Tag: Movies

It’s the first time, the last time we ever met.

Sara Mazariegos

Birthday month. March is my birthday month, so last weekend and this weekend were/are all about birthday parties for me. 🥳 Last weekend, we got Indian food and strawberry cupcakes with my family, and we played a trivia game. It’s also my mom’s birthday, so we combine our parties since it makes sense and we don’t have to plan and travel twice.

This weekend, we’re getting dinner with Luis’s family, then we’re going ice skating* and getting fancy sushi with friends on Sunday (my birthday!)

Whenever I feel at all guilty or silly for having multiple get-togethers for my birthday instead of one big one, I think of Sona Movsesian on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend and how she calls it her “Birthday month” because she has many parties with friends the whole month. That’s the dream!

Just kidding. I like attention, but not that much attention.

Whereabouts. One thing I always find myself thinking about as I write my Nerdfighters novel is the fact that my parents panicked about me going on my first date with Luis because I didn’t text them updates every hour (exaggeration, but not far off.) I was twenty-four years old and I’d been to D.C. by myself plenty of times at that point. Plus, we went to a bunch of museums together, so it’s not like he led me into dark alleys or anything like that. I think it’s one bad thing about cell phones. It makes people feel like they must be constantly aware of things at all times, and if there’s no instant response the world must be ending.

I remember when I was a kid, I’d go off on my bike to my friends’ houses after school and I’d be gone until evening. My parents never freaked out then. I got into more mischief back then! My friends and I used to play in a Virginia creek, for heck’s sake. I also went on a ski trip to West Virginia when I was in middle school and they never checked up on me at that rate. They may have been calling my friends’ parents to make sure things were going well, but there was no sense of urgency about any of it. I’m way more cautious as an adult than I was as a kid, and even as a kid I was careful. I never broke any bones or got lost. There was more stranger danger back then. There were more serial killers.

I think, when I was twenty-four and they were all concerned about me and what I was doing, it was more because it was a date with a boy than it was about the danger of D.C. Which, again, silly. They wanted me to meet people, but also not go out with them… It would’ve been so rude to pull out my phone and text them constantly when I was busy paying attention to my cute, funny date. I remember a time not long before that time, when my parents didn’t like cell phones and thought people who used them in public were rude. 🤔

Anyway. I like cell phones. They’re very helpful. I’m still glad I grew up in a time without them.

Ryan Gosling and space movies. Last weekend, we saw Project Hail Mary. I figured we would like it, but we both really enjoyed it! It’s very cute. It’s the kind of movie people need right now, I think. I want to see it again, even though it’s two and a half hours long. It doesn’t feel long. We’ll probably watch it again when it’s streaming. I’m glad it’s doing as well as it is. I don’t want to spoil it; I recommend you just see it if you like movies set in space that don’t involve big laser fights or anything. It’s like Alien + Star Trek (the series, not the movies) + ET, and a little bit of Moon. I cried, but in a good way.

There are quite a few space movies we need to see. A bunch came out close to each other and we missed them. This one is by the same author as The Martian, which we need to see. We also need to see Interstellar and Arrival. We like space movies, but it’s hard to keep up sometimes! Apparently Timothee Chalamet is in Interstellar. That doesn’t have me rushing to see it. 😝

References and prior knowledge when reading. I’ve noticed in two of the books I’m reading/recently read—Where’d You Go, Bernadette? and Today Tonight Tomorrow, which both take place in Seattle, which I didn’t expect!—that there are a lot of pop culture references with very little explanation for people who might not understand them. I suppose books have always included a bit of that. But, for example, Bee in Where’d You Go, Bernadette keeps saying she’s making a Kubrick reaction face, and I feel so lost myself whenever she says that. Is that a thing regular people say? It takes place in 2012, too. Not really Kubrick’s era.

Now that I see it, I understand but I’m not used to things like that making me have to look them up. I wonder if it’s a sign of the age of the author? Also, what fifteen-year-old would use that term? It comes out of nowhere. It’s not like Bee is watching 2001: A Space Odyssey or A Clockwork Orange and then starts referencing it. Anyway, I think it’s a good idea for writers to try to limit pop culture references because it might age things and also confuse people.

