Tag: Jim Carrey

Do you think time would pass me by?

Sara Mazariegos

After-work drinks. On Friday, we went out for drinks and dinner with some of Luis’s friends from high school. It was nice to meet up in the city and go out instead of doing the usual routine, although I did end up quite tired when it was over. We stayed up until one in the morning! What are we, college kids?! We did spend a lot of time with his friends talking about high school people and experiences. I felt so old. 😆

And then, when Luis took the train to Wheaton with me, the scary elevator didn’t seem so scary, and I don’t really remember the bus ride. It was much nicer to have him with me. Only 20 more days of this longer commute for me! Can you tell I’m looking forward to things going back to normal?

Spider-Man summation. Luis and I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Saturday. The theater was more packed than I’ve seen it in a long, long time. We had to sit in the second row, and my shoulders are still sore from looking up the whole time, but it was worth it. It brought back memories of seeing Spider-Man 2 starring Tobey McGuire with my sister, and us having to crane our necks the whole time/not be sick when he was webbing through NYC. I think Brand New Day is the best Marvel movie in a long time. I’m already looking forward to seeing it again. Preferably a little further back in the seating rows.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t go into detail. Just know that it surpassed my expectations. I think Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man in the movies. He’s the right mix of jokester and dork. And he’s so agile! It’s funny how the Barbenheimer this summer is two Tom Holland movies. I enjoyed both of them, and one of them is clearly going to win a bunch of awards, but man if I don’t enjoy a fun Marvel movie.

Dumb & Dumber all these years later. On Sunday, we watched Dumb & Dumber. I don’t think I’d seen it since I was a kid, and Luis hadn’t seen it before. There were quite a few things that I remembered. They were somehow lodged in my subconscious. “I like it a lot.” It’s a pretty cute movie, which is funny because the Farrelly brothers are known for being ‘gross out.’ It’s not actually even that gross by today’s standards. I think, after watching The Boys, nothing is that gross.

I loved Jim Carrey when I was a kid, and he is super cute in D&D. It also aged better than Ace Ventura, so that’s a plus. I’ve never seen the sequel, but I have a feeling it might not be worth it… Not everything needs a sequel.

Disney planning is part of the fun! Luis and I are going to Disney World and Universal in October. It feels like forever ago that I mentioned it, because he booked our Disney tickets and hotels as a Christmas present. It’s finally getting close enough that we can start cementing plans for things like which parks we’re going to each day, which restaurants we’re booking {hopefully}, and how we’re getting around. I’m so excited to be staying at Disney resorts the whole time this time, so we can go into the parks early each day, and make use of the close walk to Magic Kingdom, and then use the handy Skyliner and buses the rest of the time. The Skyliner is a ride in itself and, yes, I’m a little scared to ride it. We may ride it once and then decide we prefer the bus. Heh. Heeehh. But if we’re riding the Tower of Terror, the Skyliner should be a piece of cake.

I watched a lot of videos on YouTube recently in preparation. There are even videos that show you exactly how to walk from one specific hotel to the transportation, so we don’t have to get there and try to guess the right way. Theme park YouTubers can be kind of irritating sometimes, but I really like the ones that are just trying to be helpful for people. The logistics can be a real nightmare if you’re not prepared, especially nowadays with all the new technology and available options. I just have to be careful not to watch too many videos, or else I get frustrated that I’m not already able to just do the things!

I guess I’m a ‘plantser.’ I’ve known this for a while, but it’s not like I think about it a lot. I make outlines for my novels, but they tend to be loose. A few sentences per chapter. I fill in the details and scenes as I go, with only a general idea of what I want each chapter to have in it. I guess I initially try to imagine the big picture of the story, and then as I actually sit down to write it, I hone in on the scenes and characters in more detail. At least in the first draft. And then the first draft kind of becomes a long outline for the later, better drafts.

As I’m writing my latest novel, there are many things I know I’m going to need to change. Somehow, knowing it needs work makes me feel better about it. It feels like growth to me, not expecting it to come out perfectly at first and not putting so much pressure on myself to get it well-written and finished within a set time frame. I even fully intend to finish it and leave it alone for months before reading it.

