Tag: Movies

Oh, Superman, where are you now when everything’s gone wrong somehow?

Sara Mazariegos

It may just be because I’ve been thrown a few curveballs lately, but time has been going by weirdly for me this year. I both can’t believe we’re already in the middle of May, and I’m also surprised the year is going slowly. It feels like we went to Disneyland last year, but it was only three months ago! Hopefully things will feel more normal soon, now that things have settled. *knocks on wood*

All of the movie remakes annoy me, generally, but I feel like the only person who’s not awed by the new-old Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. The animation of Stitch and Toothless is cute, but that’s because they’re just CGI versions of the already cute, animated originals. Why bother making these remakes? The originals are better. Just show your kids the originals.

Also, they did Pleakley dirty.

It amuses me that Google red-underlines Pleakley and I get shocked by it. It’s a made up name, self.

“That’s not a real name… in Iceland. But here it’s a good name!”

Sometimes I think about how many franchises there are. There are too many for any one person to be interested in all of them. But at the same time, there are quite a few I’m not into and it feels like everyone else is. Like Bridgerton. Or The Fast & The Furious. I have no problem with people liking them, but I have zero interest. It feels, to me, a little bit like how everyone has their own lives and you don’t really see how they are or what they’re doing, but you know they’re out there living them anyway.

There are exceptions. Obviously I’m not interested in Harry Potter anymore, and it gives me the ick when I see people who are. I was also never one of those people who made HP my life, though. But that’s a different issue. Vin Diesel’s not a transphobe, that I know of. He just makes movies I don’t care about.

My writing is going well, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I realized I’ve been setting a lot of self-imposed deadlines which made things more stressful than they need to be, especially since I don’t have an agent or a publisher waiting for a draft or anything like that (yet.) I edit one novel about half an hour each day, and I write another novel for a half hour each day while I’m at work. It allows me to devote some time to each of them every day without feeling pressure to write for hours and have it done by a specific time. My goal is to get my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel ready for beta readers by next month. But we’ll see. I’m going easy on myself.

I started getting some further inspiration for another rewrite project, so I’m planning to work on the plot development for that as well. I’ll probably actually start writing that new draft the beginning of next year.

Loosey-goosey is my new mantra.

Wake up, it’s nineteen-eighty-four.

Sara Mazariegos

Luis and I had a wonderful, fun vacation in California last week. It was so wonderful that I was genuinely sad to return home. We went to Hollywood for a few days, exploring the Walk of Fame area and a museum full of costumes and Max Factor makeup history, then Universal to check out the new Nintendoland (amazing!) and Disney to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout for the first time. We ended up riding it four times. None of which included a working Rocket Raccoon animatronic, but I’ll get over it. Eventually.

We also rode The Haunted Mansion fourteen times. I’m not exaggerating.

We’re planning to go back again in a few years. Luis event mentioned we could retire in California and get resident passes. 🥹 That is the dream.

I managed to avoid much of the political craziness while we were enjoying our trip. It’s overwhelming, in a lot of ways. I know I’m extremely privileged to be able to go away and not think about stuff for a while, but it’s hard not to feel powerless right now.

Yesterday, I started writing my new novel, and Luis started reading the draft of my other novel. I’m trying to take it easy this time and not push myself so much to write 2k every day. I was starting to feel burnt out and like it was work instead of pleasure. There’s no sense in the first draft being so stressful. It’s not like I have real deadlines (yet.) I wrote an opening scene, and that was a good start.

Anyone else watch The Oscars? I missed it on Sunday since we were flying back that day, but we watched a recording on Monday. I had a feeling Anora would do really well when we saw it in theaters months ago. I have a lot of good-looking movies to check out now, too. Flow looks adorable.

Mostly I’m trying to enjoy each week regardless of what plans we have on the horizon. We haven’t made plans for our anniversary yet this year, and though it’s gnawing at me, I’m not stressing as much. We have time.

We have time.

You only meant well (well, of course you did.)

Sara Mazariegos

We had an awesome Halloween party last weekend. “Awesome” in the original meaning of the word.


Luis created a Riddler (and Batman) themed escape room with a bunch of riddles and puzzle boxes. Everyone had a lot of fun. I was mostly proud and in awe of him. He made videos for the introduction and the ending, and everyone thought they’d been provided by an escape room company or the company that made one of the puzzle boxes. But it was all him. 😊 I helped, but it was awesome because he is awesome.

FRIEND AT PARTY: Are you anxious?
ME: Always.
FRIEND: No, but like, not just because you’re Anxiety. Are you feeling anxious?
ME: Yes.
FRIEND: Would you like a hug?
ME: I always want a hug*.

Halloween being on a Thursday is a bummer, though. I’m not wearing my costume at work, because I think it’ll become uncomfortable (especially the boots) after eight hours in an office and I’d want to just change out of it when I get home. Instead, I’ll change into it when I get home, and be Anxiety for a few hours. Mostly while watching Arachnophobia with Luis. Seems fitting.