I pay attention to my use of pop culture references in my novel. In my opinion, if it’s relevant to the plot or characters or if it helps place the story in its setting, then a reference is okay. But too many is definitely distracting and can take people out of the story, especially if they’re going to their phone instead of reading!

Sheesh, do I sound old?

* I always envision myself doing spins and tricks like a figure skater, but um. I mostly will be trying not to fall and hoping my ankles don’t hurt too much. Just know I imagine myself as the next Sarah Hughes. That’s what goes on in my head when I’m going skating.

Time was still, but hours must really have rushed by.

Sara Mazariegos

The whole “cats are bad pets” argument. I was planning to see The Bride! last weekend, but then I saw people sharing and discussing an interview with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal (and it’s not an old interview, because they were promoting Hamnet which is nominated this year for awards.) She said she hates cats and forced her husband to get rid of his two cats if he wanted to be with her. People are entitled to their opinions, but that is abusive behavior, both to her husband’s cats and to her husband. It’s not cute.

Also, cats are wonderful pets. This perception that they’re “mean” is largely because the person saying that hasn’t ever had one, or they met one that didn’t like them so therefore all cats are mean and bad. Cats domesticated themselves and are very smart and loving to the people they love. They will follow you from room to room just to stay in your presence and see what you’re up to. They will fall asleep on your lap for hours, or snuggle with you in bed. Dogs are people pleasers, they’ll love anyone. Cats are more of an honor when they love you, because they’ve made sure you earned it.

So we’re not seeing The Bride! It also helps that it got pretty terrible reviews. We saw Hoppers instead, and it was adorable.

Give me dark mode or give me sunglasses. I’ve become so accustomed to dark mode on my devices that, when my work didn’t have it set up for the CRM we use, I had to find a browser extension so I wasn’t squinting to read things on it. The problem with the extension is that sometimes certain websites still don’t want to play nice.

Like WordPress, which I use to write this. For some reason, it decided the place where I write each post still needs to be bright white. A week ago it was working fine, and nice and black with white text. I hope the extension updates and makes WordPress black again. Now I feel like a vampire as I’m typing because it’s too bright. 🧛‍♀️

The number of the day is 1 for First World Problem. Ah ah ah!

Messi & Inter Miami in Baltimore! We went to Baltimore and saw a soccer match between Inter Miami (this time with Messi) and D.C. United. The stadium was great. Luis managed to buy us some tickets in the Caesar’s Club level, so there were nice bars and slightly nicer restrooms. I never had to wait in line, whereas the men’s room line was quite long at the end. It makes sense, when you think about it.

We waited until the last minute, almost, to get the tickets because you never know if Messi is actually going to play or if he’s resting/injured. It’s always fun to see him and his team play, and it’s a nice activity to share with Luis. There were quite a few kids this time, too, which was cute. Inter Miami narrowly beat D.C. which was a pleasant surprise. It’s more exciting if they don’t completely trounce the other team. After the game, we went and had some fancy food and drinks at a place called Nola.

Enjoyable books with unlikeable characters. I’m currently reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette? which I fittingly found in our neighborhood’s little free library. There’s a movie based on it that came out several years ago. In fact, when Luis and I saw Stephen Colbert’s show live in 2019, Cate Blanchett was on to promote it and part of the reason I grabbed the book off the little free library shelf is because we saw her talking about it. Take that, CBS. Stephen Colbert is great at promoting things.

Anyway. I’ve been feeling a bit like the kombucha lady with this book. The way it’s written, half epistolary and half narrated, is a little funky. It feels like the author, Maria Semple, was trying a little too hard to be quirky. And yet… I’m still reading it. Sometimes it makes me laugh, and I want to know what’s going to happen next. The character of Bernadette Fox is a frustrating one because she can be so dismissive and strange, and a little racist, but she’s also somehow sympathetic. I find her, so far, more off-putting than likable but I still care enough about her to find out what happens to her.

My favorite character is her daughter, Bee. She just wants to go to Antarctica.

Writing update. I’ve been enjoying the rewrite of my novel. I’ve added a lot more conflict to the characters’ situation. It’s a lot of internal stuff caused by external stuff, if that makes sense. I do get the feeling that, after this rewrite, I might take a long break from writing. It may be partially because it’s that time of year once more where I would rather look out the window at the birds and go frolic outside amongst the living rather than sit and write.

