Tag: Movies

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.

“It’s not your job to be as confused as Nigel.”

Sara Mazariegos

Frankenstein and Predator: Badlands. Last weekend, we saw two movies I really enjoyed. I’d been looking forward to seeing Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein ever since first hearing about it. It’s very faithful to the book! I wish it came out in more theaters; it deserves to be seen on a big screen. It’s beautiful and sad. And then we saw Predator: Badlands in theaters on Sunday and it was better than I expected. I like all of the characters in it, and the message of found family and working as a team instead of trying to do everything alone.

How is it almost Thanksgiving already? Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m still in a Halloween mood, but now I’ve got to think about spending time with people and eating too much. My job doesn’t give us the day off after Thanksgiving; I took it off so we’ll still be able to spend Thanksgiving with Luis’s family and then Thanksgiving II with my family. I’m looking forward to the days off, though they don’t really feel like vacation days, because we do so much socializing and cooking and stuff. I can’t just sit and read for hours. I don’t even really sleep in. Wah-wah. It’s nice, though. I just wish it was still October.

Any novel can be a comp novel if you try hard enough. A lot of people have a difficult time finding comparative titles for their novels when they’re in the query stage. I feel like I have a different problem; I find that every book I read could be a comp title. I notice little things the stories have in common with mine. They’re not usually big things, they’re usually subtle. But I think it’s because my novel is still being molded, so I’m imagining ways each book I read could shape my own story, and I shouldn’t do that because my story already has a satisfying shape. For example, I really enjoyed reading The Love of My Afterlife and finding little ways it fits with my story, but I think most people would think it’s a stretch for me to have it as a comp. There’s nothing supernatural in my novel. There’s no death or deadlines (heh.) But, then again, I’ve heard that comps don’t have to have all the same story elements as long as they have similar themes or worlds. So who knows? My story is also about self-discovery, found families, community, taking care of others, enemies to lovers… So that book could totally end up a comp of my story!

This blog is about my writing process, so here’s a glimpse at that thrilling part of it. 😅

Self-imposed deadlines. Speaking of my writing process, one thing I tend to do is assign myself these signposts to reach in order to keep myself on track. I aim to be finished editing my novel draft before Christmas so I can enjoy the holidays, and then I’m thinking of asking for another reader or two for their feedback. My big deadline for this story is the end of March so I can start sending out query letters.

But let’s see if it actually goes like that. I’m a writer, so I imagine and plan and have ideal situations in my head, but life rarely does what I want it to do.

Do you wanna know, know that it doesn’t hurt me?

Sara Mazariegos

I had an idea for a new blogging format. Let me know what you think.

New knee pillow (am I old?) I’ve noticed my lower back and knees are often sore when I wake up in the morning, particularly when I sleep in on the weekends, so I ordered myself a pillow to put between my knees or at least legs. So far, it’s helping me sleep in a better position. I read that sleeping on your side can cause spine twisting so it’s better to separate your legs to realign your spine. But it’s awkward if I want to move, because I have to move this rectangular pillow along with me every time, and every time I get out of bed I have to move it away. It may end up on the floor one of these days. I guess I’m too old to be naturally comfortable when I sleep now.

Days getting so dark by the time I’m on my way home. I love autumn, but I hate the daylight going away so early every day. I commute home after 5:30 so it’s always completely dark while I’m traveling. It lowers my motivation, which is especially bad because then I get home and I should be able to enjoy being home, but all I want to do is sleep. I’m looking forward to the longer days again in spring. At least there are more months of daylight in the year than months with early sunsets.

Holidays on random days during the week. Veterans Day was on Tuesday this year. It’s nice to have a break soon after a work day, but it makes it difficult to plan anything too exciting. Luis and I went to Subway and saw Bugonia before having some cake with his parents for his stepdad’s birthday. So I guess it wasn’t nothing, but being off on Monday as well would’ve been extra special. At least I only have to work three more days! A short week is always nice.

