I thought of this entry’s title from a song by the Sherman Brothers that always makes me teary, so working on this post has been an experience. I see the lyrics every time I write/edit this. I may not have thought this through.
Colbert and The Last Show. We downloaded a free trial of DirectTV to watch the last episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Really, it was the last episode of The Late Show ever, unless CBS tries to reboot it when the dumb replacement doesn’t work out for them. It was a lovely finale, with many bizarre and silly twists and turns. I didn’t cry as much as I thought I might, but when I saw the staff all come onstage to dance while Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste, Louis Cato, and Stephen Colbert sang “Hello, Goodbye”…man, oh man. I hope everyone will be okay and have new jobs and not have to worry about what they’re doing next.
And I really hope Stephen will be in front of audiences and cameras again soon. He seems so genuinely happy in front of an audience. I’m sure working on the next Lord of the Rings project will be so much fun for him, but I hope we see his face again really soon, too. And not only on one episode of Only In Monroe.
Belated Mother’s Days and Birthdays. My parents returned from their trip to Washington state, so we finally celebrated Mother’s Day with my mom on Saturday. It was nice to get together with my family, and see my sister’s new puppy. All of her cats even came out and were friendly. My dad gave me some of my grandma’s solar-controlled dashboard dancing ornaments. I realized when we brought them home that we don’t even have window sills in our house! So they’ll probably just live on a shelf as decorations.
My best friend Kat postponed her birthday festivities because she was busy with school and moving, so we spent time celebrating her on Sunday. One thing that’s nice about Sundays before holidays is that you can stay out later without worrying about going to bed on time. This proved true this time for sure, because we stayed at her place until around eleven, playing games and having a fun time. We also got tasty ramen and pizza, and saw…
The Mandalorian & Grogu. I thought it was really cute. I mostly cared about Grogu, the little mechanic guys, and Rotta the Hutt. The guys in armor shooting at each other is less compelling to me, though I do love the way the Mandalorian takes care of Grogu. They take care of each other, which is sweet. This is a good movie if you like all the weird-cute little space critters. There are certainly a lot of those. There’s even a cool “dragon snake” that reminded us of our cat Boo.
Wrapping up my rewrite. It struck me last week that I only have about 2,000 more words left to write, because once I hit 80K, I can just plunk in my already-written epilogue chapter. I’ll read it and edit it so it makes sense with the new draft, but otherwise I won’t have to write this story past Friday. I’m looking forward to taking a break before writing something completely new!
The Boys finale [SPOILERS]. Luis and I have been fans of The Boys since the first season. The edgy, cynical superhero comedy was a big hit and all over the internet when it first came out, and for the first several seasons. This final season, however, didn’t have great buzz. In fact, there were a lot of complaints. We have several as well. We like the show and characters, but the ending felt anticlimactic in several ways.
Tag: Friends
I can develop my brooding potential.
Last Saturday, we spent some much-needed time with friends. I had the idea that, since so much stressful stuff was going on, it would be good to have fun with our friends instead of going to see a movie. We went to Spirit Halloween and Barnes & Noble, and got margaritas. It was really nice. Then we played a Lord of the Rings escape room in a box with one of our friends. It’s good to be reminded that, though the world can be awful, we still have people in our lives who care about us and help us feel better.
Luis and I went on a zoo date on the 14th. We mostly looked at the coatis, fennec, and sand cat. We love the small mammals the most. He likes the sand cat because she reminds him of Boo. 😄 She even has a cat tree and multiple beds like a spoiled house cat who doesn’t wish to be petted. I wish I could have a coati. I made noises at them and they came to me. Then we got fancy Middle Eastern food. I had something called Koosa which is a stuffed squash, with rice and vegetables inside. I’d have it again. I love trying new places in the area.
We were originally planning to see Spinal Tap II but I’m not so sure if it’s worth our time, and it also looks like it’s already left our movie theater. It seems to be relying too much on cameos. I know the original had cameos, but not Paul McCartney and Elton John types of cameos. We’ve watched a few mock interviews with Spinal Tap to promote the movie and it just feels… not the same. It’s nice to see them again, but they’re not as funny.
Speaking of something not as fun… We finished watching The Osbournes the other day. The last two episodes are weird and not interesting. I didn’t know it ended with a Dr. Phil episode. We checked out Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour because we wanted to see more Osbourne stuff, and it’s pretty cute. Plus, it’s educational! I like that they like history so much. It’s a lesser-known fact about Ozzy Osbourne that he was a big fan of World War II history. I have no idea why they chose to end their successful reality show in such a boring way when he was certainly not a boring person. None of them are!
For this week’s writing progress report, I’ll be sitting at 78K words by the end of the day. Eking my way towards the happily-ever-after. There’s still a lot of cute stuff happening in the story, and I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can read it and work on making it better (after a break!) One thing that will be interesting is how I’ll go about editing my long-windedness. 😅 I notice it happening while I’m writing, but it’s how the words come out! I talk like it as well, so it’s not like I’m trying to stretch the word count like a college essay cheater. There’s going to be a fair amount of tightening happening when I edit, as well as getting rid of redundant sentences. Knowing the problem is part of the solution.
“Oh, now you’re saying that I’m redundant. That I repeat myself. That I say things over and over.” – Dr. Frasier Crane, Cheers
Give these moments back to those we love.
I’ve stretched myself a bit too thin with making blog posts and videos, so I’m only going to make videos sometimes.
My writing is going well. This new plot is fun to write and I keep creating quirky little scenes that make me smile. I hope this is the version of my novel that sticks. It’s definitely the most malleable. Sometimes a simple idea is the best one to grow.
Can I get real for a second?
My novel is based on Nerdfighteria, specifically my local group of Nerdfighters that I joined in January 2012. It’s a romance novel, but it’s also a love letter to them, because if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have met my husband or had all of these wonderful, life-altering things happen to me. It’s more than just a fan group, or an Internet friend group. We’ve gone to each other’s weddings and helped each other move and been a family for so many years.
Last week, some of us came together to say goodbye to one of us. It was heartbreaking and confusing, but also touching to see so many familiar beloved faces returning for our friend. It made me nostalgic, and it made me wonder if that magical time from the mid-2000s was just gone. Obviously, it’s not the mid-2000s anymore, but the feeling has changed with time. A lot of us in the local group have moved away and moved on. It’s bittersweet. I hope to see my friends again (in better circumstances) and I am happy to see them doing their things and making their own lives.
That’s why I wrote about them. I wanted to create a literary snapshot of sorts, because it was a time and a group of people in my life that meant everything to me. Still does.
Until next time,
Sara Mazariegos 