Earthbound Alien

I was up and around for once when I got the call to come in today. Donna, the Acme's head front end manager, interrupted me in the middle of getting ready for my first Yogawood class in two weeks. Would I like to come in today from 10AM to 2PM? A manager called out, and they needed to borrow an employee who occasionally cashiers to be CSR today. I went in. It was only four hours. I could do the cheap Wednesday morning Yogawood class and put off everything else until after work or later in the week. I actually picked up another hour at the end of the day when Donna realized she didn't have enough people scheduled for tomorrow and asked me to come in very early tomorrow, at 10:30 instead of 2:30. I said 1:30 - I was going to do my laundry tomorrow.

Of course, two minutes after I left, I changed my mind and decided to do the laundry today, instead of waiting for tomorrow, and hold off on my library volunteering until later in the week. I should have just taken the extra hours.

I feel so out of place around here sometimes. I'm the only 29-year-old in my neighborhood - probably in all of Oaklyn, and maybe even in all of South Jersey - who lives alone. Everyone else my age is married, with children and houses and pets, or at least steadily dating a significant other and pets. Anyone who lives alone is middle-aged or elderly, like my landlady Miss Ellie, or is a college student. No one else enjoys shopping, or collecting stuffed animals, or going for long bike rides and walks in the park. They don't browse thrift shops, or spend the afternoon in the library. I have friends, but none of them are HERE.

I've spent most of my life feeling like an alien in a foreign planet. I love my friends...but they aren't here. People like me, but they aren't LIKE me. They can't relate to me. They have no time for someone who isn't a member of the PTA. Everyone always tells me they'll visit...someday, when they have time. When they aren't afraid to travel alone, without Mommy and Daddy. When they aren't busy with their kids or their real life. I'm never first on anyone's schedule.

I was thinking about all this as I rode home, about how I've always felt so out-of-place, no matter where I've gone. I've felt like an alien since I was in elementary school and couldn't fit in with the kids. I found myself thinking "alien" and wondering what it would be like if we could see an alien. How would we treat it?

I finally devised a short story in my head as I arrived home. An alien girl and her mother arrive on Earth, hoping to contact the locals. The girl goes off to play with other human young, trying to make herself look like them. They make fun of her and taunt her because she doesn't look right or act right or walk like them or talk like them or play the same games. A dog chases her. She hides...and see the children throw branches from a tree at the dog. The alien child finally returns to her mother. She tells her that she doesn't like Earth and doesn't think it would be a good place to try to make friends with. Her mother agrees. She's done her own research, talking to people on the street and watching human television. She's seen their wars, seen how they treat anything that's not like them, seen how the treat their animals and plants and planet. Earth is no place for them. They finally leave in their tiny ship that's invisible to the human eye.

I worked on the notes and first draft while my laundry was in the dryer. I'll see if I can finish the first draft sometime this week. I wouldn't count on seeing this story any time soon, if at all. I get hot for ideas, I start them...and then I get the next hot idea and never finish them. That's why I can't get anything published. I never finish anything.

I walked over to WaWa and the Oaklyn Library while the laundry was in the dryer. I bought four videos - two rare Christmas specials and two 80s children's videos - from the Library. Grabbed milk at WaWa, since their milk is cheaper than anyone else's in the area ($2.45, compared with $2.59 at the Acme and $2.79 at Super Fresh), and used the ATM machine. (The ATM machine at WaWa is for PNC Bank, which means there's no charge when I use it there.)

We had one of the Muppet Babies Video Storybook videos when we were little. It was actually one of the first videos we bought when Dad got a VCR. They're about as simple as a Jim Henson production gets. Kermit the Frog narrates three stories based after one of the Muppet Babies children's books. This tape featured Kermit the Hermit, in which Kermit imagines himself living in a cave in order to get some peace and quiet, A Love Note For Baby Piggy, which involves Piggy's daydreaming after someone gives her an unusual love letter, and Scooter and Skeeter's Merry-Go-Round Puzzle, which had the twins off on an adventure as they try to finish off their puzzle. The animation is limited to crudely moving the pictures from the books and Kermit's between-stories narration is a little annoying, but the stories themselves are charming and the pastel illustrations are cute.

The other 80s tape also featured a mid-80s phenomenon, only this one originated on children's toy shelves instead of TV. The Popples were popular stuffed animals in the mid and late 80s. Turn them inside-out, and they look like fuzzy neon balls. "Pop" them out, and they become cute, odd fuzzy little creatures. Like any toy from the 80s that was huge during my childhood, the colorful critters made the leap to the small screen...with decidedly mixed results. The show seems to be the tale of two siblings. Bonnie and Bobby, whose constant bickering is tempered by the appearance of the Popples, a wild group of neon-colored animals who only want to have a good time. Bobby's the goofy kid who wants to have fun; Bonnie is bossy and stricter. The two stories are as simple as you can get. One involves Bonnie trying to get her brother and the Popples to settle down long enough to help her plant a garden. The other has the pair and their critter pals trying to get a hole in one at a mini-golf course and win $25 for their mother's birthday present.

Actually, the most memorable thing about the show, other than some fairly cute gags, is a surprising (and rather refreshing) lack of villains. Most 80s cartoons had at least one or two major antagonists, but if there's bad guys in the Popples' world, they don't show up here. The closest we get is Bruno the dog in the garden episode, who scares the Popples briefly before they finally settle down enough to plant. That was about the only thing that did stand out, though. Neither the kids nor the Popples themselves made much of an impression.

My opinion was confirmed when I looked this show up on the Internet Movie Database. Apparently, it was originally from DIC's French studio, and there's more episodes available on DVD in Region 2. The show isn't on DVD here in the US, though, which doesn't surprise me. Most people seemed to agree that it's cute and pleasant but no where near as memorable as other mid-80s DIC hits like Care Bears Family and Inspector Gadget.