Tag: Museums

So many times we’re stumbling in the dark and then, eureka! What a spark!

Sara Mazariegos

Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp. Last Saturday night, Luis and I went to Immigrant Food for dinner and saw Josh Johnson in D.C.! His show, Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp, is so cool because it has comedians, musicians, dancers, and a fun ’70s camp vibe. It was a variety show, which I sort of expected because of the name of the tour. I don’t think Josh even came on stage until like 10pm (it was an 8:30pm show.)

Like on The Daily Show, he talked a lot about politics and current events. He has a funny Elizabeth Holmes impression, which I did not anticipate. He was talking about White House things that SNL also talked about at almost the same time. That was amusing to find out later when we got home. It was funnier coming from him. His opening comedian, Tevin ‘Mandal’ Williams, said he went to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture and only saw the second floor, so he doesn’t get why everyone says it’s so sad. All the fun pop culture and music stuff is on the second floor. The basement is where the main exhibit is, and it’s both enormous and enormously sad.

I love that museum. I love when visitors acknowledge our awesome museums. God, I hope they’re allowed to stay awesome.

I’m glad we saw this show, and I hope we can see Josh Johnson again next time he visits D.C.

Housewarming & zombies. On Sunday, we went to our friends Emily and Ashley’s housewarming party. It was really nice to see them again and not just be talking about taking care of our cats. We saw their cats, and we talked about Nerdfighter things. I told them a little about Hollywood, Ending but didn’t say anything spoilery because I hope they’ll read it.

Then we went to the movies and saw Resident Evil. It’s so good! It feels very much like you’re inside the game, which is cool and scary because it’s got a lot of zombies. One thing I especially like is that the movie itself is split into ‘levels.’ It feels like each beat of the plot is the next level where more horrors await and new goals for the protagonist present themselves. Austin Abrams is great in it. He feels like a normal, real guy. I call him Ben because he was Ben in Paper Towns and it reminds Luis where he knows him from. 😆

Pre-vacation jitters. I’m so excited to go to Disney (and Universal) with Luis again! He booked everything so long ago, it feels unreal that it’s finally happening in two days. I’ve been feeling the pre-vacation jitters of “did we forget about something?” or “do we know how to do xyz?” I wrote before about how I watched videos of people walking to and riding the Skyliner from our hotel to the parks, to get an idea of how it all works. I’ve been antsy for a refresher of things like that. But, like I also said, too much planning can make me feel crazy, too.

I told Luis I was feeling anxious about our packing situation, because our airline is sort of strict about sizing and weights of bags, and he suggested we pack a week ahead of time so we can be sure we’re good to go. I love that we’re in sync when it comes to planning trips. He even wrote down, hour by hour, what we’ll do during our “resort day” at the Contemporary. Sure, things might change because of timing, but it’s nice to have a general idea of what we can do while we’re there. This sort of goes along with my being a “plantser” when it comes to writing. Hmm.

We’re going to stay in three wonderful resorts while we’re there, and I’m going to try to focus more on relaxing this time. The plan is to rope-drop every day, so we’re going to hopefully have calmer evenings and not be trying to cram things up until the parks close each day. We’ll see how that goes. I’m glad we’re not the type of people who are trying to ride everything. We’ve got a list of the rides we want to ride, and then we’ve also programmed lunch breaks and some of the attractions that are shows for some breaks. I’m planning to write specifically about our dining experiences in my next update, a week after next, so stay tuned for that!

My outline is my real MVP. I will be roughly four and a half chapters from the end of my draft when we go on our vacation. I’m not sure if having a stronger outline is why things have felt easier this time, or if it’s just being more relaxed about things. My outline means I go into each chapter with a plan instead of a lot of things being stream-of-consciousness, making-it-up-as-I-go-along. It’s funny because, with my last story, I also had an outline but I still felt like I was making up a lot of things as I went along. Maybe it helps to write a good outline and let things germinate for a minute before writing. There are a few little areas here and there that I know need revision, but I feel like the overall story is much stronger.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the secret was writing on less caffeine? That’s one big change I’ve made in my daily routine, and I’m sure it’s affected my thoughts. But I think it’s really the strong outline and the fact that I’ve had these story ideas for a while now.

I’ve started to really contemplate my next story idea. I mentioned it last week, a little. The thing about shorter flights is that I’ll have basically two hours to think about novel plots while I’m on the way to and from Orlando. There may be hope for my Nerdfighter story yet! But don’t quote me on that.