I’m working harder at taking my time.

If I could turn back time, if I could find a way.

Sara Mazariegos

Wildfire smoke + anxiety = not fun. A lot of wildfire smoke came down into D.C. from Canada last weekend. Combined with my anxiety about suffocating, it wasn’t great. On Thursday, I was on a crowded train and I briefly worried about there not being enough air on the train for us all to breathe. It was fleeting, but then I wondered if it was because of the smoke. A Nerdfighter friend pointed out that smoke wasn’t even in our area yet. Oh. Just plain old boring anxiety then. But on Friday it was actually smoky. Like, making my esophagus hurt, eyes watering smokey. The commute home wasn’t dreadful, though, because a lot of people work from home or don’t work on Fridays, so I avoided the extra suffocatey feeling. It was actually better to be in a ventilated train versus walking outside.

A lady who lives in Canada posted that, as bad as the smoke was trickling down here, it’s been much worse where she lives because they’re still dealing with the actual fires that have killed people and animals… So it puts it into perspective. I hope the fires are out soon and everyone will be okay. 🖤

World Cup reaction. With the scores being as high as they were in the England vs. France game, I feel like the final between Spain and Argentina was a little anticlimactic. It was a good game in that Argentina prevented Spain from scoring for most of it—largely because my favorite player, Dibu Martinez, is an amazing goalkeeper—but Argentina didn’t seem to have the drive to try to win. They didn’t even attempt to shoot, and they kept losing the ball. I’m not sure what happened. But, like I’ve said before, Spain is another team of players we really like, so we’re happy for them. I just feel like the last game was the least exciting of all the World Cup games this time. It’s funny how that worked out. Well, funny but in a sad way.

Also, what was that halftime show? That was a mess. I think it should’ve just been Shakira and BTS. Even the Muppets felt like too much extra for no reason. There really was no need for a halftime show. It ended up underlining how meh of a game it was.

Ace Ventura as an adult. We watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as my latest movie pick, since I’ve been strolling down memory lane with some classic Jim Carrey movies. It is…woof. Well, it has a lot of classic Jim Carrey one-liners. There’s a raccoon in it. There’s also a lot of football stuff, which I remembered as the reason I didn’t like it as much as its sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

But the worst part is that the villain and the ending are all kinds of transphobic. It didn’t age well at all. And it doesn’t honestly make much sense. I wish I could rewrite it. Something similar happens in Soap Dish, and it’s just like, why? Why was that the go-to joke? Thankfully, the majority of people have evolved since then. But it does make those movies cringey to rewatch, which is unfortunate because most of those two movies is otherwise funny and they have actors I like in them.

Novels that try to do too much. I’ve noticed in the novel I’m currently reading*—that I really like, don’t get me wrong!—there’s starting to be a little too much going on. There’s a romance but there’s also a crazy time travel plot and there’s also a trying-to-stop-something-from-happening subplot. It all feels a bit heavy. I suppose it’s good to have more than just the romance, because that can get boring if there’s nothing else happening. But suddenly all these new characters have been introduced in the middle of the book, which I was not anticipating. I’m curious to see how it all comes together. I’m always impressed when authors create these worlds and these complex scenarios. I can’t wrap my head around it when I’m reading it, and it’s got to be even more difficult to write!

That being said, it’s something that’s difficult to do well. I hope the author pulls it off. I feel like she will. So far, I’ve adored the romance plot. It flows very naturally and the characters are cute and funny together. I look forward to their scenes.

Writing update. Writing my latest novel has been so fun. I promised myself it would be, and I’ve completely leaned into it. I’m trying to just enjoy writing it without thinking about trying to get it published, even though of course it is my long-term goal to get published someday. So far, I think this story I’m telling has a lot going for it.

One good thing about my extra long commute these days is that I can think of ideas while I’m traveling, especially when I’m traveling home and can get writing not long after I get there. I’ve been daydreaming about my novel quite a bit, which I think is a good sign.

* I’m not going to name it right now, because this could be slightly spoilery, though you don’t have to search far on my site to find mention of which book it is

I’m having such a good time; I’m having a ball.