But I could also just be being overdramatic right now and I’ll get slapped by a fresh story idea once July rolls around. We’ll see.

I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive.

Sara Mazariegos

Figure Skating obsession. The Winter Olympics have ended. I always enjoy them every 4 years and wish I could watch more figure skating. When I was little (around 7 years old) I loved Oksana Baiul. I remember pretending to figure skate around the kitchen in my socks, which was actually quite dangerous and I’m glad I didn’t give myself further injury*. It’s one of few sports I actually feel excited about, the other being soccer.

When we first started watching this year, I was drawn to Alysa Liu because of her style and because she seems to genuinely have fun while she’s skating. She seems really cool. I hope we can maybe see her on a tour sometime. My family took me to see figure skaters on a tour when I was little.

For my birthday this year, we’re going ice skating with our friends. I took lessons a long time ago, with my sister. We learned how to twizzle and get up if we fall. I doubt I remember how to do either thing. But I’ll probably hold onto the wall a lot anyway. Becoming a figure skating pro will be something my Sim does, not me. Alas.

Haircut and enjoyable laidback weekends. I finally got a haircut last weekend, after about a year of long-hairedness. My hair style is usually a long bob with side bangs, so I went back to that. I saw my reflection and thought I looked normal again, which is always a good thing when it comes to haircuts. I enjoy wearing my hair up when it’s long, but it’s nicer to have it short and easier to manage.

Aside from going to the salon, we had a nice, laidback weekend without any big plans. It’s good to do that sometimes; it’s more relaxing. We watched some winter sports themed movies. I chose Ice Castles, starring Robbie Benson, for some more figure skating. Luis chose Sudden Death, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which has some hockey in it but isn’t really a hockey movie. And then I got the silly song in my head.

Excitement about Disney/Universal trip. I’m so excited about our anniversary vacation to Disney World and Epic Universe, even though it’s still seven months away! Luis did all of the Disney planning already, for Christmas, so pretty much all I can do is wait. My cousin is going to help us get tickets to Universal, and we’re planning our first trip to their new park, but it’s too far away to really plan plan. I love looking forward to things, but waiting is also so frustrating.

We watched videos of the Jaws ride and the original King Kong ride the other night. Those rides were so cool! The King Kong animatronics were impressive and cute. The new version is quite sad in comparison. I wish they’d stop relying on screens. They’re cheap, sure, but they’re also dull.

I can’t wait to go see the new stuff at Epic Universe. I just wanna skip to October. Spoiled, first-world problems for sure. There’s just so much unpleasantness happening from all sides at all times, so it’s nice to have something to look forward to.

Farragut isn’t on a horse. The other day, I wrote about a statue close to my office and described the guy being on a horse, but then when I walked by after work I took the time to look at him and realized he’s not on a horse at all. And I realized that we’re all unreliable narrators, in a way. We don’t all remember things exactly as they happened.

I edited out the horse so my story is accurate. I want my narrators to be trust-worthy, even if they still don’t have all the correct information. They might have some fun misunderstandings along the way, but the least they can do is know what a statue they’re talking about looks like.

Observantly yours,

* When I was around 2 years old, I spun around while dancing to Star Search and hit my head against the family’s wooden TV stand. I have a lovely eyebrow scar to prove it.

Choose your last words, this is the last time.

Sara Mazariegos

Anniversary times. Luis and I had a great “staycation” trip for our 14th anniversary last weekend. We stayed in a lovely suite near the Metro station where we first met all those years ago. We explored the area and had a lot of nice food. We went to a romance bookstore called Friends to Lovers and he bought me a book. Our hotel also had a hot tub and a pool, so we spent some time there, which was a good way to get out of the cold and rain.

The places we went when we first met have changed, but we’ve also changed. It’s nice to go back and reminisce and also be reminded of how long we’ve been together.

Project For Awesome. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the first hour of the livestream during my lunch break last Friday. I watched the first charity video (about APOPO, the bomb-sniffing rats who also help detect tuberculosis, which is a non-profit organization my company works with) and I got misty-eyed because I love rats. That was only the beginning.