I’ll be back the week after next, unless I’m kidnapped by the Hitchhiking Ghosts! 😉

We all belong to everything.

Sara Mazariegos

The US is in the midst of a government shutdown. It feels like this happens way more frequently than it used to. It doesn’t only affect Washington DC either; Luis and I are going to New York this weekend/the beginning of next week and we wanted to visit Hamilton’s house, but it will be closed because it’s run by the National Park Service, which is funded by the federal government. We’re going to visit the grounds and see the outside of the house at least. It’ll still be nice to be there, but it’s annoying to be shut out for that reason.

I’m excited to go back to NYC for our anniversary. It’s the city I’ve been to the most, outside of cities I’ve lived in. We’re planning to go to Astoria, Queens and Harlem, and we’re staying in Hell’s Kitchen. We get to experience parts of the city I’ve never visited before. I’ve usually stuck to Manhattan. Technically Harlem is part of Manhattan, but I feel like… no it’s not. We’re going to see the Muppets in Astoria, at the Museum of the Moving Image. Apparently there are around 500 Muppets and sets, etc there. I may implode.

I’m enjoying the three main books I’m reading at the moment: Practical Magic, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice, and House of Leaves. My calendar reminded me that I’ve been reading House of Leaves for a year now. I’m halfway through it. Don’t judge me until you’ve read it. All three books are Halloween-appropriate. I still love Practical Magic. I’m reading it every weekday while I take the Metro home, so it’s slow-going, but it’s great. The Pumpkin Spice one is for young adults and it’s obvious. It seems like it’s for the younger end of young adults. I think she says “pumpkin spice latte” eighty-six bagillion times in it. So it can be somewhat grating, but it’s cute. I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can read another romance about a ghost.

While I’m at the court house for jury duty, I’m planning to read multiple books. We’ll see how much time I actually end up having to read. I remember reading for hours last time. I get kind of jumpy in situations like that, though, so it might be too ambitious to think I’ll be able to finish reading two books. What if—horror of horrors!—I do finish two books and I don’t have anything else to read. Bringing three books might be crazy.

I’m glad I’m not planning to write there. I’d be too distracted to think!

Speaking of writing, here’s my weekly writing update: I wrote out a plot outline and gave it to Luis to read. It was too confusing and messy, so he helped me come up with a rough skeleton to guide me in writing out my ideas. I wrote a new story summary with his skeleton guide and it makes way more sense now. I still have a lot to think about and develop, but I’m getting somewhere now.

I’m still on a break from writing. This is how I take a break from writing.

I keep forgetting we’re going to NYC in a few days and then I remember and get all excited again. ✨

Until next time,

“I, myself, am… strange and unusual.”

Sara Mazariegos

Coming back to work is difficult, especially with how busy I seem to always be these days. I’m doing my best to take deep breaths and handle tasks one at a time, so I don’t feel so overwhelmed.

Our anniversary trip to Cleveland was nice! We ended up having an impromptu day on Sunday because it was rainy and we didn’t feel like trudging through a cemetery (as fun as that can be). We ended up going to the Museum of Natural History instead, which includes a wildlife center with foxes (red and gray!), bobcats, a raven, and even an adorable albino raccoon. It was a highlight of our trip, for sure.

The Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame was also a lot of fun. It’s changed quite a bit since I was last there in the 2000s. Many of the people I like don’t have much in the way of displays anymore, except for The Beatles, of course. The Beatles will always have a big display there. I was a little sad to see Kate Bush’s display is already gone, to make way for this year’s inducted people, I suppose. There was also nothing about Peter Gabriel. But it’s still a great museum! I might have to hunt the archives to find out where certain memorabilia can be found…

Something that might have been predictable: I didn’t write very much on my vacation. I wrote approximately 400 words yesterday before my brain said, “No! I want to relax!” So, now that I’m back to work, I’m going to play catch-up this week. I’ve already thought of changes I want to make in my story, but I’m determined to complete this draft first, then I can make changes… After working on my other story. I can rest again when it’s Christmas. 😅

We’re looking forward to hosting our annual Halloween party soon. Luis worked hard on creating an ‘escape room.’ We’ll have to double-check that everything still works before the party and that the cats haven’t moved things out of position (as cats are wont to do.) I’m eager to see our friends solving the puzzles. It should be so fun. We’ve done murder mystery parties before, but never a full at-home escape room.

October is our busiest month. Can you tell? It’s also my favorite!