Sara Mazariegos

Independence Day celebrations not on Independence Day. I have a pet peeve about holidays: I dislike when they’re celebrated not on their respective date. I get that Independence Day is on a Saturday this year, so we get Friday off from work. That makes sense. It can’t be given off if it’s a Saturday. Fine. Thanks. However, the 4th of July is on the 4th of July so celebrating it on the 3rd makes no sense. Also, wouldn’t you rather celebrate on a Saturday, well-rested after having the previous day off? It’s the same with Halloween. It always bothers me when Halloween is on a Saturday and people choose to celebrate it on a Friday instead, or it’s on Sunday so people celebrate it on Saturday. It’s so baffling to me. Celebrate holidays on their actual days!

That being said, we’re not watching the thing in D.C. on the 4th of July. We’re watching the pre-recorded PBS Capitol Fourth show that has to happen on the 3rd because we live in a dystopia. And then of course we’ll watch the World Cup game, too, because that will be a jolly good time. France might cream Paraguay, but this has been an unusual World Cup, so anything could happen. It’s been amazing.

Streaming shows schedule. To keep up with shows and not binge them, Luis and I have scheduled what we’re currently watching on our calendar, and it struck me that it’s not much different from the television schedules of yore. Except there are no commercials and we can switch around the order of things if we want to. For a long time, we did what a lot of people do: we watched shows we like all the way through, watching them every day. I think it’s better to space them out and watch each show weekly, especially because we can then savor them. We still binge a few shows, mainly true crime shows because I just wanna know what happened!!, but for the most part we stick to our schedule to give each show its allotted attention.

For example, it’s been fun having “Bear Thursday” to look forward to each week. …It’s not what it sounds like.


World Cup feelings are taking over. We were planning to see Supergirl last weekend, but then we just couldn’t bring ourselves to. It got bad reviews, the trailer wasn’t very inspiring or original, and it seemed like Krypto isn’t in it much, and he’s the main reason I care, so… We went and had a nice lunch and watched movies at home this weekend instead, along with many more World Cup games. It’s been nice to catch as many games as we can in the evenings and on the weekends, even though they can be random teams we haven’t really been following. The game with Paraguay vs. Germany? WHAT. And then Canada and South Africa on Sunday was crazy. And then Netherlands vs. Morocco? Oh. My. God.

My childhood crush reborn. We watched Liar Liar on Sunday as well, because Luis hadn’t seen it before. I was a little worried it wouldn’t hold up, because sometimes movies from the 90s can be pretty icky, but it is still good. Jim Carrey is so talented. I saw that movie in the theater for my 10th birthday, with a group of my friends. A few of my friends’ parents wouldn’t let them go see it with me because it’s a PG-13 movie, and I remember thinking they were silly and not fun. Now as an adult, I can see the issues. I still think they should’ve been allowed to come, but it makes more sense to me now. A lot of the sexual innuendo went over our heads when we were kids, though. I mainly remembered him beating himself up in a bathroom to try to get out of his court case, but then he can’t lie to the judge and say it’ll prevent him from working the case, so he badly beat himself up for no reason. 🥲

I want to rewatch a lot of the Jim Carrey movies I loved as a kid now. I know there are lots of classic movies I still need to see, but sometimes rewatching old favorites is just nice.

Writing my next novel starting next week! I’ve been stressed out by the looming Metro construction and having to get up earlier to take an alternate route and stuff, but I am genuinely looking forward to starting to write my next novel next week. I hope my brain won’t be too distracted by the stress and I can take the writing time as a time to relax and have fun. That’s my goal anyway.

I worry so much about not having enough time. The commute home is going to potentially take longer, so I’m fretting. I look at our calendar and I think we’re not going to be able to do much together in the evenings, and it makes me sad. We’re probably (hopefully) only going to lose maybe 30 minutes per day. But that does add up. I’m glad this won’t last longer than a few months. I’m also curious to see if I really will be going to bed at 11pm each night. I’ve never been a fan of going to bed early.

But, in a way, being worried about running out of time fits in perfectly with my novel. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to share it with you so you can see for yourself.