During our nice anniversary weekend, Luis and I also spent some time in the livestream (mostly watching John and/or Hank, because we’re biased.) During the P4A, we all came together and raised over 4 million dollars for charities! ✨ I love Nerdfighteria and I love getting to still be a part of it. It is, after all, how Luis and I met, so it was a pretty perfect thing for us to do during our mini trip.

Wuthering Heights and longer travel times. The Metro getting work done and forcing us to use shuttle buses for two stops to and from our anniversary destination wasn’t that big of a deal. It just added to the adventure. I told Luis, and it’s true, that I wouldn’t have done it by myself, but with him it was kind of fun. It helps that the stop over to get a bus was at a mall, so we could go in and use the bathroom and have a snack. We’re pros at the whole travel thing at this point.

When we came back toward home on Monday, we got Indian food and saw Wuthering Heights. I have to make a confession here: although I was an English major and I greatly respect the Brontë sisters, I really do not like the novel of Wuthering Heights. I went into the movie with low expectations, kind of expecting not to like it, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. It’s an artistic interpretation based on how it made the director feel when she read it, which makes sense. I remembered the moments and I appreciated seeing them in the movie. I feel like it’s the story for people who don’t want to read it. Because all the stuff that matters in the story is there. The part later with the kids (not spoiling…) you don’t need it. It’s superfluous.

I made versions of the characters in The Sims 4 after watching the BBC version from the 60s that inspired Kate Bush to write her song. It’s not as if I hate the story. I just prefer it being told well in a movie or miniseries. Not all books are good as books. It’s surprising when it happens, but it does happen. We don’t know why Emily Brontë chose to have the narrator be some guy who heard the story from a lady who was there, but that was her choice as an author.

Writing update. Speaking of authors and their choices, I’ve started rewriting my Nerdfighters-inspired novel after taking time last week to read and edit the first two chapters from an earlier draft. The first two chapters work for me, it’s the rest I want to make better. I’m working on shaping it into more of a romance arc with foreshadowing and side characters that add to the plot instead of being scene dressing. So far, it’s going well. I’ve gotten better at getting to the point, which means there’s less time wasted on little scenes that don’t matter.

When Luis took me to Friends to Lovers last weekend, I felt at home because all of the books were romance. And I found a book to read soon that would be a good comp for mine. My story definitely has a place there on the romance shelves, I just need to tell it correctly.

Time to stand up and steal the show.

Sara Mazariegos

Days off. It’s funny how vacation is so needed and restful and fun, but then going back to work feels like this insurmountable burden. I guess “funny” isn’t the right word. But I’ve noticed every time there’s a holiday or a vacation from work, coming back feels like such a big deal. It doesn’t help that the system is currently down at my office and one of my monitors decided to die. That just adds to the feeling of needing a break from my break before I feel like I can work again. 😅

Elio and the loss of originality. During our long holiday weekend, Luis and I watched several movies. We watched Dreamworks’ Sinbad which was… all right. We also watched Get On Up starring Chadwick Boseman. That was quite good. And sad, since we lost him so young. He was really talented. But the main movie I wanted to write about here is Elio. I wanted to see Elio when it was in theaters, but our theater did not really give us a chance. It came out at a time when several other big movies came out, but still… Disney movies are usually out longer. I’m glad we finally saw it, and it got Luis and me thinking about how none of the action hero in space movies have been successful. Even Lightyear did poorly, and people love Buzz Lightyear.

For what it’s worth, I think Elio is very cute. The aliens are all designed uniquely, and it has little nods to other sci-fi movies like E.T. and Terminator 2. I don’t understand why people didn’t go see it, unless theaters everywhere didn’t show it for long enough. But it seems like original movies are falling by the wayside at Disney, and it’s so sad. I hope we can see Hoppers in theaters and it won’t suffer the same fate as Elio. Streaming is nice, but it’s not the same.

Limping to the end of Seeing Other People. This sounds more serious than it is. It’s taken me longer than anticipated but I’m slowly finishing up reading Seeing Other People by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m not really feeling this one. It’s got moments, but it’s been a slog. Do you ever read a book and the words start to just roll through your brain like you’re not actually retaining any of them? I feel like that’s been happening to me with this book. It’s not holding my attention, and the plot bums me out. In the relationship part, it seems like they suddenly liked each other and I missed something. I guess not every book is for me, unfortunately even the ghost ones with pun titles.