On Sunday night, we watched Late Night with the Devil, which was a perfect movie to watch for Halloween. I wish it embraced the 1970s aesthetic more, and I thought the introduction “documentary” wasn’t necessary, but otherwise, I liked it. I had no idea it was mostly Australian, too. Indie films like that are always good to promote.

We’ve been watching a lot of movies that take place in the 1970s lately.

I caught a cold and took the day off yesterday, sleeping as much as I could and being generally lazy. For some reason, at about five AM, I was having panic attacks that kept me from being able to fall back asleep. I’ve never experienced THAT side effect before. I definitely do not recommend it. I had to go downstairs and read a book for a while, next to one of our cats, in the cool living room. Then I was able to take a nap and eventually go back up to bed.

I made the executive decision to stop writing the cat romance novel for now (after giving it an ending that works, even if it’s at the 76,000-word point instead of the 80,000 I was going for.) I was feeling pretty burnt out with it. I plan to fix it and retool it next year unless a newer, shinier idea presents itself.

For now, I’m taking a brief break. Next week, I will resume the rewrite of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired romance novel.

Hopefully November will be calmer.


* Unless you’re a stranger. I don’t want hugs from people I don’t know.

Bark at the moon.

Sara Mazariegos

Am I the only one surprised that Halloween hasn’t happened yet?

It’s not that I’m in a rush. I’m excited about our party this weekend, and I’ve even considered wearing my costume to work this year (a slightly toned-down version to not be distracting.) But October has been dragging its feet. I say that as someone who’s had a hectic month.

We watched the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions last weekend, with a break to see Saturday Night. It was great to see Peter Frampton finally get honored. He and Ozzy Osbourne could commiserate about their muscular ailments; it’s sad to see inclusion body myositis and Parkinson’s disease affecting such energetic, youthful rock stars. I know they’re getting up there now, but still! I wish them both well. Combined with the fact one of the other inductees (Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest) died of diabetes complications and another (Jimmy Buffett) died of cancer, I kept thinking “I wish we could find cures for all of these things.”

Saturday Night was delightful. It left me wanting more, which is a good thing. We came home and I just had to watch the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, so I could see the moments referenced in the movie. I’ve been a fan since the early nineties when Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman were on. Some of the movie felt a bit like a play, which works since it’s all about live performance, and some of it felt a bit like parody. Some of the impressions were better than others. For example, I liked the Jim Henson guy as Jim Henson, but his Andy Kaufman was a little off, not least of all because he’s even ganglier than Kaufman. It’s a shame Benny Safdie had to drop out. I bet he would’ve been good.

On the writing front, I’m clawing my way to the finish line with my magical cat transformation romance story. One thing I’ll need to work on with it is tightening that description. 😅 Then, almost immediately after finishing that one, I have my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired romance to rewrite. That will be nice during the holidays.

I’m going to use the NaNoWriMo method of writing around the same amount each day, although skipping Thanksgiving because I do have a life. Honest. I’m avoiding the actual NaNoWriMo site this year, though. I don’t support what they’re doing lately. Since my novel is longer, the draft will be “finished” in mid-December. And then I can breathe again before the edits! Weee!

Before you ask (why would you ask?) I’m planning to take a mental break from the cat story until sometime next year. It’s messy. I always knew it would be. Don’t all novels start out a bit messy?

Trying to find something between a strict writing schedule and a looser one that still doesn’t let me just, you know, stop writing. It’s dangerous to become too lax.

I like the word “lax.”

I’m a little bit wrong and you’re a little bit right.

Sara Mazariegos

Luis and I saw It Ends With Us last weekend. I keep accidentally calling it The Last of Us, but that’s not fair to The Last of Us. If you’re not aware of It Ends With Us, it’s a romantic drama starring Blake Lively, based on the Colleen Hoover novel by the same name. It’s controversial in how it deals with domestic violence. It’s also apparently controversial because Blake Lively and the director had different visions. My vision is perhaps this movie didn’t need to get made.

It’s funny because, initially, I thought it wasn’t as bad as I first imagined. It got pretty bad reviews, but romance movies are often harshly judged. But then I had more time to think about it when I wasn’t watching it anymore. And yeah, there is a lot that’s messed up about it. (I still love Jenny Slate, though. She’s in it as the best friend who kind of shows up in the story to be the best friend.)

Anyway, it’s a good lesson in how not to write things… Then again, Colleen Hoover is very successful, so it’s working for her. It definitely made me think. I don’t think I’ll read the book.

Speaking of books, I’m getting close to the end of The Good Part — that sounds sad — and I love it so much. It’s not what I thought it would be. It’s way more heartwarming. I also recently started reading The Dead Romantics. Both of these books should round out my reading challenge to read 15 books this year. I’m not going to stop reading, of course. It’s only August! 😅

The Dead Romantics is in past tense, which is throwing me a little now that I’ve read a few present tense novels. I know I once wrote that I don’t like present tense, and I still prefer past tense, but present has grown on me. It makes it feel as though you’re a part of the story, instead of watching it unfold. I think it works for certain stories more than others.

My new novel I’m working on is in present tense, so I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I’m trying something new! It’s a little intimidating, but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s bridging the gap between the last novel I wrote and the one I’m planning for November.

Okay, now back to the writing board!