Book reading/Novel reading progress. I got some good reading time into this weekend. I would’ve gotten more if I hadn’t played The Sims 4 for two hours on Sunday, but I felt inspired to play after a long time, so it’s fine. I really like The Love of My Afterlife. It’s going along the way I figured it would, but it’s cute and funny. I’ve noticed that English romance novels are quirkier than American ones. I think English writers have a fondness for bizarre side characters that are not as common in American novels. Think about Bridget Jones’s friends. It builds out the world of the main character a little more. I like that and want to do that more in my own writing. Obviously without making my novel too silly, but the citizens of Bedford Falls are quirky characters, so I should have some funny people in my version, too.

I successfully completed my first read-through of my novel last weekend. Now I’m back into it, reading it and making notes of things to change. I started out thinking I’d only make change notes for this draft and then make a new draft copy for the actual rewrites, but I’ve started just rewriting and making the changes directly in this draft. Why wait, right? I have a lot of notes from beta readers in this draft already, so I’m using them as a guide and making my own changes as well. Hopefully, by editing and rewriting now instead of waiting until after another full reread, I’ll be finished editing this story before February.

The story is good, I just need to make it as close to great as I possibly can.

I’ve heard that it’s quite acceptable and surprisingly fun.

Sara Mazariegos

I’m picky about biopics. I think I’ve discussed them before. When the Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Mr. Rogers ones came out I was irritated because, nearly right before them, brilliant documentaries came out on the subjects. We saw the documentaries and loved them. We saw the RBG biopic and that was all right but not as good, and we didn’t bother with the Mr. Rogers one because the documentary was perfect. More recently, we saw the movie about Bob Dylan going electric and it was… all right. And now there’s a Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White and I just can’t bring myself to care.

We did see Blue Moon about Lorenz Hart last weekend. That was really good. The difference there, I think, is that it was made like a play and didn’t tell his story as much as it showed one major point in his life. He’s also not as well-known to people today as The freaking Boss. It was quiet and subtle, and required prior knowledge about musicals and Broadway in the 40s. It’s probably not doing too well. But I’m tired of seeing the origin story of anyone who’s ever been famous. Tired of even seeing them being made.

I’ve been thinking a lot about aging lately, especially when it comes to people I admire or people in my life who are getting older, and how it makes me feel old in ways that I otherwise might not. It’s strange, I guess; I obviously don’t feel twenty anymore or anything, but I especially feel the passage of time when I see famous people I liked growing up and how they’ve gotten older. Like Tina Fey being in her 50s. That feels insane to me. I’m very glad she’s still around and getting older, of course, because the opposite would be way worse. But honestly… I don’t think people talk about it enough: getting older is scary. It’s like some kind of magic trick that happens in slow motion that no one is controlling, and when you notice it’s happening it’s unsettling and doesn’t feel real.

I was thinking about all the countries I want to visit, and how we often don’t have the time off to go places. And it makes me feel sad and concerned because we shouldn’t wait until we’re 80 to travel. We should go while we’re young enough for walking to not be a problem and we don’t feel too tired to do all the things. I want to visit Amsterdam, Argentina, Berlin, New Zealand (even thinking about that flight makes me feel anxious,) Tokyo, Venice, and I’d love to go back to Barcelona and London since they’re both so great. Domestic vacations are fun, especially Disney, but there is a part of me, in the back of my brain, that thinks, “You should travel to those other countries while you still have a chance.”

I have wanderlust. Somebody explain to my and Luis’s employers that I want to travel so they will give us more days off. Wah.

I’m looking forward to Halloween on Friday and our escape room party on Saturday. It’s not in October, but Saturday is Dia de los Muertos, so it still counts as spooky time. 💀 We’ve gone all out for our escape room this year. It helps that we already own a lot of the stuff and it relies on a lot of lore from the attraction we love so much. I’m excited to see how it all plays out and see how our friends react. They loved our Riddler one last year.