Feedback and getting back into the writing groove. I edited my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel with my dad’s notes and I’m feeling pretty good about it. We had dinner with my parents on Saturday and Mom gave me some notes as well, so I’m going to be pondering some more. Nothing major though, which is awesome. Hopefully this can be the year I actually send out query letters for it, but we shall see.

I’m going to be starting up work on the major rewrite of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel soon. As it approaches, I’m getting nervous. I haven’t taken such a long break from writing in a while. I think it was a good refresh for my brain, but I hope I haven’t lost my groove. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, though, so it’s not as if I’ll be going in with no plan. Luis read my outline and said it was good, too, so I’m also not going into it with a lot of garbled ideas. (We’ve all done that before, right?)

And before you think, “But Sara, your stories are inspired by other stories. They don’t sound very original either,” I’ll remind you that they’re inspired by, they’re not the exact same stories of anything else. It’s not even the exact story of how Luis and I met anymore. That was at least six drafts ago. C’mon.

Until next time, stay safe out there.

Stop time. Stay just this way.

Sara Mazariegos

Thirties vs. Twenties. Amy Poehler briefly touched on this in a recent Good Hang episode—yay, Amy Poehler!—but I was already thinking about it. I’m coming to the end of my thirties, and realizing that my thirties were much easier than my twenties in a lot of ways. Sure, I’ve had a lot more responsibility and stress in my thirties, but in my twenties I was also very stressed because I was trying to get my first job and figure out who I was. I graduated college and lived with my sister, then lived with our parents. It’s a tale as old as time for people who graduated around 2008/2009/2010/2011. Recessions aren’t fun. I was twenty-four when I met Luis, and then we slowly started finding enough success to be able to get a place together. But we didn’t get married until I was thirty. My twenties were filled with a lot of uncertainty. Things are still often uncertain, of course, with the way things are in this country, but we also have more stability. So I hope people in their twenties realize that things aren’t always going to be as hard as they are for them at their age.

Globes that are golden. Speaking of Amy Poehler, I was so happy to see her win the Golden Globe for Best Podcast. I would’ve turned it off if she hadn’t won. I’m still annoyed about Ricky Gervais winning Best Stand-Up Special. It should have been Kumail Nanjiani. Luis and I saw many of the nominees, most of the winners. I really want to watch Adolescence. I like watching these award shows because they help me find new shows and movies to watch that I may otherwise not hear about. We got pizza for it, and I had a tasty at-home Redbull Sunrise (since the Buffalo Wild Wings near us closed, we’ve started just making them at home.)

It was jarring not to see an In Memoriam segment, especially with how dramatically sad some of the famous people’s deaths were last year. But it made the show shorter by not having it, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Divisiveness feels like gaslighting. If you’d told me when I was in high school that we’d be living in a time where our own government thinks it’s okay to shoot a woman three times in the head in broad daylight and then lie about it and try to vilify her, I would have told you that you were crazy because that’s Nazi behavior and America is not Fascist.

What’s been some of the most terrifying, crazy stuff to me is the fabrication of the truth. Nineteen-Eighty-Four is invoked all the time, but lately the quotes from it are so apt they’re painful. We were all supposed to learn from it how to be better, not how to copy Ingsoc.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

– George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four

Struggling with books. Firstly, I’ve been struggling with my copy of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold because it was nearly pristine when I got it off a little free library shelf, but now that it’s been traveling in my purse every day, it’s slowly falling apart. I fear that, by the time I’m ready to put it back in the little free library, it will be a stack of paper barely held together by glue from the 90s. I don’t know how it’s happening but every time I put it out of my purse, another bit of the front or back cover has fallen off. I’m not violent with it; all I do is put it down into my purse between my cell phone and my wallet. It’s nothing crazy. It’s kind of funny, but I feel bad.

I’m enjoying reading it. It’s not my usual thing, but it’s good. My favorite character is Liz. I have a bad feeling she’s not going to make it.

The other book I’m reading, Seeing Other People, continues to make me feel disappointed in some ways. It’s well-written and sweet, a lot of the time, but the name is so punny and the cover looks more light-hearted and youthful than it feels to me. Something about the tone has been throwing me off the whole time. I’m reading an ARC copy, so I wonder how much it changed in the final version. I just thought it would be funnier than it is. It’s mostly sad. Beautifully written, but not easy to read at the end of a long day in our currently bleak world.

