Tag: Holidays

“My way’s not very sportsmanlike.”

Sara Mazariegos

Rob Reiner. I cannot believe this happened. I wanted the news to be untrue and wrong, but unfortunately it’s true. He directed so many movies we all love. Luis and I still need to see Spinal Tap II… It feels like only yesterday that Rob Reiner was on all the talk shows promoting it. Not only was he not that old yet, no one should die the way he and his wife did. It’s just awful.

In his honor, I wore my Princess Bride shirt that my sister gave me for my birthday this year. 😢 We watched When Harry Met Sally as an impromptu memorial holiday movie on Monday. We’ve been thinking about him and his family and all of his friends this week.

Hanukkah has been very tragic so far this year.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On the 14th, we went to the special, airplane hanger part of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. We saw the Enola Gay (we each saw it a long time ago, when it was crammed into the other facility) and several other cool old planes. We also saw the Discovery space shuttle and a docent was in a live video chat to answer questions, so Luis asked about the heat-resistant material and the emergency exit markings. It was very cool. We also did a motion simulator of flying, which scared me a little because of the claustrophobic conditions. I kind of liked firing the plane’s gun at the “bad guys” but I didn’t like whenever the simulator moved…

I don’t think I’m ever gonna go to space or be a pilot, guys. Sorry.

Holiday Get-Together. Last Friday evening, we went directly from my office to my best friend Kat’s holiday get-together. A few of our other friends were there, too, and it felt very much like a college hangout, in a good way. Kat made dinner and then we chilled and watched the newest Knives Out movie. I may have fallen asleep in a few places, but I’d been awake since 7 am! It’s always nice to spend time with friends. It’s harder to do so now that we’re older and we all have jobs and lives of our own.

I’ve been friends with Kat for twenty-four years. 🤯 Our friendship would be a young adult, if it was a person.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Do you ever start reading a book and it takes a bit for you to get into it and care about what’s happening? When I first started reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, I was a little lost. The main character is such a (heh) cold person, and he says a few highly judgmental, bigoted things within the first 20 or so pages. But then I started being interested in what was happening. He’s a spy, and he’s living this life that’s made up for his mission. He even goes to prison. It’s kind of intense. I’m interested in seeing the movie version after reading the book.

I started reading it because it’s cold outside, so the title matches. But it’s not actually about the cold at all. Well, it’s The Cold War. And it’s also a term for being a secret agent. You “come in from the cold” when you’re finished. I didn’t realize that I’d seen a related movie before, about George Smiley (a mentioned but so far unseen character in this book.) I saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy over a decade ago. But the name George Smiley jumped out at me. That’s pretty fun. It’s hard to forget a name like that.

I like spy and mystery novels when they’re well-done. I’m not all romance 24/7. Just most of the time. 😄

Brenda and Eddie had had it already by the summer of ’75.

Sara Mazariegos

Thanksgiving mini recap. Wow. We basically had three Thanksgivings the past several days. We had regular Thanksgiving on Thursday (with the parade and dog show and everything) with Luis’s family, then we had Thanksgiving II on Friday at my parents’ house with even more turkey legs for Luis! Then we went to a friendsgiving dinner on Sunday. We got leftovers from all three dinners, so we’re going to be good on food for a while.

I got some ideas for future novels during all of this, so that’s fun. I’m taking a break from writing for the holidays now, so of course I’m plotting new things.

Zootopia 2 and the barrage of sequels and remakes. As we were going into the theater to see Zootopia 2, I commented that the row of “Coming Soon” posters on the wall were all sequels and remakes. It’s obviously not the first time I’ve noticed that so many movies are not original anymore, but it was interesting to see them in a row like that. I like certain sequels and remakes can be okay, but I do miss seeing the latest Disney movie and having it be the latest Disney movie and not a continuation of something. The second Zootopia was good, but do you know what was even better? The first Zootopia, when it was new and different and special.

I can’t believe there’s going to be a fifth Toy Story. Of course I’ll see it, though. Conan O’Brien is in it.