There are understandably a great many shows that people like that are good and become popular. But oh my god. I love The Bear. All the episodes, even the ones that are a half-hour, are like little films. The crazy Christmas episode, “Fishes”… I’m still thinking about it. I was worried when we started watching the show that it was overhyped. That also happens often, but this show is very very good. Can’t recommend it enough, though it is frantic and sad, so you have to go into it knowing it’s not really a comedy. It’s a Drama with some humor in it.

That doesn’t mean I’m rushing out to see the Bruce Springsteen movie just because I like the guy who plays Carmy, though. I like Carmy specifically. I’m not watching everything he ever makes.

Last-Week-of-Not-Writing Writing update: the time off from working on a story has been a good thought cleanse. When I see on the calendar that I’m going to start reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life novel next week, I feel excited and ready to check it out. I have an organized plan, in theory. I’m going to start with a read-through, no note-taking allowed. Then I will go in and make notes of changes, make actual line edits and minor tweaks. THEN I will go in with the bigger rewriting and altering.

Hopefully, by the end of February, I’ll have a fresh new draft I can let people read. And maybe even send to agents.

Here’s hoping,

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

Sara Mazariegos

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possibly while wearing a hazmat suit, but still.

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time,

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

All my favorite places, my city had been pulled down.

Sara Mazariegos

Have you ever noticed how pretty pigeons are when they fly together? They shimmer. I’ve been thinking about pigeons a lot more than I usually do, because I see them in the city nearly every day now. People often write them off as pests, but I think they’re cute. They were originally brought up as pets before they were abandoned to life on the street. There are several places along my walk to/from the Metro where they are fed seed or bread and you can find a massive flock of them having a great time. It always makes me smile.

It is finally autumn in the U.S. and have I ever been looking forward to it! I got a pumpkin spice coffee as soon as I could, and I’ve been enjoying the slightly cooler weather lately. Autumn seems to only last about two weeks these days before it becomes too cold. I think I’m somewhat oxymoronic because autumn is my favorite season—and October is my favorite month—but I dislike it when it’s cold and dark. Once the daylight gets scarcer, I get less motivated. I’m starting to embrace the cold versus the heat, though. This past summer was way too annoyingly hot.

We’ve begun our annual watch of Halloween movies. So far, we’ve checked out some old John Carpenter movies. Luis has seen the majority of his movies already. I’m going to select several Stephen King movies I haven’t seen yet, perhaps Cujo and Pet Sematary. Last weekend, we saw the newest one, The Long Walk. It was quite good, but not really a horror story. I might prefer his less horror-y stories anyway. It’s a really sad movie, and Mark Hamill is the villain. It’s fun to see him with one of his more sinister voices.

“I just realized, they didn’t stretch first.” – Luis

I recommend The Long Walk, though it has some really gross moments so come prepared and maybe don’t eat past the first twenty minutes. While we were watching, I got a charley horse in my legs from reclining in the comfortable theater chair and I felt guilty because the characters were forced to walk and walk. It’s not based on a new Stephen King novel, either. It’s from the 70s.

With all the craziness going on, I’ve really been looking forward to our upcoming anniversary trip. I haven’t had a vacation day, not counting a holiday, since March. It’s going to be nice to relax and have fun with Luis for several days in a row. I love spending several days in a row with him. It’s like we should be married or something. 😉

My writing is going well. I’m working on editing the epilogue I already wrote and wanted to keep in the story even as everything else was tweaked. The next few days will be more relaxed as I wind this story down, but of course new story ideas are appearing to me since I’m not actively creating anything. I keep thinking, “What if?” with a few ideas I’ve had recently. Originally, I thought I’d take October off from writing and then work on editing my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired story, but a new plot idea has entered the chat…

We’ll see if it leads anywhere.

I can develop my brooding potential.

Sara Mazariegos

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