Literary update. I’ve been slowly working through the edits of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel, using the notes my dad gave me. I’ve been feeling less motivated to edit it, mainly because I’m excited to move on to writing the next story draft. But I’m doing it. I also sent the story to some friends to read, just as a little present. No feedback required.

I want readers. My main reason for wanting to be a published author is just that I want people to read my stories and enjoy them as much as I enjoy creating them.

Buy time, don’t lose it.

Sara Mazariegos

New Years. We had a fun New Years this (last?) year! Luis met me at my office and I showed him the holiday decor I put up. We took some snacks the building gave my office, then had a nice stroll to an English pub called Duke’s Grocery. It was decorated with gingerbread men and gumdrops. It was very cute. I had a delicious peppermint espresso martini. The first of a few fun drinks to celebrate the occasion. We also went to the movies after Duke’s Grocery, so we did end up doing something else fun instead of going straight home! Later that evening, I had a homemade espresso martini care of Luis’s sister, and a rummy egg nog around midnight, while watching Ryan Seacrest bemusedly pretend to care about a Tiktok rapper.

Then on New Years Day, we went to Outback Steakhouse and I had a gingerbread cookie martini and a wallaby darned. The gingerbread cookie martini comes with a little koala glass stem-hugger dressed like a Christmas elf, so he lives on my shelf now. Luis named him Cookie. I love Outback’s drinks. The one near us closed, but this one is still around and about the same distance as the one we used to go to. I’m so glad! They also have a blue cheese pecan salad I’m obsessed with. #NotAnAd

THEN, at nearly midnight on New Years Day (Night), who should show up on our porch camera but a raccoon? John Green manifested this for us. I called him Reginald. He checked out the water dish we leave out in the car port for any wayward critters, and then he skipped along into our backyard, where I hope he lives. What a great sign for the New Year. 😊

Marty Supreme and Hamnet and Taskmaster. On New Years Eve, we saw Marty Supreme. We enjoyed it! It features a cute dog, and Pamela Adlon’s daughter, Odessa A’zion, who sounds enough like Bobby Hill that we were smiling. She was in the movie more than I expected, and I liked her a lot. I wonder if it will win any Oscars. I think it was my favorite Timothy Chalamet performance that I’ve seen.

Last weekend, we saw Hamnet. I have a feeling it’s also going to be nominated for Oscars. Especially Jessie Buckley, who is amazing in it. It’s difficult to watch that movie with dry eyes. Luis pointed out that it’s about William Shakespeare and his family (but moreso about his wife Agnes/Anne) but they avoid saying his name until near the end for some reason. It’s not really a surprise, but I guess not everyone knows Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who inspired Hamlet. That’s not a spoiler, though; it’s just a fact. Paul Mescal looked just like young William Shakespeare in it, and I’d never thought he looked like him before. He was also very good. It’s definitely a movie that engrossed me, making me feel like I was watching the actual people in the actual situations. It’s a more traditional Oscars nominee (they loooove Shakespeare content,) but that doesn’t mean it’s any less worthy.

We also watched the Taskmaster New Years Treat last weekend. Rose Ayling-Ellis is super cute. I was shocked at how anti-word-nerd Greg Davies was. I think it was more that Susie Dent reminded him of how annoying Alex Horne can be. 😂 I always wish there were more episodes, but I understand the people on these specials are available for a more limited engagement than during a regular series. I’m looking forward to seeing Kumail Nanjiani on Taskmaster! My lucky day! I was just writing about him, wasn’t I? I wonder if he’ll win or if he’ll be terrible at the tasks. Either way, I’m sure he’ll be fun!

Writing Goals & The Sims. My dad read the draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel (and skimmed it a second time, to write helpful notes for me!) It’s touching how quickly he read it and how much thought he put into helping me out. He doesn’t usually read books very quickly, but he focused on this one for me. His notes are really good, too. I’m relieved, because I can’t tell you how many times friends have given me only “this is good!” type notes instead of actually giving me some constructive feedback. It’s not that I want people to be mean to me, but it’s more helpful for me to be told what’s not working, what should be tweaked, etc. I appreciate that my friends like my writing, but I know it needs editing!