But I also plan to support the crap out of Hoppers. Hopefully our theater will show it for longer than a week. It didn’t give Elio a chance. We still haven’t seen Elio. 😦

Violence near my Metro stop. Harsh transition ahead. Last week, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, there was a shooting of National Guardspeople* near the Metro stop where I get off to go to work. It was during the afternoon, so thankfully I was already safely inside my office. But the commute home was scary because the station entrance was blocked off and there were police and TV cameras everywhere. While I was walking, I thought it was a bunch of police guarding the area, which would make sense I suppose, but then I realized it was a lot of media covering what had happened. They were blocking the corner where I usually cross, so I had to be on the other side of the street.

We live in scary times.

Writing/Editing update. My main update is that I finished editing the latest draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel! Now I have to wait and see what some new beta readers think.

In the meantime, I’m working on some new story ideas and making an outline. I’m planning to start writing this new story project in March (after my birthday) so I want to take the time to really think things through and have a good idea of what I’m doing before starting to type out a fresh new story draft. I’m excited to see where it takes me. I did something I don’t usually do with this one: I created Sims 4 versions of the romantic leads. It might sound silly, but it helps me think of fun ideas and imagine them as real people a little more.

I’ve also started a fun “book club” type thing with Luis. For a sort-of Christmas gift, I asked him to read The Good Part by Sophie Cousens and I’m rereading it as well, so we can discuss it. I love that book. I think he will, too. And then he’ll understand the kind of novels I’m going for when I write.

I still can’t believe it’s already December.

* It was one man and one woman, so “Guardsmen” feels wrong.

Is that the autumn leaf falling?

Sara Mazariegos

Thanksgiving again. It’s hard to believe it’s holiday time again. I was telling Luis that once August comes, everything starts to happen so quickly. I wonder if every year has felt like Halloween came and went before I knew it, or if it’s more like that this year because I’ve been working such long days and haven’t had as much time to catch my breath. My brain is still in New York on our anniversary in some ways. And remember when I had jury duty? That was a month ago. Unbelievable.

No Rest for the Wicked. Last weekend, we saw the second part of Wicked. My immediate response was it should have just been one movie with an intermission, like the musical. It’s also not really my thing… It’s such a cynical fan fiction. Much of it doesn’t make sense when you actually think about it. The best parts are the songs and the costumes. I still have the book, and I still haven’t read it. We’ll see if I ever do. I’m glad I haven’t seen it on stage.

We saw the new version of The Running Man last weekend as well. The two movies have similar themes, but I preferred The Running Man. It was much less annoying.

Even clips from It’s A Wonderful Life make me teary-eyed. The other day, Luis thought a TV show character sounded like George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life, so I went to YouTube to track down a clip of George yelling a lot and see if Luis was correct. The clip I sought was from the end of the movie, which is the most Christmasy part, so I felt silly watching it before Thanksgiving. I asked him if he meant “My mouth’s bleeding, Bert!” but he said it was something George says to the kids, so I had to check in case I’d forgotten a bit of dialogue*. Hard for me to imagine, given that I’ve seen it at least once a year my whole life.

Watching the clip—even though it’s not Christmas yet, I have the movie memorized, and it was only the last ten minutes—made me teary-eyed. It’s such a heart-warming movie. I love all the characters. As I read through my novel inspired by it, I find myself feeling similarly, which is a good sign.

Comparing my writing to others’. A big part of writing is reading, especially in the genre you write in. It’s a great way to learn what works and get inspired. A drawback I’m finding, though it’s a minor one, is that I compare my writing to the books I’m reading. I also compare my writing to the writing of authors I really like. But it’s not kind to myself, because authors like Sophie Cousens and Ashley Poston were agented and published a long time ago. I want to learn how to write better like them, but it’s unrealistic to think I’m going to magically be at their level without putting in the time and work.

That being said, I’m reading through my latest draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life novel, and I’m enjoying it even as I edit things. I’ve got a good story here, I just need to make it shine as much as I can before attempting to have agents read it.

I’m considering following the lead of Philip Van Doren Stern and gifting the finished draft to a few of my friends this Christmas. Not to critique, just to read and enjoy.

We’ll see if I get brave enough to do that.

* I’m pretty sure it was “There they are!” as said to Bert, that sounded a little bit like the character Luis was talking about (Bobby on King of the Hill.)

She’s got wonderful eyes and a risqué mouth.

