Nightmares – Sara Mazariegos

Titanic: The Immersive Experience: Review. On Saturday, Luis and I went to Baltimore to check out the Titanic experience I’ve seen advertised so often. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I used to have nightmares about the Titanic, when I was around ten years old. Waking up screaming that my bedroom was sinking, that kind of thing. Normal kid fears. I blame National Geographic. Anyway, despite this, I’ve always been fascinated by the Titanic, mainly how it happened and what it looked like. That doesn’t mean I’d ever want to try going down in a submersible to see it, though. I’m not insane.

The immersive exhibit is cool, with lots of screens that make you feel like you’re in the action. There’s a crow’s nest you can stand in and watch as the giant iceberg suddenly appears out of the darkness, and then you can ring the bell to alert the crew, but of course it’s too late. There’s also a hallway filling up with water. And then, the saddest part, you can sit in a lifeboat and watch as the ship sinks and the projected water around you fills up with people crying for help and dying around you.

I came away from it more sad than scared. And it’s not like a “woo, that was fun!” experience. I’m glad we did it though. Luis even got Mr. Andrews’ ticket as his passenger to ride along with, so we brought it home as a souvenir. Mr. Andrews did not survive, of course. And he was my age. Of course we came home and watched videos about different Titanic stories. Because we’re nerds.

Luis’s birthday funtimes! 🥳 For Luis’s birthday on Sunday, we went to a few places in our area for him to get his birthday rewards. He got a free burger, taco, and strawberry shortcake. Then, later in the evening, some of our friends came over and we played an escape room in a box game and got some fancy Tex Mex delivered. It was a chill, relaxing day for him, but he seemed to enjoy it.

I also took off on Tuesday and Wednesday this week to book our Disney dining reservations, so it gives us even more time together for some extra birthday stuff. Mainly getting more fun food and spending more time together. We’re probably going to see Spider-Man again this weekend and he’ll get a free popcorn and soda for it. He loves deals.

There’s no place like home for the Disney reservation days. We woke up early on Tuesday and this morning to book our dining reservations at Disney World. A perk of staying at their resorts is that you can book your dining 60 days out from your trip. I’m not a morning person, but excitement about Disney stuff is like caffeine for me… Plus we went back to sleep once we made our reservations.

I was nervous we wouldn’t be able to book the super popular restaurants like Be Our Guest and Space 220, but we got them fairly easily! I think being in the know about how to do the reservation process and planning ahead really helps, so you’re not left with whatever’s still available. All of the Disney restaurants are great, of course, but it’ll be fun to have some of these experiences we’ve been wanting to try. Plus Be Our Guest, which we’ve done before but it’s really nice.

All this nostalgia is making me nostalgic. My current novel is inspired by some of my experiences in college, so I’ve been a bit wistful for my friends I made back then. I looked through my old email to try to find context for some things, to try to get the details as accurate as possible, and then I was sitting there, staring into space as I tried to remember some of these events that had been tucked away in the back of my mind for decades.

Some themes of my next novel are memory and keeping in touch with people, and the evaporation of some social websites on which we used to rely to keep in touch. It’s also set a little in the future, so it’s going to be interesting to see how much has changed in the social media landscape by then. It is sad to go through my Facebook and see all the people who are no longer there. It’s not like I have everyone’s phone number.

Like I said: wistful.

Have you ever had such an intense dream/nightmare that you’ve woken up with a headache? That happened to me last week, and it was quite frightening. I’ve been thinking about it ever since; the funny thing is, I can’t remember much of the dream itself, just the intense emotion and headache.

In writing news, my systematic approach to editing is going well, if I do say so myself. I’m only reading three (or so) chapters a day; making changes and neatening things up as I go. Once again, I’m finding the editing and revising stage to be eye-opening and a fun challenge for myself. Am I a rare breed of writer who actually likes editing??

I also think I’ve matured as a writer as I’ve gained experience and listened to weekly* The Shit No One Tells You About Writing episodes. I have no idea how people with full-time jobs can attend conferences and writers retreats. I’m an eager listener/reader of their advice when they return with it, though! Surely that counts for something.

Once the story is in Luis’s hands — digitally, actually — I plan to start plotting out my new story idea and maybe even start writing it. I hope to be a little more chill when drafting this time. The NaNoWriMo style of writing (ie. making sure to write roughly 2k words a day) is handy for getting the novel done in a shorter amount of time, but there’s no reason to rush the writing process, especially because all of it takes time!

Luis will be happier if I’m not writing for hours and hours every day, too. I can’t write at 5 AM like certain authors, or late at night. I’m solidly an afternoon creative, and having a job makes that… a challenge. So my goal with my next novel is to be finished writing the first draft by December? That seems loose enough.

*Nearly weekly, anyway. I do have a life that sometimes gets in the way. 😉

Tag: Nightmares

I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time.