I’m still taking a break from writing, but I plan to start writing my next draft version of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel in February. I’ve worked on a new plot outline, keeping certain elements from previous drafts, and I’m excited to play around with some new ideas.

Since Luis updated my Sims 4 for me, including all the packs and everything, I’ve been playing a lot during my free time. I took a long break from playing because my game files needed updates and I wanted the new stuff, so now I’ve got it all and I love it. I’m going somewhere with this, hear me out*. The first thing I did with my newly-updated and installed game was create the FMC and MMC from my Nerdfighters-inspired novel. It’s giving me some fun inspiration for my story as I think about the characters and how I want them to interact, work, and be as people. I love being able to “see” my characters by having computer-animated versions of them. I can put actual faces to the faces in my head, if that makes sense.

The new Romance skill in The Sims make the love story more of a challenge to play out, and their relationship feels more real because it takes effort and keeping up with. I love it! They currently are madly in love with each other, and they’re engaged. I’m not rushing their wedding, because I think it will be better with more time and experiences under their belts. They’re way ahead of the characters in my novel, considering that I haven’t started writing it yet. But who wants to play The Sims slowly?

I did make the couple have a baby, which is not something they will do in my novel. Because I also wanted to play with the new Infants pack. That’s also quite challenging, but the game is more fun if it’s at least a little challenging. Don’t get me started on those damn gnomes, though. I turned them off as soon as I learned how. Well, Luis helped me figure out how.

Here’s a picture of my cute Sims family. I plan to only play as them and expand the family, because that’s always fun. I wonder if they’ll be able to roleplay some of my novel’s plot eventually, too. Baby Charlie is dressed like a raccoon, yes.


This is a terribly nerdy post. But you already knew I was a nerd, didn’t you?


* Read me out?

“Hmm. Well, it needs work. I have to go.”

Sara Mazariegos

Daily Prompt: Describe a man who has positively impacted your life. It’s probably just the way this month/year has felt, but this question almost made me cry. I’ve still been thinking a lot about Rob Reiner and how huge his impact is.

But on a personal, real-answer level, Luis has positively impacted my life, of course. He’s kind, thoughtful, smart, funny… He makes me happy. My dad has also positively impacted my life. He’s the reason I like a lot of the things I like, and I quote a lot of the things he quotes. 🙂 I reference this in my It’s A Wonderful Life novel; a movie I wouldn’t have seen without him showing it to me yearly. We quote it to each other often. It may seem like a small thing, to be given movies and music to enjoy together, but it is personality-shaping.

The bad reviews of Ella McCay. When I first saw the trailer for Ella McCay, I was excited to see Julie Kavner in a movie. I recognized her voice right away, and I knew what she looked like. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her in a movie. I wanted to see this one right away, because of her. The rest of the cast is also awesome, but I have a soft spot for the cast of The Simpsons.

We saw it last Saturday and… I give it a C. It has good moments, but the writing is not great. It feels a little too late. The trailers didn’t really showcase that it’s about politics, and they made it look funnier than it actually is. It’s political but in 2008, so it feels worlds different from how things are now. It should’ve probably been made back then. But you know who was in it and who was my favorite character? Kumail Nanjiani!

Kumail Nanjiani and Night Thoughts. I’ve been a fan of Kumail Nanjiani for years. He’s so funny and he seems so kind. I learned he’s also a cat person, which makes me like him even more. His new comedy special is really good, but it did also make me cry. I recommend it, if you have tissues. His beloved old cat, Bagel, is a focus of the special and she unfortunately passed away before it was released. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know about my cat Boo. Her fourteenth birthday was the other day. She’s a cancer survivor. We love her and spoil her, and she was in Luis’s lap while we watched the special. It made me want to cuddle her, but I know she’d rip my arm off. 😅

He also talked a lot about mental health, and how his talking about mental health made people make fun of him. It made me wish I was suddenly jacked with Eternals muscles so I could fight them on his behalf.

You should watch the special. I really enjoyed it. He hosted SNL the day Luis and I got married. I can’t forget that. We watched it later, of course, but it felt like an extra gift. Maybe I’m silly.