Sara Mazariegos

Tomorrow is Juneteenth. I’m off for it for the first time since it was added as a Federal holiday. I’m excited to be off, but I also feel guilty about it. I suppose that’s the general idea. We’re meant to reflect on what this country did and continues to do to Black people. I’m going to spend the day reading and writing, and Luis and I will go have a nice dinner at a nearby Tex Mex place. I think more businesses need to give it as a holiday so it receives its full respect. I’ve noticed it’s optional a lot of the time, hence this being my first year having it off. If Luis didn’t have to work, I would’ve suggested going to a local Black-owned business for dinner, but he has to work.

The Metro has been a nightmare this week. Every day has had some kind of signal problem, some kind of track work. This morning, I was half an hour late to work because there was a track issue two stops away from the office. They made everyone get out of my train and wait for the next one. Thankfully, my coworkers were nice about it. But I was so frustrated and worried about how long it was going to take, because it was stop-and-go all morning.

It’s been pretty calm at work, though. Which isn’t the norm for Wednesday, so something crazy is probably going to happen.

Next weekend, we’re going to celebrate Luis’s mom’s birthday with yet another party. (She’s had like three parties now.) We’re going to a brewery that, for once!, has coffee and pizza instead of just having beer. I’m excited about that. Also, my parents are going to be there, which I didn’t know about until they told us on Father’s Day. We’ll see them again on the 4th of July and then again on the 22nd when we go to see Weird Al. July is going to be pretty packed.

Then there’s nothing on the schedule for August. We need to make August plans STAT. Luis’s birthday is in August, so that’ll of course be something. But a few years ago we literally went to Paris and London. This year, ehh…. we can’t do that. But I’m sure it’ll still be nice.

I’ve been doing a lot of beta reading. I currently have three I’m getting through. Some writers are definitely more patient than others. I’m a slow reader, but I also give the stories more attention than I bet a lot of other readers do. Case in point, I got some early feedback on my novel from one of them that was like, “I like the corporate rivalry.” I feel like you can say that without even reading my story; it’s in the brief description. But I don’t want to be mean. Some people are more comfortable giving feedback than others, and some people don’t want to be negative or whatever. It’s fine. I do my best to read like I’m helping the writer, because I am. I’ve volunteered my time to help them make their story better.

With that in mind, I better go keep reading.

I ran to your heart to be near.

Sara Mazariegos

Happy New Year!

I must admit, I’m still in a bit of a holiday stupor, not helped by the fact that I’m back at work on a Thursday. Is everyone feeling a bit confused about what day it is and what we’re supposed to be doing?

My calendars are up and my work planner has been updated with the holidays and vacation days I’ve solidified thus far. I just have to get to February 14th without pulling my hair out and I’ll be fine.

We had a nice holiday break together. It was nice just to be together and relax. We went to the National Zoo on New Year’s Eve (Zoo Year’s) and then had an impromptu dinner at a Turkish place because the Thai place we’d booked wasn’t open for when we made our reservation. Thanks, automated reservation services (in this case, Google.) The Turkish place was more memorable than the Thai place probably would’ve been anyway, though.

For Christmas, I received a few books. One of my light resolutions this year is that I will only read books I currently own as of 1/1/2025. I have a library book, so I can read that, obviously. Books on my Amazon Fire also count. I’m excited to go through my bookshelves and actually read the books there instead of finding books elsewhere all the time.

As far as writing, I’ve still been taking a break from my It’s A Wonderful Life novel. I give myself at least the recommended two weeks between writing and reading the complete draft. I’m going to read it next week, and I hopefully won’t cringe too much. I’m excited to keep working on it and sprucing it up until it’s ready to query.

In the meantime, of course I’ve thought up another novel idea. I’m always thinking of something.

“I’m shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world!”

Sara Mazariegos

I finished writing my novel’s second draft on Monday! 🎉 It was much easier to write this time, largely because I retooled my outline and gave myself enough time to really think it through before writing it all out. We watched It’s A Wonderful Life again on the 14th, and it inspired my final push to the end. My novel is very different, but it’s influenced by that movie, sort of like how Planes, Trains, and All The Feels by Livy Hart is clearly inspired by Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It gave me the initial “Hey! I want to do that!” inspiration.

