Tag: Anniversary

No time for revolving doors.

Sara Mazariegos

Commuting in DC. I love living in the DC area and being able to take reliable buses and Metro trains everywhere. Luis and I don’t own a car (I can’t even drive, and he dislikes driving) and we don’t need to. We save so much money by not having a car, and the time spent waiting for buses or trains is comparable to the time spent sitting in traffic for drivers.

That being said, having to stand for all or nearly all of the commute is exhausting and I always get bummed because it means I can’t read while I ride. (First World Problem, I know, but still.) The other morning, the train was full of people and slow because of single-tracking and I had to stand the whole time. I briefly felt a panic attack coming on, but luckily I was able to get a seat before it got bad. I felt hot and like I might faint or be sick. That doesn’t usually happen to me. Thankfully, it’s not usually so packed I have to stand in the morning.

“It’s gonna snow again.” We heard for at least a week that it was going to snow from Saturday night through Monday morning. I went from thinking, “Oh man, I might have to work from home” to “I’m definitely going to have to work from home” to “I might have to take it as a snow day if the power goes out.” It also ramped up to include so many other states that several of my coworkers also had to work from home in their respective office locations. What does it say about me that I was more concerned about having to possibly take a day off (not as vacation, but as emergency) than I was about having enough non-perishable food in case we’re stuck in our house with no power for a while?

Luis ordered groceries and we planned meals in case we can’t use our stove or microwave. We might be living on canned beans and potato chips for a few days. I have faith that things will be okay, though.

SNOW UPDATE: I was allowed to work from home on Monday and Tuesday. We got about six inches of snow plus ice and sleet on Sunday, and the D.C. government closed because of the weather. The bus and Metro would be a nightmare when there’s that much snow and ice, even if they sometimes like to pretend otherwise. The Metro had problems with their track the other day, after all, and that was without snow.

Luis helped me get on the bus from the terribly icy/snowy bus stop this morning. Maryland left a huge frozen hill at the bus stop and we had to climb over it to get safely on the bus. Fortunately, the driver knew to wait to let us on. We weren’t going to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Luis even rode to the Metro with me, to make sure I got onto the train safely as well. I can’t speak highly enough about him. 🥲 Today’s the anniversary of the day we met!

He’s probably going to need to help me the rest of this week, until the snow is actually gone enough for it to not still be a minor hazard. Conversely, the Metro? Totally fine. It came right on time and there were no issues. I hope it stays that way.

The Color Purple novel. I’ve just started reading The Color Purple, and I’m really enjoying it. It feels like a well-timed departure from the depressing books I’ve read recently. It’s not all sunshine and giggles, of course, but the tone is brighter and the characters (at least several of the main ones) are more lovable. Especially Celie. We saw the musical movie when it was in theaters, so I was excited when I found the novel in a Little Free Library. It is a delight to read the way the strong women in the story fight back against the oppressive men, even if it’s sometimes just with a shared look. I keep catching myself grinning while I read it on the Metro. I used to think it would be very heavy, like Beloved, but it’s got humor to it. I hope it’s not bad to say I find it lighthearted and hopeful.

Beloved is also very good, of course. It is definitely sad, though. I need to read more Toni Morrison. I read Sula in college, and I need to read it again to enjoy it this time instead of using it for a term paper. You know?

February’s going to have a lot going on. There’s a week on my calendar with so much on it. It’s going to have Luis’s and my 14th dating anniversary mini-vacation (14th on the 14th!) the Winter Olympics coverage (I love ice skating/dancing,) and the Project For Awesome! All three of those will be on the same days, though of course the Olympics last longer. With the skating and the P4A livestreaming, we’re going to have plenty to watch in the hotel room after our fun anniversary activities each day. We’re going to museums and parks and shops near where we met fourteen years ago, and we hopefully won’t freeze our tails off.

I’m glad we did not get married on Valentine’s Day, but it is nice we started dating on that day. It makes it seem like everyone’s celebrating us with us.

Caught between the moon and New York City.

Sara Mazariegos

Sort of as predicted, I was sad to leave New York. I kept telling myself as we took the train and Metro and Uber home that I shouldn’t regret it was over, I should be glad it happened. It helped a little, but it’s still sad when fun time together has to end. The weekend will be here soon enough, though. And we will most certainly go back to NYC again.

Luis and I had a more casual anniversary vacation this time, which was good. We didn’t super-pack days with activities, and we were flexible when the weather or shutdown got in the way. For example, since we couldn’t go inside Hamilton’s house, we strolled around the grounds and the park directly near it, then walked all the way to the north in Central Park and explored that a little, too. A different day, we were supposed to walk on the High Line but the rain meant it was closed. It’s a pretty outdoor trail with a bunch of plants and views of the city, sort of like an urban Living with the Land. We moved it to a different day and walked it then; it was much nicer in better weather than it would’ve been if we’d attempted it on the rainiest day we were there.

