters. Especially zany ones.
I have my normal commute back! On Tuesday, I finally got to have my normal commute again. I woke up at 7am and took the short bus ride to the Metro, and took the Metro in the normal direction to my office’s location in D.C. The bus on the normal end of the line is fuller, so I often have to stand, but it’s only about a five minute ride, so it’s no big deal. It’s also wonderful to not have to go to bed as early. I can enjoy my evenings with Luis more. I didn’t have to be in bed by eleven when I was commuting the other way, but I was trying to keep myself from being extra tired. I’m looking forward to everything going back to normal and feeling normal again.
Just getting the words out. I told myself I was going to write every day of Labor Day weekend. I wrote on Saturday, and then my brain wanted to relax and have fun instead. So I let it. Lately I’ve been better at not forcing myself to write when I don’t feel up to it. The writing is better if it’s not forced out of me.
My story is coming along well, though. I’m currently at 44K words. One thing that’s difficult for me sometimes is just getting the words out. I’ll know exactly what I want to have happen in a scene, but writing it all out can be so hard, especially if I’m tired or stressed. Thankfully, with everything going back to normal, I should have an easier time sitting down and writing each evening. I typically write 500 words at the office during my lunch breaks and 500 words when I’m at home, usually before we relax and watch something. It’s a routine that’s been working well for me. I stole this writing routine from Ernest Hemingway, though he no doubt enjoyed a lot more alcohol while he was ‘relaxing’ in his evenings.
The writing is also better if it’s not inspired by rum.
Sara Mazariegos 