I can’t remember if I’ve shared this story here, but my parents have watched It’s A Wonderful Life every Christmas Eve my entire life. It’s as much a Christmas tradition for me as putting up a decorated tree or opening presents. I still watch it every holiday season, though not on Christmas Eve since that’s become the evening we spend with Luis’s family.

When I was around seven years old, I noticed I couldn’t hear in my right ear. I remember being on the phone with my grandpa and I couldn’t hear him if I switched which ear the phone was up against. I remember thinking, “Huh, that’s weird. I wonder if everyone’s ears are like that.” (I was young.)

I voiced my concern a few years later, because my friends were playing Telephone at a party — another telephone! — and I couldn’t hear the messages being whispered into my right ear. In moments of panic, I just made things up and passed those messages along instead. My friends kept being like, “Where did the message get messed up??” and looking at me. Now, I was a strange and silly child, but in this instance I wasn’t trying to deviate! I was embarrassed about not being able to hear. Looking back, I know I could’ve just turned my head and insisted on using the ear that hears, but at the time it felt like it would break the rules…

When I told my family, they thought I was pretending to be George Bailey because I’d seen that movie every year and I had a penchant for pretending to be my favorite characters.

Now, that’s one thing, but when I was in school, for the hearing test they used to give us with the headphones and the hand raising if you hear the tone on one side or the other, I used to wait until there was a pause and the tester was looking at me expectantly, and then I’d dutifully raise my right hand. “Oh yeah, I definitely heard that…” [Not.]

It wasn’t until I was fifteen that I finally stopped faking and honestly took that test. My parents were told I should go see an ear, nose, and throat doctor. I did more hearing tests. My right cochlea doesn’t work. Records were checked. Apparently, I’ve been deaf in that ear since I was two years old, after a bad fever and ear infection.

So I love George Bailey because I identify with him. Sure, I didn’t save anyone from a frozen lake, but I have the same hearing loss! One thing I noticed this year is that George situates himself at the table with his father on his bad side. I’d never do that! I always make sure the people I’m most trying to hear are on my “good side.” That’s to say nothing of the balance issues he probably should display, etc.

Maybe that’s why he trips at the dance.

Anyway, I finished my writing draft. This is the nifty chart. I’m going to take a break from it for at least two weeks. How handy that the holidays are at the same time. 😄


I hope you have happy holidays and a happy, joyous New Year! Try not to stress too much about the future. That’s probably my resolution.


P.S. The “George Bailey” character in my novel doesn’t have hearing loss. That would be too similar to the original. I gave him something else of mine: he has car anxiety.

“Georgie, don’t you ever get tired of just reading about things?”

Sara Mazariegos

I got into work on Monday after a nice, relaxing four-day weekend and my cousin Alex texted to tell me he was able to get Luis and me tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood for when we plan to be there! Fancy!

I also looked at my calendar and decided to take two extra days off the week of Christmas. I would have only worked on Monday and Friday that week, and that’s just silly. Those two plans started out my week with positive vibes.

We had a nice Thanksgiving time. I even managed not to eat too much, and I discovered I no longer hate green beans. Luis is always teasing me about my hatred of vegetables, but it’s not like I never eat them. I’m just picky about the ones I want to eat.

Now we’ve kicked over into Christmastime thoughts. We’re going to host Christmas Eve at our house, for the Guatemalan tradition of opening presents at midnight. It’s going to be cute to see the cats’ reaction to people being in our house with food and wrapping paper. Leo might be all over everyone. We’re not going to set off fireworks, though. That’s illegal in Maryland. Then, the next morning, we go over to my parents’ house for more Christmas festivities. My parents book us a hotel room so we can stay for the night and not have to rush back home late on Christmas. It’s fun how these traditions have kind of just taken shape over the last few years.

Thinking about the holidays is helpful while writing my novel. As it’s inspired by It’s A Wonderful Life, it takes place during the holidays. I reached 60,000 words yesterday, with help from my old draft. I used as much of an old chapter* as I could, tweaking it here and there to make it fit this new draft. I’m a fan of doing that. Maybe I’m a rare breed of writer who actually enjoys revising?

* And it’s an important chapter!

“Oh, why don’t you stop annoying people?”

Sara Mazariegos

First of all, a photo of Boo Radley so you know who she is since I’ve been talking about her so much. This is not a recent photo. She doesn’t want to be seen with her cone on. She’s embarrassed about it. But she’s hanging in there.