Reading The Good Part together. Luis and I finished reading The Good Part last night. I don’t usually read as quickly as I did with him, but it’s partially because I was more motivated to be in the same place as him and also I’ve read it before so I wasn’t inhaling the words as often as I usually do. It was fun to read something together and react to it. He didn’t get as teary-eyed as me, but I couldn’t have expected that. Even the acknowledgments make me teary.

Christmas Eve Eve. Today is “Christmas Eve Eve,” something I’d been calling it without realizing it was a Friends thing. (I’m not really a Friends person.) After today, I’m off work until Monday. Yesterday was crazy at the office, so I’ve earned this nice holiday vacation. Hopefully my work won’t be insane when I get back.

Tonight we’re going to watch It’s A Wonderful Life, that movie I’m constantly talking about. It’s that time of year again. 😊 I’ll probably cry.

We’re going to host Luis’s family for Christmas Eve at our place again, with our cats and music and gifts. It’ll be nice. And then we’re with my family on Christmas. And then we spend the weekend recovering. We’ve been fairly organized and on top of things this year, so I don’t think we’ll have too much to stress about. I even managed to receive all the ordered gifts early, which rarely happens.

I hope you have a happy holiday season. I’d say “see you next year,” but who am I kidding? I’ll post next week. 😉

“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. 😄

These are the things I can do without.

Sara Mazariegos

Christmas Eve Vacation. I requested the day off after Thanksgiving, and my boss ended up giving it to all of us anyway, so I asked him if I could use that extra vacation day for Christmas Eve. He officially approved it! So I will only have to work Monday and Tuesday that week, then have the rest of the week off. It’ll be good, because we celebrate Christmas with Luis’s family on Christmas Eve (Guatemalan tradition.) I may prefer Halloween, but I do like the time off for the holidays, and watching the specials and movies. And, hey, I wrote a Christmasy novel! I can’t say I hate it.

Snow already?! On Friday, it snowed in the DC area. The forecast said “flurries” but there were quite a few. They filled the air and hit me in the eyes repeatedly as I walked to the office in the morning. Luckily, the ground stayed walkable. I’m hoping it won’t get so bad that I can’t come to the office one of these days this winter, but we’ll see. Winters can become a bit intense here, especially in January and February. I think I’ll be able to work from home if it’s ever impassable. I wouldn’t have much other choice, and no clients would be visiting our office if it’s too nasty outside. I like watching snow, but I don’t like being in it. I hate the cold.

Merrily We Roll Along and Stephen Sondheim. We saw the filmed version of Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along last weekend, and it was so good. My favorite character was Charley, as played by Daniel Radcliffe. I’ve loved every Sondheim musical I’ve seen/heard so far. It reminded me quite a bit of Company, and the book was written by George Furth, the guy who also wrote the book of Company. (He was also in a few episodes of The Monkees, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan of his, too!) Richard Linklater is apparently going to make a movie version over the actual course of 20 years… It doesn’t sound as good. He’s such a stunt director. I recommend the recorded Broadway version. Hopefully it will be streaming soon.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2. This weekend we’re going to see the sequel to Five Nights At Freddy’s. I know I wrote last week about how there are too many sequels and some are okay, a lot are unnecessary. I think this one is necessary, because the first one was the setup and this one looks more like the game series. It’s getting pretty bad reviews from critics, but the audience score is great, because movies like this are made for the fans more than anything. They’re not trying to win any awards with this. But I hope it’s as fun and creepy as the games are. From the trailers, it even looks like my favorite character is in it (Mangle.) I hope I like it.


I also hope we can actually see it. Sometimes our movie theater moves out movies before we even get the chance to see them. Like they think, “Gotta make room for a bunch of old Christmas movies instead of playing new things. No one wants new things around the holidays.”

Writing/Reading update. It’s been nice to take time off from actively writing. I’m slowly working on an outline for the big rewrite of my Nerdfighter-inspired novel. I’m going in a different direction while still staying true to the general theme I had before. I like that there are many angles to play with. I’m also thinking of the characters more and more as their own people instead of facsimiles of people I know. It’s easier to create without real life dictating how things should be.

While I’m taking this nice break, I’m reading a few books. I finished The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts and now I’ve started The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I like reading more serious books on the Metro, and the sweeter stories at home. Luis and I are reading our way through The Good Part together. He seems to be enjoying it as well. I love that book so much. Just have to try not to let it make me cry in front of him.