Calendars – Sara Mazariegos

I’m wearing a green hoodie that I got from the men’s department at Kohl’s or something back in November. At first, I didn’t remember the circumstances of why I got this hoodie, I just knew it was because I was out with Luis and it was cold and I couldn’t just borrow his hoodie for the whole evening. He reminded me of a lot of the details of that outing; it was the day we went to Georgetown and saw Anora. We ate at a place I love called Curry & Pie. I wore a pretty top and didn’t think about layers because I wanted people to be able to see my pretty top.

It’s crazy to me that I don’t remember many of the details. I often go back through my Google Calendar and play memory games of “Oh yeah, we did this.” I think a lot of people don’t remember a lot of what they’ve done each day, especially as you get older… Especially when you’ve gone through so much recent upheaval.

The week we saw Anora, we took Boo to the vet to get her biopsy on her ear. The week before that was the election. And kind of everything after has been a lot to process, so it makes sense I can’t fully remember the story of a piece of clothing. I’m grateful for the reminder though. It was a good day, despite the chill.

Anyway, I can’t believe it’s only April. This year has started to drag, but maybe it’s a good sign. Things are slowing down, becoming more reasonable. At least from a personal standpoint. Tomorrow, I am off from work because my new boss decided to give everyone Good Friday off. I am onboard with that.

Writingwise, things are plugging along. I took a few days off from writing recently because I was dealing with new job transformations and schedule adjustments — getting home at 6:30 instead of 5:15 and going from a five-minute bus ride to an hour-long Metro ride is a pretty big change — but my routine is starting to fall into line again. I’m at 13,000 words today, soon to be at 13,500 when I write later this evening. I’m looking forward to reading it back when it’s finished and seeing how this new writing mode has worked out. I think I’m definitely staying present in the scenes more, so at the very least my scenes should be more gratifying to read. I’m certainly not rushing this draft.

Until next time,

Do you ever look back through the calendar and get hit with a wave of “Oh yeah! We did that!”?

My husband and I have a shared Google Calendar for everything from work stuff to personal events and planning. It helps us remember to do things, and it also helps give our days some semblance of structure. Otherwise, it’s so easy to fall into the YouTube hole or end up like the vultures in Disney’s The Jungle Book.

I’ve found lately that I’ll go back through things we’ve done and marvel at how swiftly things are forgotten or no longer appreciated. I try to live in the moment while I’m enjoying things, but it can’t last forever. Eventually, the moment passes and life goes on. Life is busy, and it often grinds you down, so it’s nice to have this little reminder of the places we’ve been and the things we’ve done. For example, we went to Disney World this year. That’s wild, man.

My college friend posted on Facebook yesterday, and it sent me on a similar wave of nostalgia. I don’t associate my time in college with too many good memories. (I spent a lot of it alone in my room watching things or playing online, because socializing isn’t fun for me.) But the friends I did spend time with are special to me. I had good times with them. It was nice to remember. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like the me from back then was the same me that’s me.

I’ve read a few novels recently that involve people remembering their friends from years ago. It might be fun to explore a plot about that at some point. I’m always thinking up the next idea.

My current story writing is going well. It’s been slower than usual, but I think it’s okay because it’s the first draft. I’ve spent a lot of my writing processes trying to cram a whole novel into about a month and a half, a la NaNoWriMo. But this story has said no and is making me take my time to let it breathe. I’ve hit a point now where the words are flowing more easily, though, which is good for my deadline-centric brain.

I hope to be finished with it before November, so I can give my NaNoWriMo novel revision the attention it deserves.

This weekend, we’re going to the National Book Festival, and then we’ll finally see Tim Minchin. I hope I come away with a lot of inspiration, but no more new books! 😆

Tag: Calendars

Sometimes I forget, wasn’t always this way.

You don’t know what you just read.