Tag: Conan O’Brien

The seasons changed, times are strange.

Sara Mazariegos

Bloody Weather. I know I’ve been complaining about this a lot, but the ice/snow is STILL HERE. Thankfully it’s melted a little, bit the massive piles at bus stops and around sidewalks are sticking around. I told Luis he will probably be waking up with me and helping me get onto the bus for at least the rest of this week. Hopefully by this coming weekend, the warmer temperatures will finish the job and things can go back to normal.

I do love having some extra time with him in the mornings, though. I will miss that. It’s my personal Extra Magic Hours*. My coworkers were singing his praises when I told them he’s been helping me. It’s always my goal to get people to join the Luis fan club, because he’s great.

Stuperbowl (I’m original.) You know what I don’t like? American football. Fortunately for me, Luis is not a fan either. He much prefers soccer/futball, and I’ve become a fan as well. So we didn’t watch any of the Superbowl last weekend, except for maybe ten minutes before the Bad Bunny Halftime Show.

The performance was so fun and I loved that it told a story about Puerto Rico and Latin American culture. He even threw in a mention of Canada! He included all of North America. It was pretty cool. I know at least one person who got teary-eyed watching the beautiful representation of Latin culture, especially in this crazy time we’re currently living in. Maybe, just maybe, this will get people talking about issues in a more nuanced way.

Podcasts but as videos. Like the general populous, I enjoy listening to podcasts. The trouble is, I have a difficult time paying full attention to them, because I am usually working or writing when I listen to them. So when a bunch of the popular ones (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, etc.) started releasing video versions of them, I was ecstatic. I much prefer consuming YouTube videos. So I’ve been watching the podcast videos during my lunch breaks at work. One thing that’s nice about them is that, if I have to look away for any reason, it’s totally fine because they’re meant to be listed to! What a concept. They’re also long enough that I can watch one episode over the whole week’s worth of lunch breaks.

I’m truly an exciting person. Eh, I’ll go outside for my lunch breaks when it stops being arctic outside. Maybe. Didn’t do it last spring/summer, but maybe this year.

14th on the 14th! I’m so excited about our dating anniversary plans. Last week, I looked at the calendar to see the latest updates—Luis made dining reservations—and, in a combination of excitement and sleepiness, I forgot I’d looked ahead on the calendar and thought it was already next weekend. This made me briefly panic because the Project For Awesome starts on Friday, and I thought I’d missed it!

I highly doubt I’d be able to miss it. I follow too many helpful accounts, and I have it all on my calendar. Just have to remember what day it currently is. 😅

The Metro is getting work done this weekend, and traveling on the Metro is part of our celebration (we met at a stop, after all) so we’re going to brave the long travel in order to enjoy the experience as planned. Then we’re going to explore the place we met; we haven’t been there for longer than a few hours in at least a decade. I love the story of how we met. Which leads me to…

Writing update. I’m starting to feel the familiar feeling that I don’t need to rewrite my Nerdfighter story. Instead of starting completely over, I just need to tweak it. I’ve been working on a big rewrite, and it was a massive overhaul. The characters were different, much of the plot was different… and I started wondering if it’s really better or if the earlier version I had was totally fine, it just needed some big edits. What I’d been working on started to feel a lot more cynical than intended. I wish I could have an unbiased reader read the first chapter of each version and tell me which one’s better. I’m too biased. But I feel like, in this case, writing what I know helps the story and makes it more unique.

I can’t help it that our true love story is already pretty perfect. It doesn’t need revision. It just needs some higher stakes, and I’ve found them.

* This might be a sign I go to Disney too often… Nah.

Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?

Sara Mazariegos

I stayed up late to watch Conan O’Brien on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night. I lost about an hour of sleep. I think it was worth it. It’s not the sort of thing I’d do every night, though. That’s one of the main issues with those late night talk shows for me. How are you supposed to watch them on the night-of if you have to get up early the next day?

“You can always sleep through work tomorrow.” – Craig Ferguson

I had to stay up to see Conan though. He’s my favorite of the late night guys, and has been since I was little. I’m so glad he’s still around doing things*, and he’s doing such interesting, unique stuff. He’s in a movie, in a more serious role! And he’s going to be in the new Toy Story movie. (It’s an unnecessary sequel, but still it’s nice he gets to be in one.)

Speaking of movies, though thankfully it’s not a sequel, we saw One Battle After Another last weekend. I think it’s only the second Paul Thomas Anderson movie I’ve seen. One thing that’s funny is that it reminded me vaguely of a Wes Anderson movie, though of course it’s not quite as bonkers or bright or ~arty~. But it does have Benicio Del Toro. Hmm.

I really liked it. The acting was good, the story was good, it didn’t feel like it was over two and a half hours long.

Luis and I are making plans for future vacation times. The world being what it is right now, it’s hard to realistically imagine going out of the country, even though the list of countries we want to visit is long. I have a lot of wanderlust, but we’re planning to stick to closer places at least in the foreseeable future. Of course we’re thinking about going to Disney World again. I told Luis we could go in February for our 14th dating anniversary, but then he suggested we could make a week of it and go to Disney and Universal in October for our 9th wedding anniversary. I’m not going to turn down extra theme park days.

Possibly while wearing a hazmat suit, but still.

We got vaccinated last weekend. I even got a hepatitis booster shot. It took almost an hour for them to give us our vaccines, but once we finally saw the tech, it went by quickly and we feel good. We even made her laugh. A lot of people get so impatient and mean to poor pharmacy teams. I know it’s frustrating to have to wait and sometimes dumb things happen, but there’s no reason to be mean to people who are there to help you. Be mad at health insurance companies; they’re the real ones screwing people over.

For this week’s writing update, there’s not much to say. Roll credits.

Just kidding. But I am taking a break from writing, and it might be driving me a little crazy. I created an outline for a new story idea I have, and I’m going to let Luis read it and give me some feedback before I commit to writing it. I’m restless to write something new, something more out there than the contemporary romance novels I’ve been so focused on. A subgenre I really like is magical realism, especially related to ghosts. I’m playing around with some magical realism ideas and we’ll see if it becomes the next novel I’m working on.

Aside from future novels, I also have to edit the story drafts I’ve already written. I’m excited to dive back into my It’s A Wonderful Life novel, though taking a writing break beforehand—and also having a vacation and Halloween to focus on—will be extra helpful for my brain, I think.

It’s a little bit funny how November is still a writing/editing time for me. It’s just easier to write about the holidays when it’s actually the holidays time.

Until next time,

* Don’t even get me started on all the Colbert and Kimmel stuff. Flames. It- It- Flames. Flames! On the side of my face.