Tag: Autumn

Do you wanna know, know that it doesn’t hurt me?

Sara Mazariegos

I had an idea for a new blogging format. Let me know what you think.

New knee pillow (am I old?) I’ve noticed my lower back and knees are often sore when I wake up in the morning, particularly when I sleep in on the weekends, so I ordered myself a pillow to put between my knees or at least legs. So far, it’s helping me sleep in a better position. I read that sleeping on your side can cause spine twisting so it’s better to separate your legs to realign your spine. But it’s awkward if I want to move, because I have to move this rectangular pillow along with me every time, and every time I get out of bed I have to move it away. It may end up on the floor one of these days. I guess I’m too old to be naturally comfortable when I sleep now.

Days getting so dark by the time I’m on my way home. I love autumn, but I hate the daylight going away so early every day. I commute home after 5:30 so it’s always completely dark while I’m traveling. It lowers my motivation, which is especially bad because then I get home and I should be able to enjoy being home, but all I want to do is sleep. I’m looking forward to the longer days again in spring. At least there are more months of daylight in the year than months with early sunsets.

Holidays on random days during the week. Veterans Day was on Tuesday this year. It’s nice to have a break soon after a work day, but it makes it difficult to plan anything too exciting. Luis and I went to Subway and saw Bugonia before having some cake with his parents for his stepdad’s birthday. So I guess it wasn’t nothing, but being off on Monday as well would’ve been extra special. At least I only have to work three more days! A short week is always nice.

Book reading/Novel reading progress. I got some good reading time into this weekend. I would’ve gotten more if I hadn’t played The Sims 4 for two hours on Sunday, but I felt inspired to play after a long time, so it’s fine. I really like The Love of My Afterlife. It’s going along the way I figured it would, but it’s cute and funny. I’ve noticed that English romance novels are quirkier than American ones. I think English writers have a fondness for bizarre side characters that are not as common in American novels. Think about Bridget Jones’s friends. It builds out the world of the main character a little more. I like that and want to do that more in my own writing. Obviously without making my novel too silly, but the citizens of Bedford Falls are quirky characters, so I should have some funny people in my version, too.

I successfully completed my first read-through of my novel last weekend. Now I’m back into it, reading it and making notes of things to change. I started out thinking I’d only make change notes for this draft and then make a new draft copy for the actual rewrites, but I’ve started just rewriting and making the changes directly in this draft. Why wait, right? I have a lot of notes from beta readers in this draft already, so I’m using them as a guide and making my own changes as well. Hopefully, by editing and rewriting now instead of waiting until after another full reread, I’ll be finished editing this story before February.

The story is good, I just need to make it as close to great as I possibly can.

All my favorite places, my city had been pulled down.

Sara Mazariegos

Have you ever noticed how pretty pigeons are when they fly together? They shimmer. I’ve been thinking about pigeons a lot more than I usually do, because I see them in the city nearly every day now. People often write them off as pests, but I think they’re cute. They were originally brought up as pets before they were abandoned to life on the street. There are several places along my walk to/from the Metro where they are fed seed or bread and you can find a massive flock of them having a great time. It always makes me smile.

It is finally autumn in the U.S. and have I ever been looking forward to it! I got a pumpkin spice coffee as soon as I could, and I’ve been enjoying the slightly cooler weather lately. Autumn seems to only last about two weeks these days before it becomes too cold. I think I’m somewhat oxymoronic because autumn is my favorite season—and October is my favorite month—but I dislike it when it’s cold and dark. Once the daylight gets scarcer, I get less motivated. I’m starting to embrace the cold versus the heat, though. This past summer was way too annoyingly hot.

We’ve begun our annual watch of Halloween movies. So far, we’ve checked out some old John Carpenter movies. Luis has seen the majority of his movies already. I’m going to select several Stephen King movies I haven’t seen yet, perhaps Cujo and Pet Sematary. Last weekend, we saw the newest one, The Long Walk. It was quite good, but not really a horror story. I might prefer his less horror-y stories anyway. It’s a really sad movie, and Mark Hamill is the villain. It’s fun to see him with one of his more sinister voices.

“I just realized, they didn’t stretch first.” – Luis

I recommend The Long Walk, though it has some really gross moments so come prepared and maybe don’t eat past the first twenty minutes. While we were watching, I got a charley horse in my legs from reclining in the comfortable theater chair and I felt guilty because the characters were forced to walk and walk. It’s not based on a new Stephen King novel, either. It’s from the 70s.

With all the craziness going on, I’ve really been looking forward to our upcoming anniversary trip. I haven’t had a vacation day, not counting a holiday, since March. It’s going to be nice to relax and have fun with Luis for several days in a row. I love spending several days in a row with him. It’s like we should be married or something. 😉

My writing is going well. I’m working on editing the epilogue I already wrote and wanted to keep in the story even as everything else was tweaked. The next few days will be more relaxed as I wind this story down, but of course new story ideas are appearing to me since I’m not actively creating anything. I keep thinking, “What if?” with a few ideas I’ve had recently. Originally, I thought I’d take October off from writing and then work on editing my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired story, but a new plot idea has entered the chat…

We’ll see if it leads anywhere.

Well, sometimes I love you on a Saturday night. Sunday morning, you don’t look right.

Sara Mazariegos

Well, Honey Don’t! was a disappointing Coen Brother movie. I really liked the first two thirds, but the last third was a confusing mess. A mystery was set up and then not solved. I wish I could rewrite the ending so it’s satisfying. I remember liking Drive-Away Dolls much more.

The rest of our Labor Day weekend stuff was nice. I got pumpkin spice lattes every day. I bought a new novel about pumpkin spice lattes because I couldn’t help myself. We checked out Spirit Halloween and ordered something from their online store because they didn’t have it in person. We’ll probably go back at least one more time, though. I love browsing Halloween aisles. We went to Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and ate too much, then went to Guapo’s and ate too much again. It was a good time.

I worry less about work stuff than I used to, because my job allows me to stop thinking about it. It’s less stressful, with less things looming in the future. Still, I always look forward to having time off. My next long weekend will be when we go on our anniversary trip. I’ll be off for three days plus a weekend, so it’ll be wonderful. But, before then, we’re planning to see John Green at the Book Fest and see the coatis in the zoo.

This coming weekend will come sooner, but it’ll go by much quicker, too.

It feels like I’m in the home stretch of my story, even though I’m at around 68K words and it’s going to be about 85K words in total. There’s still a lot left to write, but somehow, as if by magic, I’m getting near the end. My last day of writing is scheduled this month. Things are falling into place and I can see the happily ever after. I think I should always write in 500-word spurts.

Pumpkin spice is back on the menu. Spirit Halloween is open. My favorite time of year is coming. I’m not looking forward to the Always Darkness, but I’ll get through it. I always do.