Tag: 4th of July

I’m having such a good time; I’m having a ball.

Sara Mazariegos

Independence Day celebrations not on Independence Day. I have a pet peeve about holidays: I dislike when they’re celebrated not on their respective date. I get that Independence Day is on a Saturday this year, so we get Friday off from work. That makes sense. It can’t be given off if it’s a Saturday. Fine. Thanks. However, the 4th of July is on the 4th of July so celebrating it on the 3rd makes no sense. Also, wouldn’t you rather celebrate on a Saturday, well-rested after having the previous day off? It’s the same with Halloween. It always bothers me when Halloween is on a Saturday and people choose to celebrate it on a Friday instead, or it’s on Sunday so people celebrate it on Saturday. It’s so baffling to me. Celebrate holidays on their actual days!

That being said, we’re not watching the thing in D.C. on the 4th of July. We’re watching the pre-recorded PBS Capitol Fourth show that has to happen on the 3rd because we live in a dystopia. And then of course we’ll watch the World Cup game, too, because that will be a jolly good time. France might cream Paraguay, but this has been an unusual World Cup, so anything could happen. It’s been amazing.

Streaming shows schedule. To keep up with shows and not binge them, Luis and I have scheduled what we’re currently watching on our calendar, and it struck me that it’s not much different from the television schedules of yore. Except there are no commercials and we can switch around the order of things if we want to. For a long time, we did what a lot of people do: we watched shows we like all the way through, watching them every day. I think it’s better to space them out and watch each show weekly, especially because we can then savor them. We still binge a few shows, mainly true crime shows because I just wanna know what happened!!, but for the most part we stick to our schedule to give each show its allotted attention.

For example, it’s been fun having “Bear Thursday” to look forward to each week. …It’s not what it sounds like.


World Cup feelings are taking over. We were planning to see Supergirl last weekend, but then we just couldn’t bring ourselves to. It got bad reviews, the trailer wasn’t very inspiring or original, and it seemed like Krypto isn’t in it much, and he’s the main reason I care, so… We went and had a nice lunch and watched movies at home this weekend instead, along with many more World Cup games. It’s been nice to catch as many games as we can in the evenings and on the weekends, even though they can be random teams we haven’t really been following. The game with Paraguay vs. Germany? WHAT. And then Canada and South Africa on Sunday was crazy. And then Netherlands vs. Morocco? Oh. My. God.

My childhood crush reborn. We watched Liar Liar on Sunday as well, because Luis hadn’t seen it before. I was a little worried it wouldn’t hold up, because sometimes movies from the 90s can be pretty icky, but it is still good. Jim Carrey is so talented. I saw that movie in the theater for my 10th birthday, with a group of my friends. A few of my friends’ parents wouldn’t let them go see it with me because it’s a PG-13 movie, and I remember thinking they were silly and not fun. Now as an adult, I can see the issues. I still think they should’ve been allowed to come, but it makes more sense to me now. A lot of the sexual innuendo went over our heads when we were kids, though. I mainly remembered him beating himself up in a bathroom to try to get out of his court case, but then he can’t lie to the judge and say it’ll prevent him from working the case, so he badly beat himself up for no reason. 🥲

I want to rewatch a lot of the Jim Carrey movies I loved as a kid now. I know there are lots of classic movies I still need to see, but sometimes rewatching old favorites is just nice.

Writing my next novel starting next week! I’ve been stressed out by the looming Metro construction and having to get up earlier to take an alternate route and stuff, but I am genuinely looking forward to starting to write my next novel next week. I hope my brain won’t be too distracted by the stress and I can take the writing time as a time to relax and have fun. That’s my goal anyway.

I worry so much about not having enough time. The commute home is going to potentially take longer, so I’m fretting. I look at our calendar and I think we’re not going to be able to do much together in the evenings, and it makes me sad. We’re probably (hopefully) only going to lose maybe 30 minutes per day. But that does add up. I’m glad this won’t last longer than a few months. I’m also curious to see if I really will be going to bed at 11pm each night. I’ve never been a fan of going to bed early.

But, in a way, being worried about running out of time fits in perfectly with my novel. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to share it with you so you can see for yourself.

It’s confusing these days.

Sara Mazariegos

Last weekend was really fun. The party for Luis’s mom was great, and he made an awesome video with a bunch of his family members wishing his mom a happy birthday. Then he made a speech and it was so cute. I may be biased, but my husband is amazing. 🥰  Then the next day, we went to the Air & Space Museum and spent a few hours looking at the updated exhibits. I had a margarita in a can! I did not expect anything like that to be available in their cafe. Next month, more new exhibits are opening, including one that features Amelia Earhart. Just more reasons to go back again. We still need to visit the one in Virginia, too. That’s where they’re keeping Enola Gay these days.

Luis bought me a copy of the library book I was reading, so for a brief period I had two nearly identical copies of The Ex Talk. I’m reading my own copy now. My used copy is a retired library book, so I went from reading one library book to another. This one’s cover is laminated! I love owning old library books. They tell stories of their own.

He also got me a copy of Ashley Poston’s new novel, Sounds Like Love. I love her covers. Whoever designs them deserves extra points. I’m planning to read her other gorgeous novel, A Novel Love Story next.

We’re getting together with my family on the 4th of July. We always go see them and have food and watch the DC fireworks celebration, and then we set off a few small fireworks in the street outside the house. It’s always been about spending time with family for me, more than patriotism, really. It’s especially like that now.

I’m just grateful for a day off.

My writing is progressing well. I’m writing a little over a chapter a week, so I can really feel it coming along. I’ve also started thinking ahead and putting fun ideas in my outline, so I remember to actually use them. I’ve definitely thought of things to do and then forgotten about them, in the past. The first time I wrote this story, back in 2020, I didn’t even have an outline. It’s come a long way.

I was reading The Ex Talk last night and bits of it were aligning well with my story’s themes. I thought, “Yes! This really is a perfect comp.” It’s relatable to my life, too. I found this book just by searching for romance novels with workplace conflicts. I’m so glad I found it.