We also went to the Museum of Modern Art in the morning on the day we were supposed to walk through the High Line, and there were so many people in there. I think it was both because it was rainy and because it was a holiday. Probably not the best planning on our part; it was the day with the most people of any of the places we went. But it was still good to see several of the famous art pieces by Dali, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Warhol. One thing I quickly noticed about tourists in art museums is that a lot of them go up to paintings just to take a picture with their phone, then they move on to the next one. I find that sad.

Luis and I stood at The Persistence of Memory for several minutes, admiring it and appreciating it after watching a lady stand directly in front of it, move her arm in the way of everyone to snap a picture, and then leave.

We did take pictures of the artworks, to have proof memory of seeing them, but we also paused in front of each of them to admire them. Paintings, after all, weren’t made to be photographed.

While on our trip, we also saw several Muppets, a Reagan puppet from The Exorcist, Jim Carrey’s mask from The Mask, Robin Williams’ mask from Mrs. Doubtfire, several Broadway theater marquees, several dogs and squirrels, and even a cat sitting in a window in Queens. We also took the subway a lot. It gets a bad reputation, but the New York subway is great. It’s also modernized with the times, of course, so it’s even more convenient than it used to be.

On our anniversary, I got brave and requested for one of the singing waiters at Gayle’s Broadway Rose sing “Being Alive” from Company for us. And he did! And I cried. It was his first time ever performing it for an audience. It was very sweet.

It was a nice visit. I love going to New York often enough that it feels like a normal place to be. Does that make sense?

We talk about this whole stupid world and still come out laughing (Ha!)

Sara Mazariegos

The 14th is this Saturday. Luis and I always do something a little special since we first started dating—and got married—on a 14th. I wanted to come to D.C. this time and explore the redesigned Air & Space Museum. But the Mall is going to be full of people and all kinds of militaristic stuff I don’t want to be around. 😞 So we’ll save that for another time (possibly another 14th) and go get pizza and books instead.

We went with his family to another fun escape room in D.C. last weekend. My main mode when I do those things is finding all of the useful parts and giving them to others to actually solve, haha. When a room is open, I look all around for puzzle pieces, flashlights, etc that will aid in getting out of the room. I’m pretty good at doing it quickly. The other day, I opened a combination on a door flap. That felt special.

Luis and I are working on designing a Haunted Mansion escape room in our house. I’m so excited, because—as you know by now, I’m sure—The Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney anything. He’s been asking for my input and we’ve been using a lot of our stuff to create a fun story. Last year’s Batman escape room was a real hit, so hopefully this one will be, too. Luis even creates videos for them! One of our friends asked who made the Batman one and was amazed that he did. We could start a small business, performing home escape rooms, but it would be complicated because we’d have to go to people’s houses, like birthday clowns or magicians or something. I wonder if that’s already a thing.

Since I’m working on retooling my Nerdfighter novel, I’ve been paying more attention to similar books again. One tough thing in the whole query-writing saga is finding good comp titles. They’re supposed to not be too old or too famous, and they don’t have to be extremely similar to your plot or your characters. They’re mainly meant to have some similar themes or even just evoke similar feelings when you read them, so they give literary agents some good examples of how your book would do in the market.

I read the other day that a comp title can be older than five years as long as the author is still releasing books. I think I’m going to hold the internet to that, because I found a great comp that’s from 2021 and the author has released several books since then. The story in this one just happens to fit my novel the best.

Luis and I will be looking at books on Saturday, though, so who knows? I may come home with a brand new perfect comp title instead.

“He’s making violent love to me, Mother!”

Sara Mazariegos

It feels as though a million things are happening right around our travels. Isn’t that always the way? I have a bunch of stressful things to do at work, meanwhile we have to get our bathroom renovated (again.) The guys who fixed our shower two years ago didn’t really fix the problem; they caused new ones instead. So we’ve got a nice, new plumber who’s going to work on fixing our shower stall and flooring so things don’t leak.

What a concept.

For Valentine’s Day, since it’s our dating anniversary, we’re going to stay at the hotel where we got married. 😊 We got a lakeview room, and reservations at a fancy nearby restaurant. We’re also going to explore the shops around and see Captain America: Brave New World. It’s going to be a nice weekend.

And then, the following weekend, we fly off to California. We spent time with friends last weekend, one of whom is a pilot, so he told us what went wrong with the helicopter and the plane near the Potomac River. He also assured us that flying is safe, especially from Dulles Airport rather than National. That was comforting. Of course, I already knew that there are way more car accidents than airplane crashes. It’s still a rare thing, even if the news has a lot of them lately…

I’ve already read one of my comp books (comparable to my story, for those wondering what “comp” means) but I still bought an e-reader version so I could reread it and reference it for influence. That’s one thing that’s difficult about not owning comps; if I need to check something, I have to get them back from the library. My story that I’m currently outlining is very different from the other novels I’ve written thus far, so I want to make sure I’m plotting things in a way that makes sense. There are rules for time travel.