On Monday, they removed some of her stitches from her ear and tail. They will see her again in two weeks (with her brother Leo who already had a checkup appointment scheduled) to remove the rest. She hates going to the vet, but the medication that sedates her really helps her relax. (She still swiped at the vet once, to let her know she was done with her.)

Daily writing prompt
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
View all responses


I’ve thought about this before, though it’s not sleep I would skip. I love sleeping. If I didn’t need to be at work for eight hours, I’d have more time to write, which would make me happy. I’d mostly write, but I’m sure I’d end up watching Internet videos. I wish I had more balance, so I could work but also write.

Thanksgiving is coming up on Thursday (and Friday if you go to two separate meals like Luis and I do.) People always talk about the awkward conversations or the big arguments that happen on Thanksgiving when families get together. Fortunately for us, we don’t have a lot of family members who disagree with us and pick fights. Our extended families don’t come over for Thanksgiving, which means things aren’t as stressful too. I can’t imagine having everyone in my family over for the holidays. A lot of people like it, I guess, but… No thanks. I’ve rarely done that.

I have vague memories from when I was little of spending Christmas in Tacoma, Washington, with my extended family there. Grandma accidentally bumped the tree, and it almost landed on my head. I know this from stories I’ve been told.

Having the holidays with the family we usually see is nicer and easier, so it doesn’t feel like such a performance. Better to see the extended family at other times, when we can focus more on seeing them and less on making a bunch of food or decorating. Then again, a lot of the time we’ve seen them has been at weddings…

For my writing update, I reached 50,000 Words! 🎉

I enjoyed writing the scene I wrote yesterday. It helped me easily get to this milestone. Hopefully, the rest of the writing will go as well as writing the first portion. It’s currently 56% finished, according to Pacemaker.

After today (overall goal: 52,000 words) I will have a mini break for Thanksgiving and then I’ll jump right back in.

I plan to fill myself with sweet potatoes, as I do every year.

“Gives me a chance to tell you what I really think of your wife.”

Sara Mazariegos

This year just keeps getting tougher. Our cat Boo went to the vet on Monday for a dental cleaning and a biopsy on a mass that comes and goes on her ear. We found out she has an ear infection, so she was sent home with pain medication (she got lovely stitches on her ear) and ear drops. She was so loopy and lovey, which was cute if concerning. Her new best friend was the animatronic skeleton we got this year for Halloween. She kept sitting on the floor in front of him and gazing up at him, rubbing her face against his feet and licking his pants.

She also spent most of the night growling at our other cat because she was closed in our room for safety and he waited outside the door. He usually sleeps with us on the bed. He’s so confused.

Fun times!

I hope the results from the biopsy are good. I’m hoping it’s just skin allergies we can treat more intensely. We have to take her to the vet again on the next two Mondays to check that she’s improving and see the next options.

As if I don’t have enough to worry about. 😓

I can’t believe it’s almost the holidays. I say that every year, but, every year, they creep up on me. This year has been rough, so I’m ready for a new one. Not that I think the next four years are going to be great… I mostly can hope they might be okay? I hope they can at least be okay.

Writingwise, my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired story is going well. I keep hitting my writing goals for the day, which is more than I could say for the last story I was working on. I think I was ready to think about this one. If all goes well, I’ll be at 30K words by Friday.

My voice is finally back to normal(ish.) I’m still a little coughy, but some of that is because I’m allergic to Fall leaves (I’m pretty sure.) Let’s hope I don’t get sick again like that for a long time. Or never. Never would be better.

Zuzu’s petals.

Sara Mazariegos

Surprise-surprise, this week has been busy and distracting! But I still hit 75,057 words yesterday. 🎉

I’m in the final stretch now. My plot has reached the point where everything’s tying together. It feels like magic. I need to rewrite it. I’m looking forward to it, and nervous as heck about it.

January is going to be all about reading through my other novel and taking notes before I work on the next draft of it. Thankfully, I don’t think a complete rewrite is necessary for that one at this point.

If I’m going to be working on the same two novels for the rest of my life, at least it’s these two.

Anyway! Christmas is on Monday! That’s crazy. It feels like it was just November. I hope you have a nice holiday season (whatever you may celebrate) and a happy New Year!

Until next time,