Luis read through my outline and gave me some good advice that’s made me even more excited by this new idea. Taking a break from writing and letting myself think about things has been very good for me so far. At the beginning of March, when I start writing, I’ll hopefully have an easier time getting going. My last story benefited tremendously from having a solid outline, so I feel optimistic.

Escaping into novels has been the perfect thing for my otherwise anxious brain.

Sweet parody.

Sara Mazariegos


The daily prompt asks what my parents did when they were my age. They already had two kids. 😬

Another asks what the title of my biography would be. That would be telling.

I’ve gotten into Schmigadoon! recently. I just started season 2, and I love it so much because it’s parodying the musicals I enjoy (Chicago, Cabaret, Sweet Charity… a lot of Cs.)

The Project For Awesome officially starts on Friday! I’ve already donated $30 because of the perks John & Hank Green announced yesterday. We’ll see if I can’t stop myself from donating more…

On the writing front, I’ve reached 54K words! 🎉 I can take today “off” from writing since I’m ahead of my word count goal already, but I will probably still write a little today because I can’t stop myself from that either.

Today is Luis’s and my twelfth dating anniversary! We’ve been together as long as our cat Boo has been alive. We will celebrate this evening by ordering some Fancy French Door Dash and listening to Parisian cafe music, like the sophisticated people we are. The last time we did that, we ended up planning a trip to Paris.

🥖,

Illiterate Scrabble.

Sara Mazariegos

We survived staying the night in the Lizzie Borden House! Absolutely nothing scary happened, apart from the other guests being noisy.

When we “retired” to our room for the night — Bridget Sullivan’s room (the maid who was the only witness on the day of the double homicide) — there wasn’t much to do in the room. We played Scrabble on our phones. I realized it was kind of insensitive to Bridget who, the tour guide informed us, was illiterate.

Me: If her ghost appeared, she wouldn’t be able to play. 😦
Luis (husband): She might’ve known some letters, like she could suggest ‘cat’…

She did well for herself, despite this setback. She left Fall River and moved to Montana, where she got married and had some kids. She survived the murders, grueling trial, and possible threats from Lizzie. It’s also rumored that Lizzie paid her off to keep quiet.

Anyway, ghosts don’t exist, murder is bad, and history is fun to learn about.

Other highlights from our trip were the Eastern State Penitentiary (way more sad than creepy), the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (I’m biased because I love the Hard Rock), and Moshulu (a restaurant on an old ship!)

All of the places we stayed (except lovely Bridget’s room) had TVs with streaming included, so we were also able to watch Taskmaster!

This was one of the best trips we’ve been on together. One thing that helped was that I was calm instead of anxious about everything. I don’t know how that happened. I wish I could just force myself to be calm. Ah well.

Til next time,

Chilling challenge.

Sara Mazariegos

My husband and I are going on a week-long anniversary adventure up the East Coast. We’re visiting Eastern State Penitentiary (supposedly haunted and probably sad), Atlantic City (if ghosts were real, definitely haunted because of all them gangsters, see?), and the Lizzie Borden House (we’re staying the night! I’m so excited!! I don’t care if it’s not really haunted, some spooky stuff really happened here!)

Calm down, Sara. This isn’t a Haunted Mansion blog anymore.

When we told family we were staying in the Lizzie Borden house, the reaction was “You’re STAYING there?!” Mwahaha. 😈 I think she definitely killed her parents, but she had her reasons. (That doesn’t mean it’s okay, but life was hard for young, single women back then, so I also can’t say I blame her.)

In case you can’t tell, this trip will help me write an upcoming novel… in the future. I’ve got three books in the pipeline now.

I’ll have lots of fun stuff to report back next time!


Unless a ghost gets me, à la The Haunting of Hill House.

Restless bones etherealize.

Sara Mazariegos

I finished my revision yesterday! 🎉

The plan now is for me to take a nice, long break and not think about writing this story. 👀

Easier said than done, when I know I have a list of things I need to change. But I’m going to be good and take a break. It helps that we’ve got fun anniversary vacation plans coming up. I can devote time to be excited about them, instead of using up so much headspace on my novel.

I printed all 314 pages of it and put the manuscript into a binder, for editing. Funny, it’ll probably coincide with me writing the first draft of my next novel. Funny should really be in quotes here. I don’t want to put off either project, but the thought of working on them at the same time seems daunting, to say the least.

Anyway, enough about all of that. I feel like I only write about writing here. It’s my main theme for this site, but it’s not the only thing I care about!

Spooky season is finally upon us. I’ve had my Halloween costume since February. My husband and I have been watching scary movies. We get a jump on Halloween* because our anniversary trip takes time away from it (for good reason, though!)

It’s my favorite time of year. It’s only fitting I should have a writing break now to fully enjoy it.

* I don’t usually get my costume this early, though. Let’s just say I was extremely inspired.